Joliet: Jack Beckman Saturday summary

BECKMAN COLLECTS NO. 6 IN CHICAGO QUALIFYING

JOLIET, Ill. (June 9, 2007) - "Fast" Jack Beckman collected the No. 6 Funny Car qualifying position for this weekend's Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 NHRA Nationals, recording his quickest lap of 4.769 seconds at 317.42 mph on Friday night.

His other laps produced a 6.810/130.43, a 5.964/157.17 and a solid 4.871/318.02 in the final pass, in the heat of the day.

"Awesome," said Beckman. "This is what we need to do. This is exactly what we need to do. You hate to make it sound like a cliche, but you have to qualify. Look at today, Robert Hight had never had a DNQ and he had one today, Mike Ashley won the last race and DNQ'd, not to mention Brandon Bernstein, who won Top Fuel in Topeka and he DNQ's. We've got to qualify to start clawing our way back up into the Skoal Showdown and into the Countdown to the Championship.

"We're in the top half, which is awesome, although I'm not sure if that matters here. We're ready to start winning rounds. I think every lap I get I'm feeling more comfortable in the car. I think the MTS Dodge crew is seeing that confidence in me and it feeds off of it. I hope we're going to see a snowball effect in the next few weeks.

"This is the acid test, this next six-race swing after this weekend. Can't wait."

Beckman squares off against Scott Kalitta in first round of eliminations on Sunday.

-credit: dsr