"Wow, tough day for us," Beckman said. "You have no control over the ladder and your opponents. We've won some races where we just had four killer cars in the other lane against us. Today it looked like we had a favorable side of the ladder if there was one and we just didn't capitalize on it."
In the opening round of Sunday's eliminations, Beckman faced Cruz Pedregon. Beckman's Funny Car went into tire smoke and he slowed to a 7.322-second lap at 90.06 mph. But, Pedregon left early and was disqualified with a redlight start.
Beckman then faced the nitro rookie, Jonnie Lindberg. Beckman got off the starting line first but his car dropped a cylinder and Lindberg, who advanced to a final round for the second straight race, drove around him when Beckman slowed to a 4.096 (312.42).
"Second round it dropped a cylinder the instant I stepped on the throttle. The thing still ran OK, but it's down 1,200 horsepower at that point. Tough deal, we'll have to figure it out.
"We're going to stay and test tomorrow. We're going to test some clutch stuff, we're going to test our backup race car and we're going to figure out why it did what it did and do our best to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Las Vegas marks the fourth race of the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing series season. In two weeks, the NHRA teams will travel to Baytown, Texas, near Houston for the SpringNationals.
JACK BECKMAN, Infinite Hero 2017 Dodge Charger R/T
Crew chiefs: John Medlen, Dean Antonelli, Neal Strausbaugh
Qualified: No. 5
SUNDAY ELIMINATIONS
First round: BECKMAN (7.322 sec., 90.06 mph) def. Cruz Pedregon (redlight)
Second round: Jonnie Lindberg (4.017, 325.32) def. BECKMAN (4.096, 312.42)
QUALIFYING
FRIDAY: 8.661 sec., 71.92 mph, (Session 1); 4.351, 223.28, (Session 2)
SATURDAY: 3.921, 327.03, (Session 3); 3.886, 329.18, (Session 4)
2016 Las Vegas 1: Qualified No.1, lost in second round to Chad Head
2016 Las Vegas 2: Qualified No. 1, lost second round to Courtney Force
Career at Las Vegas 1: Wins 0; Runner-ups 0, Poles 1( 2016)
Career at Las Vegas: Wins 1 (2006); Runner-ups 2 (2012, 2009); Poles 2 (both in 2016)
Funny Car
1. MATT HAGAN (2) 368 -----
2. TOMMY JOHNSON JR. (1) 324 -44
3. John Force (1) 314 -54
4. RON CAPPS 275 -93
5. Courtney Force 218 -150
6. JACK BECKMAN 205 -163
7. Robert Hight 201 -167
8. Jonnie Lindberg 183 -185
9. Jim Campbell 180 -188
10. J.R. Todd 170 -198
