Beckman earns No. 8 in Vegas qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2009 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 5 of six in Countdown to 1 Playoffs
Round 23 of 24 for season
Ninth annual NHRA Las Vegas Nationals
The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Oct. 30-Nov. 1, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

BECKMAN EARNS NO. 8 IN VEGAS QUALIFYING

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. 

³We 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."

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