Beckman will start 14th in U.S. Nationals eliminations

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2009 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 18 of 24
55th annual U.S. Nationals
Raceway Park at Indianapolis
Sept. 4-7, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501; cell 203-243-2438;
jstropus@earthlink.net

BECKMAN WILL START 14TH IN U.S. NATIONALS ELIMINATIONS

INDIANAPOLIS (Sept. 6, 2009) - "Fast" Jack Beckman, the 2008 U.S. Nationals
Funny Car runner-up, will start from the 14th position in Monday's
eliminations rounds at the 55th annual U.S. Nationals at Raceway Park at
Indianapolis.

Only one round of two qualifying sessions set for today (five in total for
this event) was run because of a long rain delay, and Beckman needed to make
a solid pass in the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Funny Car to get
himself into the 16-car field after not having qualified in the top 12 in
the previous two days.

He posted a solid 4.166-second pass at 297.35 mph, which accomplished that
task.

"It's interesting," said Beckman. "For all intents and purposes, this became
a four-qualifying-run race, just like the regular national events. Because
of the top 12 only getting in on Saturday, we went into the last session
today not qualified.

"There was an oil down in front of us and there was a spectacular incident
in which the body flew off a car. You're sitting in the car and you're
sitting in the car. And I've gone up to the last session outside of the
field a lot of times, and you're nervous. But this time I had enough time to
sit in the car and think 'It's Indy, we runnered-up last year, we have to
race tomorrow.'

"We didn't run as well as we wanted to, but we picked up from last night's
run and, maybe more importantly, we're headed in the right direction on the
tune-up. I think we can keep doing that.

"We run (Mike) Neff first round and he only outran us by two hundredths of a
second, so I think we're very much in this thing. I'm over the butterflies
and I'm ready to go attack tomorrow."

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