Last year, when the inaugural Countdown was put in place and only the top eight teams advanced to the playoffs, Worsham missed the cut by just 38 points, and he could easily look back on his season to see numerous instances where those precious POWERade points were left on the table, either individually or in 20-point bunches.  He knows now, despite the mid-May date on the calendar, that every single point is critical, on every day, at every race.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's crunch time, panic mode, time to put it all out there, all that stuff," Worsham said.  "Last year was a lesson for us, and for a lot of teams, and we've been focusing on being better at it than we were.  Dealing with the Countdown for the first time, I'm sure a lot of teams were like us, still a bit insure what it all meant and thinking of the points more in the old terms, instead of having that desperation from the first day on.   It's hard to feel desperate in February, and I don't think you have to necessarily be desperate at the first two or three races, but this is May and we can smell September now.

"I get up every morning thinking about every qualifying run, every lap down the track, and definitely thinking about winning rounds.  Anyone who thinks this will all be settled on rounds alone, though, is kidding themselves.  Between now and the Countdown, you can earn your spot or blow it on qualifying points.  The difference between averaging sixth in qualifying versus 13th, for the rest of the regular part of the season, is 33 points, just on qualifying alone.  I know that number because I've been thinking about it and did the math.  That's almost as many points as we came up short last year, so that tells you how critical each lap is going to be, and we're not talking about qualifying in the top three or four.  That's just the difference between sixth and 13th."

Worsham will begin competition at this weekend's O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals from the 10th spot on the points sheet, but his hold on that placement, or any slot in the top 10, is likely to remain tenuous at best, for many weeks to come.  The critical parts of the equation are, indeed, qualifying well and winning the first round, but even that successful formula couldn't help Worsham avoid even further tightening of the points chase at the previous race, in St. Louis.

Worsham entered St. Louis in 10th place, with rookie Bob Tasca just one point behind, in 11th.  By qualifying No. 8, Worsham added one more important digit to the "lead" and he then defeated Tasca in round one, adding 20 additional points to the mix.  On top of that, of the three drivers directly ahead of him in points, one (Ron Capps) lost in the first round, while the other two (Gary Densham and Jack Beckman) failed to qualify altogether, so Worsham picked up important numbers on all of them.  It all appeared rosy on the surface, except for a couple of pesky details.

The biggest of those details, and one that was completely out of Worsham's hands, was Mike Neff.  Neff went from having zero round wins on his record to a runner-up finish in St. Louis, and that result catapulted him right past Tasca and onto the CSK driver's heels, where he now sits only 11 points behind Worsham.  The current spread, from Densham in 7th place down to Jim Head in 14th, is only 87 points, and Worsham sits right in the middle of that pack.

"I really think it's going to be like this for the whole summer, where one good weekend gets you a big jump, but it can all turn back around at the next race," Worsham said.  "I don't think anyone in the Funny Car class would dispute the fact there are 19 full-time teams that are all completely capable of being in the Countdown.  The only problem is, there are only going to be 10 spots.  It's going to be a crazy fight, right to the finish.  That's why every point this weekend, in the middle of May, is critical."

The driver of the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Impala is bound for Bristol, determined to focus on every lap, and every point.   Once Labor Day comes, and the Countdown field is set, each of those individual digits is apt to look mountainous in size, including those earned in Bristol, in the middle of May.