"Fast" Jack Beckman, the 2008 U.S. Nationals Funny Car runner-up, will start from the 14th position
in Monday's eliminations rounds at the 55th annual U.S. Nationals at Raceway Park at Indianapolis.
Only one round of two qualifying sessions set for today (five in total for this event) was run
because of a long rain delay, and Beckman needed to make a solid pass in the Valvoline/Mail
Terminal Services Dodge Funny Car to get himself into the 16-car field after not having qualified
in the top 12 in the previous two days.
He posted a solid 4.166-second pass at 297.35 mph, which accomplished that task.
"It's interesting," said Beckman. "For all intents and purposes, this became a four-qualifying-run
race, just like the regular national events. Because of the top 12 only getting in on Saturday, we
went into the last session today not qualified.
"There was an oil down in front of us and there was a spectacular incident in which the body flew
off a car. You're sitting in the car and you're sitting in the car. And I've gone up to the last
session outside of the field a lot of times, and you're nervous. But this time I had enough time to
sit in the car and think 'It's Indy, we runnered-up last year, we have to race tomorrow.'
"We didn't run as well as we wanted to, but we picked up from last night's run and, maybe more
importantly, we're headed in the right direction on the tune-up. I think we can keep doing that.
"We run (Mike) Neff first round and he only outran us by two hundredths of a second, so I think
we're very much in this thing. I'm over the butterflies and I'm ready to go attack tomorrow."
