Team Kalitta Chicago Qualifying Report; Worsham Becomes Fifth Member of the Three-Second Club in Funny Car

THE RESULTS:

Del Worsham: Driver of the DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car
Q1: 4.679 seconds, 179.09 mph
Q2: 4.054 seconds, 313.73 mph
Q3: 3.999 seconds, 318.99 mph (Worsham becomes the fifth member of the 3-second club with eighth quickest run in the history of Funny Car)

Qualifies: 4th

Doug Kalitta – Driver of the Mac Tools Top Fuel Dragster
Q1: 3.772 seconds, 322.34 mph (Two bonus points for second best of the session)
Q2: 3.753 seconds, 328.22 mph (Three bonus points for best of the session)
Q3: 3.832 seconds, 308.71 mph

Qualifies: 5th

Alexis DeJoria: Driver of the Tequila Patron Toyota Camry Funny Car
Q1: 4.124 seconds, 306.88 mph
Q2: 6.274 seconds, 109.03 mph
Q3: 8.353 seconds, 79.91 mph

Qualifies: 14th

David Grubnic – Driver of the Optima Batteries/Advance Auto Parts Top Fuel Dragster
Q1: 4.380 seconds, 182.67 mph
Q2: 3.852 seconds, 316.82 mph
Q3: 12.969 seconds, 45.60 mph

Qualifies: 15th

**Only three qualifying runs were completed due to rain on Friday. **

THE COMPETITION:

Top Fuel:
5) Doug Kalitta vs. 12) Larry Dixon
15) David Grubnic vs. 2) Tony Schumacher

Funny Car:
4) Del Worsham vs. 13) Cruz Pedregon
14) Alexis DeJoria vs. 3) Jack Beckman

QUOTABLE:

Del Worsham, driver of the DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car:
“It feels great to become the fifth driver to run in the three-second range. Anytime you get to set a milestone out here it’s great. I’ve been able to get a few in the 20 years I’ve been racing, and now to get in this elite group is just terrific. I can’t say enough about my DHL “Yella Fellas” team and the entire Kalitta Motorsports organization. Of course all of our sponsors, DHL, Toyota, Red Line Oil, and Technicoat have all been tremendous supporters, too. The work that our DHL crew has put in is the difference. Crew chiefs Nicky Boninfante and Jon “O” (Oberhofer) have been working so hard to find the right combination and our car chief “Bigfoot” (David Boyer) has been a big help, too. It’s all amazing. I’m a lucky guy to get to drive this car.”

NOTABLE:

Worsham becomes the first driver to have his name on the list for top ten runs of all-time in both of NHRA’s nitro classes. His run tonight places him as the eighth quickest in Funny Car and his 3.735-second run in a Top Fuel dragster for the Al-Anabi Racing team in 2011 places him ninth quickest in Top Fuel.