BROWNSBURG, Ind. (May 10, 2016) – None of Don Schumacher Racing’s
four Funny Car teams have won as many times at Atlanta Dragway than Jack
Beckman and the Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T team led by crew chief
Jimmy Prock.
Beckman won at the track 70 miles northeast of Atlanta in Commerce, Ga., in 2009 and 2011.
More important than ending that drought for the 2012 Funny Car world
champion is to post his first win of this Mello Yello Drag Racing Series
season after six events and his team’s first since the 21st of 24
events in 2015.
The team assistant crew chiefs John Medlen and Chris Cunningham have
devoted several races to putting the team in position to win the
championship, but it’s time to win as the Mello Yello series faces two
consecutive weekends of racing then after a weekend off faces a run of
four in a row.
“We’ve been having a consistency issue this year specifically when
the racetrack gets warmer,” said Beckman, whose team sponsored by Terry
Chandler dominated the Funny Car category last year with seven event
titles, seven No. 1 qualifying awards and numerous performance records.
The Infinite Hero Dodge has qualified strong this year with three
poles in the first six events, but continues trying to blend qualifying
performance with results in Sunday eliminations.
At Houston, the team struggled in qualifying and rallied on Sunday.
“We made a major change Saturday night in Houston after struggling in
all four qualifying sessions,” Beckman said. “The results on Sunday
were very promising. I can see light at the end of the tunnel.
“Our car is running good enough to win a race, but we want to get it back to where we dominate.”
After not getting to the finish line under power in four qualifying
runs that left the team qualified 12th, Beckman rebounded with three
runs in eliminations between 3.941 and 3.958 seconds that led to the
semifinals where he was sidelined by Tim Wilkerson’s 3.906, the quickest
of the day.
“Big changes were made to the car overnight, and it showed 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.
“It was disappointing to not win but the silver lining is that we
found some things about this car that will help us at Atlanta.”
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