[coverattach=1]LAS VEGAS (Oct. 31, 2009) - Jack Beckman placed the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Funny Car into No. 8 in qualifying for the ninth annual NHRA Las Vegas Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, earning two valuable qualifying bonus points for his effort.
He recorded his quickest pass of 4.118 seconds at 304.87 mph during Friday night's session on a stellar track surface registering 73 degrees. His other passes included a 4.121/305.01 in the opening round, which placed him second and earned him the two points, and today's two runs of 4.171/298.80 and a tire-smoking 5.604/129.17.
"We thought we were going to get another trip to the candy store when it started getting cool out here," he said of the final pass. "But, with the exception of maybe two cars, it really wasn't quite the session that I think everybody had anticipated. Several cars did something similar to ours in that left lane.
“We won't run in those conditions tomorrow and we're top half and we went down the track pretty well on three runs. We were second low of the first session, fourth low of the third session and on the really good session last night we hurt a piston early.
"So, we're pretty sure we know what went wrong and we're going to have daylight and warm conditions tomorrow," said Beckman, sixth in the Countdown to 1 playoffs standings. "I can't wait, and now we've got a top-10 car in the first round (Mike Neff, 10th in points). If we can get past that, we have a potential second-round match-up with the No. 1 qualifier (his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan).
"And it's do or die time. We have to put this Valvoline/MTS Dodge in the winner's circle tomorrow and I think we're up for it."
He recorded his quickest pass of 4.118 seconds at 304.87 mph during Friday night's session on a stellar track surface registering 73 degrees. His other passes included a 4.121/305.01 in the opening round, which placed him second and earned him the two points, and today's two runs of 4.171/298.80 and a tire-smoking 5.604/129.17.
"We thought we were going to get another trip to the candy store when it started getting cool out here," he said of the final pass. "But, with the exception of maybe two cars, it really wasn't quite the session that I think everybody had anticipated. Several cars did something similar to ours in that left lane.
“We won't run in those conditions tomorrow and we're top half and we went down the track pretty well on three runs. We were second low of the first session, fourth low of the third session and on the really good session last night we hurt a piston early.
"So, we're pretty sure we know what went wrong and we're going to have daylight and warm conditions tomorrow," said Beckman, sixth in the Countdown to 1 playoffs standings. "I can't wait, and now we've got a top-10 car in the first round (Mike Neff, 10th in points). If we can get past that, we have a potential second-round match-up with the No. 1 qualifier (his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan).
"And it's do or die time. We have to put this Valvoline/MTS Dodge in the winner's circle tomorrow and I think we're up for it."
