Jack Beckman starts the day with 399 round wins overall between Top Fuel and Funny Car and 395 in the Funny Car class and that is the 8th most among all Funny Car drivers. Phil Burkart was runner-up here in 2005. Burkart is a no show and was making his 169th first round start with a 44% win record.

Beckman has to drive the Charger hard as the backend moves around a bunch. The tires come loose down track and he has to lift early.

He will have lane choice over Pedregon next round.