Sunday, June 4, 2017

DSR: Frustrating New England Nationals gives Beckman, Chandler's Infinite Hero team motivation for next three events of Eastern Swing


EPPING N.H. (June 4, 2017) - After a tough weekend in New Hampshire, Jack Beckman and Terry Chandler's Infinite Hero Foundation Funny Car team is ready to move on from the fifth annual NHRA New England Nationals and onto the next race in Englishtown, N.J.

"It's frustrating," said Beckman who lost in the first round to Del Worsham.

The Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T entered race day as the No. 5 qualified team with a time of 3.878 seconds at 330.23 mph that was their only full pass of the weekend.

On Sunday, Beckman went into tire smoke and Worsham got the win as Beckman coasted to a 4.761 (169.04).

"We lost in the final at Charlotte at the Four-Wide but we did a great job making adjustments to get to that point. We left there with our heads held high even though we didn't win the race.

"Here, it's a little different story. We unloaded with a nice run and got qualifying bonus points and then never made it to the finish line under power after that. It's very uncharacteristic of us and there's no smoking gun. There's not one thing that caused our issues. That's what's frustrating to us, is we were chasing so many little gremlins.

The New England Nationals was the start of a four-race, four-week Eastern Swing. Next weekend the NHRA circuit travels to Old Bridge Township Raceway for the NHRA Summernationals.

"Aside from the Countdown (playoff at the end of the season), there couldn't be a worse time of year for us to be in this position because you're doing multiple races, back to back to back to back and you don't want to let events keep passing you by before you get a handle on your racecar. I'm frustrated and I'm optimistic.

"We will fix this car, we just have to get a handle on it early at Englishtown. You've got to have a car on Saturday that you can race with on Sunday. We were scrambling all the way up to the warmup today to try to figure out what we can do to give us a better chance."

DSR FUNNY CARS                                                                                    
Event winner: Matt Hagan (Don Schumacher Racing)
No. 1 qualifier: Robert Hight (John Force Racing), 3.822 seconds, 336.74 mph (track records)

JACK BECKMAN, Terry Chandler's Infinite Hero 2017 Dodge Charger R/T 
Crew chiefs: Dean Antonelli, John Medlen, Neal Strausbaugh
Qualified: No. 5

SUNDAY ELIMINATIONS
First round: Del Worsham (4.060 sec., 321.04 mph) def. BECKMAN (4.761, 169.04)
FRIDAY: 3.878 sec., 330.23 mph, (Session 1); 7.204, 94.24, (Session 2)
SATURDAY: 10.532, 58.27, (Session 3); 10.934, 62.13, (Session 4)

2017 NHRA MELLO YELLO DRAG RACING SERIES FUNNNY CAR STANDINGS
(Unofficial after Epping; 9 of 24 events; wins in parenthesis; DSR drivers in CAPS)

6. JACK BECKMAN                    537     -290

About Infinite Hero Foundation
A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, Infinite Hero Foundation combats the most difficult front line issues - mental and physical - facing returning military heroes and their families.  The Foundation funds programs that drive innovation and the accessibility of effective treatments for military heroes and their families dealing with service-related mental and physical injuries.  For more information, visit: www.infinitehero.org.

About Don Schumacher Racing

Don Schumacher Racing, headquartered in Brownsburg, Ind., fields eight professional NHRA teams. In Top Fuel, the U.S. Army dragster driven by eight-time world champion Tony Schumacher, the Matco Tools dragster driven by three-time world champion Antron Brown; the Papa John's Top Fuel dragster driven by Leah Pritchett and in Funny Car, 2011 and 2014 world champion Matt Hagan in the Mopar Express Lane 2015 Dodge Charger R/T, 2012 NHRA world champion Jack Beckman in the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge, the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge of Ron Capps and the Make-A-Wish Dodge driven by Tommy Johnson Jr.

DSR has won 307 NHRA national event titles and 16 world championships.
Follow Don Schumacher Racing at ShoeRacing.com, on Twitter at @shoeracing and Facebook.com/shoeracing.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Jeff Wolf (wolfj@shoeracing.com), 702.524.1368
Leah Vaughn (vaughnl@shoeracing.com), 618.516.1988