Funny Car veteran Del Worsham said he felt "good-tired" after getting back to basics during his "off-week."

He and his crew took their Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Chevy Monte Carlos to a match race in Salt Lake City City after the Sonoma, California, race. Worsham said he thought he and dad/team manager Chuck Worsham would have a leisurely drive in the motorhome up to Brainerd afterward.

But because crew member Warren Bryning had to go home unexpectedly, Worsham ended up doing clutch work -- or, as he put it, "getting covered in clutch dust and sweat, busting my knuckles on the race car."

Then he and longtime crew member Steve "Fuel Boy" Brown put the pedal to the metal last Sunday night and led the team convoy of three big rigs, two SUVs, and a motorhome in a drive-till-you-drop run to northern Minnesota.

"We were the first ones to Brainerd, on Monday night," Worsham said proudly, adding that by the time he and "Fuel Boy" arrived at the track, Chuck Worsham, along in the motorhome, was "still back in Nebraska somewhere."

Worsham said the nuts-and-bolts work on the car, something he gradually has gotten away from, was fun, even if it was for only a day. As for driving the hauler, he said, "Talk about old times -- this was really a step back."

He said, "To be driving the rig across the country with Fuel Boy in the cab with me, that's about as historic as it gets on this team. Fuel Boy has been with us since before I started driving the Funny Car, so to be putting the pedal down for 1,400 miles was pretty cool, and just like old times. I still drive a lot on the tour, but only in the motorhome, so it was great to get back in there and run the rig up through the gears again.

"When Fuel Boy and I drive," Worsham said, "the last thing we ever want to do is stop. I enjoy driving, but I don't like it to last any longer than it has to, so we just put the hammer down and kept going."

This year has been an emotional drain for Worsham, who has lost elimination rounds by eyelash-thin margins and in the past seven races has had a DNQ followed by six straight  opening-round defeats. He said, "We've been so close all year that it's driven us about half nuts."

Some people might think he's completely nuts for his flurry of activity during the open weekend. But Worsham said the experience has rejuvenated himself and his team: "Doing the clutch work and driving the rig just got me back in a great frame of mind. It's about the racing, and we need to get back to the old days in some other ways, too. There's some excitement on the team right now."

Former crew member Jason Bybee is filling in this weekend for Bryning.

Worsham might feel tired after he and his team sort out Friday's mess. He and teammate Phil Burkart were 18th and 19th -- worst among the Funny Car contingent -- following Friday's crucial first two runs.

He said he couldn't recall a Friday that both CSK cars were unqualified.

"We made some big decisions after Sonoma, because we were pushing the car so hard just to keep up, but we were still losing all those heartbreakers by thousandths of a second," Worsham said. "We were pretty much at the limit, coming at it from that direction, and whenever we'd try to get more aggressive we'd see that there wasn't any
more room for improvement. So after that race we turned the page a little and made some moves to give us more power and more leeway. We just didn't have any way to try it all out until we got here.

"All of a sudden, now, we're aggressive in a whole different way to 330 [feet], even though we detuned the car a bit. We could only guess how much more we were going to get out of it by making these moves, and we have to keep pulling back a little right now. We'll get it, and when we do we'll know where the right tune-up is on this set-up and we'll be able to make some big moves. I'm confident we can find the slot tomorrow, but I'm not going to panic one way or another. This is the way we have  to go, and we're going to keep at it until we get this ironed out."

Said Burkart, "Our cars are tuned very much alike right now, and that was pretty obvious on those two runs. We both launched really well, and we ran very well early, but we just flat overpowered the race track just before half-track. We're making good power, and we're going to be faster once we get this sorted out, but right now the learning experience is a little painful.

"I know some people are going to panic, because we're both below the line," he said, "but we have to stay with this and we have to stay confident. ere aren't any shortcuts in this game. If you want to move forward, you have to pay the price to learn the moves. We'll get it."