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2013 NHRA: Jack Beckman NHRA Gatornationals Qualifying Results: No 11
Jack Beckman is befuddled along with crew chief Todd Smith.
After a midseason rally last year that carried the Valvoline NextGen/MTS Mail for Wounded Warriors Dodge Charger R/T to the NHRA Funny Car world championship, the team has had a rude awakening after two events of the 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
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And it hasn't gotten much better this weekend at the NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.
After Beckman and the team lost in the opening round of eliminations at the first two events of the season, the team struggled to qualify No. 11 for Sunday's championship elimination rounds and will race Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps in the first round.
Beckman edged Capps by two points to win the world championship but knows his Dodge Charger R/T isn't running like it did at the end of the past season.
"We're going to be racing a team with a similar tune-up who also smoked the tires on both runs today. It could be a real interesting first-round match-up," Beckman said.
Capps qualified sixth while Beckman qualified with a best time of 4.122 seconds at 302.55 mph in Friday's first session.
While Capps has had the dominant Funny Car team by finishing runner-up in the first event and winning the title at the last one to take the series points lead, Beckman's team lost in the first rounds of those events and struggled in qualifying at Gainesville.
"We're struggling a lot. We're a little concerned," Beckman said. "We had two runs today and neither one made it down the track.
"We're having an issue with clutch wear and we're not quite sure why it's doing what it's doing. It's one of those things where we don't care which of the 17 parts in the clutch is causing the problem, but we have to address every possible cause for it."
The following are Beckman's qualifying results from Friday and Saturday heading to Sunday's championship eliminations other notes:
FUNNY CAR
No. 1 qualifier: Cruz Pedregon (Cruz Pedregon Racing) 4.047 sec., 296.05 mph
Jack Beckman, Valvoline NextGen/MTS Mail for Wounded Warriors Dodge
Qualifying position: No. 11
First-round opponent: Ron Capps
FRIDAY
Session 1: 4.122 sec., 302.55 mph
Session 2: 4.144, 286.62
SATURDAY
Session 3: 5.943, 113.35
Session 4: 5.277, 138.40
GOING FOR 200
Sunday at the Gatornationals, Don Schumacher Racing can reach the milestone of getting its 200th NHRA national event title.
DSR drivers Ron Capps and Tony Schumacher won respective Top Fuel and Funny Car titles at the last race near Phoenix to push the total to 198.
Two of the seven DSR teams in the Gatornationals would need to repeat the double-up to reach 200. That isn't farfetched considering DSR has won at least two titles at the same event 35 times since the organization based near Indianapolis began fielding more than one team in 2001.
DSR also is the only organization in NHRA history to have won event titles in each of the series' four pro categories.
GATORNATIONALS NITRO SCHEDULE (All times EDT)
Sunday: 11 a.m., championship eliminations
NHRA ON ESPN2 (All times EDT)
Sunday: 1:30 a.m., 8 a.m. (re-air) qualifying; 7 p.m. eliminations
WEATHER.COM FOR GAINESVILLE
Sunday: High 80; 0 percent chance of rain
PaddockTalk Perspective
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