Jack Beckman placed the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Funny Car into the No. 6 position in
qualifying for the FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals today and will face Robert Hight in Sunday's
opening round of eliminations.
He registered his quickest lap of 4.133 seconds at 292.33 mph in the ideal Friday evening
conditions. His other laps included a 4/280/281.25 (No. 10) earlier that day, and a 4.192/290.51
(No. 6) and 4.930/161.94 today.
"I can't wait for tomorrow," said Beckman, two-time titlist this 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag
Racing Series season. "The fan in me can't wait to get up here. I almost wish I had a seat in the
grandstands, but I want to be in the car for four rounds.
"The first-round match-ups are unbelievable," he said of the potentially points-changing contests
on Sunday. "I want to congratulate our Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan in the shelor.com
car. It's the first pole position for (crew chief) Tommy DeLago and those guys. They really deserve
it. And they have their own fate in their hands racing against another one of the cars on the
threshold of the top 10 (Cruz Pedregon, who is in 11th. Hagan is in 10th).
"We can help them out tremendously by getting past Hight first round tomorrow (who is 12th in
points). So, Man, if things work out good for Team Schumacher tomorrow, they're going to work out
great."
As for the last session run in the heat, "We went out and smoked the tires. But that was a
byproduct of the fact that we got down the track the first three sessions," he said. "It's so
important to get that first one or two runs down the track. Then you can afford to test things come
Saturday once you know you're solidly in the show.
"We didn't miss the tune-up. We just found out where the threshold his for tomorrow."
