Beckman hopes to win at Motorplex for dad, Infinite Hero team at critical juncture of NHRA Countdown to Championship playoff

BROWNSBURG, IN – As a former Funny Car world champion, Jack Beckman knows championships are not easily won.

With only three events left in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season, Beckman and Terry and Doug Chandler’s Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car need a big weekend at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas for a chance at a second Funny Car world title.

But when Beckman strapes into the Chandler’s 11,000-horsepower Funny Car, his main goal is to win this weekend’s 32rd annual NHRA FallNationals a reason bigger that the championship.

“I went to the first national event there in 1986 and at the 21 venues we race at, there is no location that I want an NHRA Wally trophy from more than Dallas,” Beckman said. “I’ve won in Super Comp at Pomona. I’ve won at Indy. Dallas is 100 percent at the top of my list. That’s the one that I want the most. I don’t care about points. I want to win Dallas.”

Beckman’s father, known to many as “Slow Bob” Beckman in contrast with his son’s “Fast Jack” handle, has been a Texas resident for nearly 30 years. The younger Beckman would like nothing more than to present his dad with the Wally and the coveted black cowboy hat for winning the FallNationals.

“Obviously there’s a componet to move up in the standings, but I won’t care about points when we pull into the Motorplex. I want to win Dallas more than any other race.”

In 2016, Beckman entered the event qualified second with a time of 3.843 seconds at 333.66 mph. He advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps.

“We can’t control what Capps and (Robert) Hight are going to do these next three races. Those two are in the catbird seat,” he said of points leader Capps and No. 2 Hight. “They’ve done the best at getting qualifiying bonus points and round wins after the Countdown reset after Indy.”

Beckman and the Infinite Hero team, led by crew chiefs Dean Antonelli, John Medlen and Neal Strausbaugh, are fifth but 167 out of first.

“They were at the top going into the Countdown and they’ve maintaned that adventage over the rest of us. If we have any shot at Championship, those two really have to lose first round. Since we can’t control that, I don’t think there’s any point to dwell on that. We just need to win the race. We need to win Dallas.”

Pritchett ready to fight with DSR’s Papa John’s Pizza Top Fuel team to get back into the battle for world title starting Friday near Dallas

– Not long ago, boxing was an integral part of Leah Pritchett’s training program.

The 29-year-old Top Fuel pilot for Don Schumacher Racing doesn’t plan to put on the gloves when she arrives Friday at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas for the NHRA Fall Nationals, but she’s ready for a fight with no plans of throwing in the towel.

Pritchett with crew chief Todd Okuhara and assistant Joe Barlam and the Papa John’s Pizza dragster team Powered by Pennzoil expected to be much higher than seventh in the Countdown to the Championship at the midway point of the six-race playoff.

But a variety of problematic performance gremlins have kept Pritchett from getting past the second round in three Countdown eliminations rounds on Sunday.

When qualifying opens Friday afternoon, she will be 152 points out of first place.

“We’re behind, no doubt about it, but we have the capability of finishing out the season in a spectacular and marvelous fashion,” she said. “This is a time where we have to show we’re champions on and off the track.

“Everybody talks about digging deep and our whole team wants to shine our brightest. We see the cup as half-full and not half empty.”

The Papa John’s cup has been overflowing for most of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.

Pritchett’s team was atop the standings for the first half of the year after winning three of the first five event titles. Through the 18-race regular season, DSR’s newest team won four titles in six final rounds along with earning six No. 1 qualifying positions and resetting the world time record twice.

The penultimate race of the season is at Las Vegas two weeks after Dallas with the Nov. 10-12 finale set for Pomona, Calif. For the first the first time at Pomona, maximum points a driver can earn will be enhanced from the normal 130 to 191.

“We’re going to go to Dallas and put up a fight like we have done all year if not stronger. We want to be the best this weekend, then be the best at Vegas and be able to take advantage of the extras points at Pomona.

“We’ll finish the season strong and are still chasing the championship,” she said. “We’re not mathematically out of it, and there are still races to win. That’s what we’re focused on . We’re not going to these last three races just to show up.

CHARITY CHALLENGE
The last of five Charity Challenge races between Pritchett and Papa John’s founder and chairman John H. Schnatter in his classic 1971 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 will be Friday afternoon at 5:10 pm (CT). Pritchett is undefeated with her supercharged Gen III HEMI in a 2017 Dodge Challenger configured for drag racing.

DSR owner Don Schumacher and Schnatter each contributed $20,000 at each Charity Challenge and the total raised for the Infinite Hero Foundation will be $100,000 after Friday’s race.

World champ, points leader Capps rides into Texas on two-race streakwith NAPA Dodge, Tobler for fourth of six Countdown playoff races

– Ron Capps and the NAPA AUTO PARTS Funny Car team proved last season that they could earn the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series world championship without winning a race in the six-event Countdown to the Championship playoff.

This year the Dodge Charger R/T Powered by Pennzoil team and led by crew chief Rahn Tobler and assistant Eric Lane with the NAPA AutoCare Center crew are ready to show they can collect Countdown trophies and win a second straight world title.

Capps will arrive at the NHRA Fallnationals on Friday at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas on a two-race winning streak that has produced a career-best eight NHRA Wally Trophies in this year’s first 21 races.

He’ll also start qualifying 3 p.m. (CT) Friday with the series points lead and 46 points ahead of John Force Racing’s Robert Hight, who won the Countdown opener on Sept. 17 near Charlotte.

“Tobler and I talked with the team about last year and the only thing we would have liked to be different would have gotten into a winner’s circle during the Countdown, but we won six of the first 18 races and were determined that to win the championship we needed to average a semifinals finish over the last six races.”

The NAPA team again won six of the first 18 and have won two of the last three that is a much higher average than the semifinals.

“To get these last two wins is awesome,” said Capps, who owns 57 Funny Car and one Top Fuel titles in his career. Included in that inventory is one at the Motorplex but that goes back to 1998 although he advanced to final round a year ago when he lost to Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan.

Tobler has focused on improving the team’s performance in cooler conditions and that paid off at the last two events when he qualified No. 3 both times.

“We’re focusing on looking at what’s right in front of us.

“We made a conscious decision to improve our performance in cooler conditions,” Capps said. “Come raceday we know we can run with any of these teams especially under adverse conditions like when it’s hot.”

That’s this weekend near Dallas where the weather forecast for qualifying Friday and Saturday is in the high 80s.

Johnson knows Make-A-Wish team must win this weekend at Motorplex to stay in running for Funny Car championship

– With only three events of the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Season remaining, Tommy Johnson Jr. stays hopeful that Terry and Doug Chandler’s Make-A-Wish Funny Car team can win the NHRA championship.

“Realistically, we have to win the next three races to have a shot at the Championship,” Johnson said.

“But it can be done so you can’t throw in the towel and give up now. We have our work cut out for us. There’s no reason we can’t do it. It’s going to be a tough battle.”

The Chandler’s Make-A-Wish team sits No. 7 in the NHRA points and 204 points behind the leader and Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps.

This weekend the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series is at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas for the 32rd annual NHRA FallNationals.

In 2016, Johnson entered the event as the No. 3 qualifier but lost in the second round on Sunday former Funny Car and Top Fuel world champion Del Worsham.

“It’s been warm there the past few years so we should have good data to go off when we get there,” said Johnson, who was the runner-up for the championship last year after being third the previous two years.

“We’ve ran so-so the past few years. I’ve been racing many years on that all-concrete surface. The track is always good and we’ll see if we can’t get the job done.”

Brown learns lesson from son during weekend of racing near St. Louis before NHRA action resumes this weekend at Motorplex

– Antron Brown typically spends his off weekends from the NHRA Mello Yello Series at a racetrack with his three children racing Jr. Dragsters in the Midwest Jr. Super Series.

But racing the half-scale NHRA dragsters last weekend at Gateway Motorsports Park near St. Louis was anything but ordinary for the three-time Top Fuel champion. Instead of dad teaching the racing lesson, it was one of his kids, Anson, doing the teaching.

“We had a long weekend in St. Louis and we had a great time out there racing juniors,” Brown said. “But my son, just literally shed some light on me. He showed me that anything is possible. He was 70 points down and this was the last race and my son pulled out the championship this year.”

Anson raced to the final round in the Midwest Jr Super Series event on Sunday at Gateway and took over the points lead to claim the title in the 10-12-year-old category.

Antron will continue his battle for the Top Fuel championship this weekend at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas, the fourth of six Countdown to the Championship playoff events. The Matco Tools “Tools for the Cause” team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald with assistant Brad Mason sit fourth in Top Fuel standings, 94 points behind leader Steve Torrence.

“So if he can do it, why can’t we do it? Our Matco Tools team, we never give up. We are going to go to Texas with our guns blazing and get into this Texas shootout for this championship.”

The Matco Tools team elected to test at Gateway following the NHRA event there two weeks ago.

“We’re working on it. We saw some places we could make improvements after race day in St. Louis. We stayed and worked on it. We’re putting the work in. There’s a lot of racing left to do and we’re not going to give up easily.”

Two-time Funny Car world champion Hagan hopes to repeat as Texas Motorplex winner this weekend near Dallas in Pennzoil Dodge

– Matt Hagan isn’t afraid of a battle and he knows that’s what his Pennzoil Dodge Charger R/T team faces this weekend at the NHRA Fallnationals at Texas Motorplex near Dallas.

The team led by crew chief Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen enter this weekend’s Fallnationals fourth in Funny Car points standings, more than 150 points behind leader and Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps.

Hagan knows they’ll need a little more than hard work to chip away at the lead.

“Obviously we have to be a little lucky and extremely good these next three races,” said Hagan, a two-time Funny Car champion. “There’s not much room for error. We’re six rounds back with three races to go and you have a team like Ron Capps and those guys leading, they just seem to go rounds on Sunday.

“It’s one of those things, you’re in a tough situation and you have to make some stuff happen here in the next three races. This race is kind of a make or break for us. If we don’t go some rounds or win this race, it’s pretty much the nail in the coffin. Pomona has points and a half so it’s still there but it’s going to be tough.”

But no matter what, you won’t see Hagan giving up. Especially this weekend at the Motorplex where the team scored the event title last year over Capps in the final round.

“The thing about me is I don’t ever want to give up,” Hagan said. “I come back from a run and it blows the tires off and I pedaled it seven times when I probably should’ve pedaled it four. The guys ask me why I pedaled it so many times and I say because the other guy hasn’t crossed the finish line yet. It ain’t over. That’s my mentality. And you have to have that. It’s not over ’til it’s over. We just have to fight hard and see where things land.

“It’s going to be a Pennzoil race for us and I’m coming in early to do spend time with them. I’m just looking forward to it. I love racing this racecar and I’m just looking forward to getting in there and doing what we do.”

It has been a challenging year off the track for Hagan and now crew chief Venables, who lost his mother, Nedra, last week.

“Unfortunately Dickie’s mother passed away recently and he’s going to have that on his mind. Our thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family. I understand all about that. This year has been a tough year as far as that goes. I lost my grandfather and my brother this year. I get it.

“I still want to get up on the wheel and drive. I know that he’ll be ready to tune this thing. We all have a lot of stuff going on in our lives and hopefully we can all come together and focus and do big things in Texas.”