Unfortunately, Beckman's day ended much earlier at this year's sixth annual NHRA Midwest Nationals.
"I'm just going to be a realist, let's just look at facts and separate the emotion," Beckman said.
"That round was our championship round. If we won that round, we stay in the race, keep earning points, and move closer to the top cars. We lost against the No. 1 car and it increased the spread. That was the biggest round of the year for us."
That loss was to Beckman's Don Schumacher Racing teammate and NHRA points leader Ron Capps, who went on to win the event title and move 167 points ahead of Beckman who remains seventh.
It was a great drag race as Beckman clocked a 3.895-second pass at 332.34 mph but he couldn't outrun Capps' 3.885.
"We did everything very well, they did it a little better. There's nothing to do but go over and shake their hands.
"But that's what we do at DSR. You give the fans those sort of incredible side-by-side runs with two drivers performing well under pressure and two crews doing everything right, and two groups of crew chiefs making all good calls.
"Unfortunately, somebody had to come out on the losing end and that was us. So that one stings bitterly. We can't control what the cars ahead of us do in the points from here on out. We can still win 12 rounds and that's absolutely our goal."
The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing series will take a weekend off before traveling to Dallas for the NHRA FallNationals.
JACK BECKMAN, Terry and Doug Chandler's Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T
Crew chiefs: Dean Antonelli, John Medlen, Neal Strausbaugh
SUNDAY ELIMINATIONS
First round: BECKMAN (3.850 sec., 333.49 mph) def. Del Worsham (5.167, 153.11)
Second round: Ron Capps (3.885, 328.86) def. BECKMAN (3.895, 332.34)
QUALIFYING
Qualified: No. 6
FRIDAY: 3.873 sec., 331.77 mph, (Session 1); 3.877, 331.12, (Session 2)
SATURDAY: 4.107, 239.10, (Session 3); 10.074, 69.65, (Session 4)
Pts Events Wins Rup Semi Qtr 1st rd Poles DNQ W/L
2017 5th 21 2 2 5 9 3 0 0 32-19
CAREER 273 26 27 50 82 81 21 7 364-240
Career best time, speed: 3.825 sec., (2016 Pomona 2); 334.15 mph (Seattle 2016)
BY THE NUMBERS
A year ago at Gateway: Qualified No. 2, won in championship round over Tommy Johnson Jr.
Career at Gateway: Wins 2 (2012, 2016), Runner-ups 2 (2010, 2013), Poles 1 (2012)
FUNNY CAR
1. RON CAPPS (8) 2395 -----
2. Robert Hight (3) 2349 -46
3. Courtney Force 2287 -108
4. MATT HAGAN (3) 2238 -157
5. JACK BECKMAN (2) 2228 -167
6. John Force (1) 2197 -198
7. TOMMY JOHNSON JR. (1) 2191 -204
8. J.R. Todd (2) 2168 -227
9. Tim Wilkerson 2130 -265
10 Cruz Pedregon 2096 -299
About Don Schumacher Racing
Don Schumacher Racing, headquartered in Brownsburg, Ind., fields seven 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 and the Papa John's Pizza/Mopar Top Fuel dragster driven by Leah Pritchett; and in Funny Car, 2016 world champion Ron Capps in the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T; 2011 and 2014 world champion Matt Hagan in the 80th anniversary Mopar/ Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T, and 2012 NHRA world champion Jack Beckman in the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge and the Make-A-Wish Dodge driven by Tommy Johnson Jr., both of which are funded by the late Terry Chandler.
DSR has won 316 NHRA national event titles and 16 world championships.
Follow Don Schumacher Racing at ShoeRacing.com, on Twitter at @shoeracing and Facebook.com/shoeracing.
