The driver of the Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car funded by Terry Chandler reached his third final round of the year on Sunday and collected his third runner-up finish of the year, which is one more than he had in 24 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events last year.
When he arrived at Bristol Dragway a year ago for the 16th annual Thunder Valley Nationals, the 2012 Funny Car world champion with Don Schumacher Racing already had won two NHRA Wally trophies en route to a career high total of seven to lead the Funny Car category.
Beckman will start at Bristol ranked second in the Funny Car standings and 27 points behind DSR teammate Ron Capps to whom he lost in Sunday's final round of the NHRA Summernationals in New Jersey.
He is more than ready for an invitation into his first winner's circle of the year and first at Bristol to make this Father's Day even more special.
"It's hard to tell. This is a fickle sport," he said of when the big win will come.
The Infinite Hero Dodge qualified a disappointing 10th last weekend at Englishtown, N.J., but rallied to post a good time of 3.972 seconds at 315.71 mph to win the first round. But, like most other Funny Cars on the hot Summernationals track, Beckman lost traction in the quarterfinals and semifinals but was able to survive and advance to the final.
But in the run for the Wally against Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps, Beckman lost traction at the hit of the throttle and watched his chance of winning go up in smoke.
"You could have the second best car of the weekend and lose first round," Beckman said, "or you could have the second worst car and go all the way to the finals."
The Infinite Hero team was using the new car it was forced to run on Monday of the rain-delayed New England Nationals after its primary car was severely damaged in an explosion and ensuing fireball after a part broke. The new steed produced a pair of very good runs before losing in the quarterfinals.
"What I do know is that we will keep working hard, we will do our best to figure out what this car needs, we will execute to the best of our abilities and we will test if necessary. We will figure it out and that will start translating into race wins.
"We feel like we've got something to prove, and we're very hungry to get that first win of the year."
