READING, Pa. (Oct. 2, 2016) - Jack Beckman and the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger R/T team, sponsored by Terry Chandler, advanced to the semifinals of the 32nd annual Dodge NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway.
Due to wet weather conditions in Reading, Pa., NHRA teams only had one lap of qualifying to set the ladder for Sunday's eliminations.
With only one qualifying pass, Beckman was seeded as the No. 11 qualifier when he pedaled his way to a 9.998-second pass at 63.76 mph.
He matched up against Chad Head on Sunday for the first round of competition and improved on his qualifying efforts to post a 3.872 at 330.80 to give him the win light.
Beckman, along with his crew chief Jimmy Prock, clocked their career best elapsed time with a 3.850 (332.26) against reigning world champion Del Worsham to give them the win and to send the team to the semifinals against Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tommy Johnson Jr.
Beckman ran a 3.899, 327.51 mph pass in the semifinals but Johnson got the win with his 3.892, 328.94 and later won the event.
"I'm actually frustrated," Beckman said. "We had a phenomenal race car and lost a close race. But that is one of those must-win situations.
"You had four DSR Funny Cars in the semifinals. The No. 1, 2, 3, 4 cars in the points. We needed to win this race. They're not going to give us a re-run. We're going to have to tighten our belts a little bit.
"We have three chances left, so here's the deal. We need to make it to all three of these final rounds and there probably can't be one of the top two cars in the other lane for us to have a legitimate chance at the championship.
"To some extent, we control our fate. But we're going to have to rely on Make-A-Wish and NAPA stumbling, somewhat, and they're not showing signs of that. There is no reason for us to be beating ourselves up about our performance this weekend. We set the track record, we went one of the fastest speeds of all time here, and we beat some tough cars. But we're not out of opportunities to beat cars in front of us in the points."
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