BROWNSBURG, Ind. (Sept. 28, 2016) – After their win last weekend at Gateway Motorsports Park near St. Louis, Jack Beckman and the Infinite Hero Foundation Funny Car team head to the 32nd Dodge NHRA Nationals with their heads held high.
The Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car funded by Terry Chandler left Gateway on Sunday with the event title when Beckman defeated Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. in the final round.
The win was the team’s first win since the Chicago in mid-July.
“Coming off a win, subconsciously, everybody walks a little taller and has a little bit more confidence,” Beckman said of his team led by crew chief Jimmy Prock with assistants John Medlen and Chris Cunningham.
This weekend the team returns to Maple Grove Raceway, where they are the reigning event champion after rain wiped out three of four qualifying sessions.
With only one round of qualifying, Beckman entered race day as the No. 3 seed. Throughout the course of race day, Beckman knocked out Alexis DeJoria, Johnson, DSR teammate Ron Capps and Chad Head from competition.
“They’ve moved Reading up a few weeks and I think that’s a wise because last year, we almost lost the entire event because of rain. We only got one qualifying run in. It’s such a crapshoot during first round of eliminations – tons of tire smoke.
“And it’s a good decision to put it before Dallas this year. The weather around Reading this time of year tends to be favorable. I would definitely sacrifice world record conditions to have a higher likelihood of running without rain.”
The weather forecast for this weekend currently looks cooler which could result in big racing numbers for the NHRA teams.
“I’m not the weatherman and all the nitro teams are going to be faced with the same conditions. When we unload, we’ll figure out what the weather has in store for us,” Beckman said.
After their win last weekend, the team jumped from eighth in the standings to third and only 70 points behind leader Capps.
Despite the team’s win last year, Beckman says the team needs to focus on this year’s fight for the Funny Car championship.
“I don’t know if winning last year is going to be any factor because we don’t know if track or weather conditions will be the same. We definitely don’t have the same clutch pack in the car – which has been our Achilles heel most of this year. We’ve been trying to understand what the car wants and hoping it will incorporate with our tune-up changes. I would say we’re cautiously optimistic.
“We still aren’t in a comfort zone like we were this time last yea,r but we’ve got the ability to make the changes we need to be successful.”
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