Arend was eliminated from contention prior to the event but teammate Del Worsham had a realistic mathematical shot when Jim Head was eliminated in the first round.

Arend and their crew decided that Worsham needed to have the best chance to go the distance. That’s why he waited a full two seconds to leave the starting line at the green light.

"Personally, I think we'd have to be the dumbest people in the world to let one Checker, Schuck's, Kragen car, that has absolutely no chance of making the post-season, take out the one that still has a chance," Arend said. "We are one big team here, all representing CSK

and all of our great sponsors, so we made the decision on our side of the pit.  Del never asked, never even brought it up, but Marc Denner, Chris Cunningham, and I talked about what we thought was the best thing to do, for the team and for our sponsors. 

Arend was eliminated from contention prior to the event but teammate Del Worsham had a realistic mathematical shot when Jim Head was eliminated in the first round.

Arend and their crew decided that Worsham needed to have the best chance to go the distance. That’s why he waited a full two seconds to leave the starting line at the green light.

"Personally, I think we'd have to be the dumbest people in the world to let one Checker, Schuck's, Kragen car, that has absolutely no chance of making the post-season, take out the one that still has a chance," Arend said. "We are one big team here, all representing CSK

and all of our great sponsors, so we made the decision on our side of the pit.  Del never asked, never even brought it up, but Marc Denner, Chris Cunningham, and I talked about what we thought was the best thing to do, for the team and for our sponsors. 

"We had an aggressive tune-up in the car, one we thought would give us a chance to beat Del if Jim Head locked the thing up, but when we saw him cross the center line, we went into our team mode.  We weren't going to go out there and just mysteriously smoke the tires, or shut off early, or any of those moves that may fool some people, so I just did a big long burnout, to have some fun, and then when the lights flashed, I just let Del go.  It was his lap to win, and his 4.828 was pretty huge.  It was the quickest run of today's first session, by a

long way.  I did launch the car once he was gone, so that we could get some data out of the run, and it actually shook pretty hard.  I doubt

we would have been able to even be close to him, because I would've had to pedal the car out of all that shake."

The fact Arend and Worsham were paired in round one was both a matter of good performance and good fortune.  Worsham qualified number one, although he and Jack Beckman had identical E.T.s of 4.800 seconds. Worsham got the nod on the basis of speed.   Arend landed lucky 16^th after qualifying ended, although he also matched another driver exactly in the E.T. department (Scott Kalitta) with a 4.904.  Arend got in the show, and Kalitta was bounced, on the basis of speed.   The No. 1 versus 16 match-up got people talking immediately.

"Like I said, if the lap meant something to Del and this team, we were not going to go out there and try to fool anybody," Arend said.  "We

just thought it was more up-front and honest to do what was right for our team, and our whole organization, right there in plain sight. Some people may not agree with it, but it was our decision and we