"Fast" Jack Beckman finished up all four qualifying sessions for the NHRA Fall Nationals at Texas
Motorplex in the No. 7 spot and will face his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan in the
opening round of Funny Car eliminations on Sunday.
Behind the wheel of the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Funny Car, Beckman registered his
quickest pass of 4.194 seconds at 296.44 mph in the second session on Friday, which followed his
4.914/161.79 earlier in the day. Both were good for No. 7, and he maintained that position
throughout the next two rounds today, in which he clocked a 5.888/122.76 and 4.282/285.77.
"I'm actually pretty pleased with qualifying," said Beckman, who entered this event sixth in
Countdown to 1 playoffs point standings. "We ended up in the top half, and we're back on a hot race
track which last year was our biggest strength and helped us the most. But, we don't quite have the
same consistency that we had this time last year and that's something we're trying to get back.
"We compensated after spinning the tires in the first round, made a conservative but
quick-enough-for-top-half run last night, stepped on it a little bit this morning and overpowered
it. By that time we knew how much we needed to back it down. We then went down the track that last
run, which actually would have been quicker but we dropped a hole (cylinder) out there, which often
happens on hot race tracks when you try to take clutch out of it and not overpower it.
"We have our teammate Matt Hagan first round tomorrow. He and the FRAM Tough Guard/shelor.com team
are out to win their first race and we're out to win the championship, so there's no team orders,
there's no gimmes, and they just ran good in that last session. It's going to be a big battle and
we need to win it."
