BAYTOWN, Texas (May 1, 2016) – Jack Beckman was unable to leave
Houston with his first NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event title
from the track, but he likes how his team responded from subpar
qualifying runs to enable him to advance to the final round of the NHRA
SpringNationals.
Beckman and the Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T led by crew chief
Jimmy Prock with assistants John Medlen and Chris Cunningham came within
a whisker of advancing to the final round Sunday.
In the opening round, the Infinite Hero Dodge upset previous points
leader Robert Hight with a time of 3.958 seconds at 319.67 mph. In the
second round, Beckman’s quicker reaction time at the starting line
allowed his slower 3.949 (325.22) to post the holeshot win.
“Yesterday I said we had painted ourselves into a corner and we faced
a big uphill battle,” Beckman said. “I knew we would be the underdog
coming into today. We were racing a team who had made a lot better runs
that we had. We hadn’t even made it to the finish line in qualifying on
any of our four runs.”
The Infinite Hero team funded by Terry Chandler posted its second
semifinals finish after six of 24 events in the Mello Yello Drag Racing
Series.
The turnaround from qualifying on Friday and Saturday to Sunday was impressive.
“Big changes were made to the car overnight and this shows how well
our team works together,” said Beckman, who is seventh in Mello Yello
championship points. “Our crew chiefs are able to put their heads
together, make some educated guesses and there’s the proof. We ended up
10-thousanths of a second from winning in the semifinals and getting to
another final round.
“It’s disappointing to not win but the silver lining is that we found
some things about this car that will help us down the line. We came out
of here with semifinals points and we’re headed in a direction that
makes me very excited to get to the next race in two weeks in Atlanta.”
FULL ARTICLE
