Sonoma: Gary Densham final summary

Densham finds himself in a bad spot

SONOMA, Calif. (July 31, 2005) -- Like most of his peers who arrived at the starting line of Infineon Raceway without the advantage of lane choice, Racebricks Chevrolet Monte Carlo Funny Car driver Gary Densham had a daunting task ahead of him as he prepared for the opening round of eliminations for the 18th annual FRAM Autolite NHRA Nationals.

Somehow over the course of Saturday evening, a racetrack that had been exceptional equal became a one-lane track with several people unable to complete their runs down the right lane.

Holding to form, Densham wasn't able to hold off first-round opponent Del Worsham for long after getting a jump at the starting line, going up in smoke right at the troubled area and helplessly watching as Worsham zoomed away for a 4.877-second, 310.77 mph win against Densham's surrendering 6.789 at 131.24 mph.

"We just couldn't figure out how to get through that one spot," Densham said. "Everyone with lane choice took the left side and everyone on the right side was having trouble in that area. At least I was first off the starting line."

Densham had posted a 4.956 at 312.57 mph in qualifying and made it down the track with respectable times in three of the four time trail sessions, successfully reaching the elimination rounds for the 11th time this year.

"The exciting thing is that we found a big piece of the puzzle we've been missing this weekend," Densham said. "There was something awry in the clutch system and now we've found it we need to figure out how to fix it. The car's been a dog from 60-feet to halftrack and if we can figure this out, we'll fix that area and be hauling to Brainerd."

"We've got two weeks to stock up and reload," Densham said. "We've won there before and we'd love to have some more success this time through."

Densham is the 2003 champion of Brainerd -- the site of the next NHRA POWERade Drag Racing series event, Aug. 14-16.

ESPN2 will air coverage of this weekend's event. Final eliminations can be seen on ESPN2 at 9 p.m. (ET) on Sunday.