Del Worsham just ran out of time.

Worsham in the CSK Chevy Impala saw his long-shot hopes of qualifying for the Countdown extinguished when Jack Beckman and Mike Neff advanced to the semifinals during the NHRA Toyo Tire Nationals in Reading, but Worsham can take some solace in his making an improbable dash over the last few months to qualify for the U.S. Smokeless Showdown bonus event to be contested at the U.S. Nationals on Saturday, Aug. 30, with $100,000 going to the one-day event winner.

Worsham won this bonus event, based on Funny Car qualifying over the course of a year, in 2005, but with two DNQs to start the season and two more in the month of June, qualifying for the Showdown was not on his radar screen. But on the strength of strong qualifying efforts the second half of this season, Worsham came to Reading needing to out-qualify Jack Beckman and Gary Scelzi, while he also had to hope that John Force would not out-qualify him by 35 Showdown points. Worsham (9th) out-qualified Beckman (13th) while Scelzi and Toliver both failed to make the race field here. As for Force, he outpaced Worsham, but not by enough to get around him and the improbable qualifying scenario was complete. The final math equation resulted in Worsham not only making the Showdown, but doing so in the seventh position, while Force completed his own unlikely comeback by moving into the eighth position.

Del Worsham just ran out of time.

Worsham in the CSK Chevy Impala saw his long-shot hopes of qualifying for the Countdown extinguished when Jack Beckman and Mike Neff advanced to the semifinals during the NHRA Toyo Tire Nationals in Reading, but Worsham can take some solace in his making an improbable dash over the last few months to qualify for the U.S. Smokeless Showdown bonus event to be contested at the U.S. Nationals on Saturday, Aug. 30, with $100,000 going to the one-day event winner.

Worsham won this bonus event, based on Funny Car qualifying over the course of a year, in 2005, but with two DNQs to start the season and two more in the month of June, qualifying for the Showdown was not on his radar screen. But on the strength of strong qualifying efforts the second half of this season, Worsham came to Reading needing to out-qualify Jack Beckman and Gary Scelzi, while he also had to hope that John Force would not out-qualify him by 35 Showdown points. Worsham (9th) out-qualified Beckman (13th) while Scelzi and Toliver both failed to make the race field here. As for Force, he outpaced Worsham, but not by enough to get around him and the improbable qualifying scenario was complete. The final math equation resulted in Worsham not only making the Showdown, but doing so in the seventh position, while Force completed his own unlikely comeback by moving into the eighth position.

"We've been running well lately, really since we got to Englishtown back in June, so to cap off this weekend by somehow miraculously getting into the Showdown was really a big deal for this team," Worsham said. "We were so far behind in that thing that eighth place was over the horizon and six time zones away, but we kept scratching and clawing all summer and all of sudden it was right here in front of us this weekend, at the last race before Indy. It wasn't handed to us, we still had to go out there and make it happen, and we did it. That's very cool.

"There are still seven races left, and the way we're running that's seven more chances to wear the cool hats in the Winner's Circle," Worsham said. "We know we can't win the championship, but we also know we can win races. Plus, we earned a shot at the Showdown money, and that's something to be very proud of. We're a little disappointed that all the wrong numbers added up today, but we're feeling good about how we can finish this season. We're going to be a factor in how it all shakes out, I'm sure of that."