Beckman is No. 5 qualifier in Bristol

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2010 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 12 of 23
10th annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals
Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway
June 18-20, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

BECKMAN IS NO. 5 QUALIFIER IN BRISTOL

BRISTOL, Tenn. (June 19, 2010) - Jack Beckman and the Valvoline/Mail
Terminal Services Dodge Charger Funny Car team qualified No. 5 for the 10th
annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway, despite enduring
the hottest track conditions of the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing
Series so far.

Beckman established his quickest pass of 4.199 seconds at 297.35 mph during
the cooler Friday-night session, which followed a 4.333/278.58 (No. 5)
earlier that day. In Saturday's runs on a track surface nearing 140 degrees,
he posted two tire-smokers of 6.330/111.34 (No. 5) and 5.877/122.20.

"Struggling is today's word," said Beckman. "And I don't just mean our team.
There was a lot of tire smoke among the nitro teams. It looks like NHRA is
not prepping the track as heavy as it has at a lot of tracks. And we need to
make an adjustment for that. And these are the hottest conditions that this
new car of ours has seen. If we were missing it and everybody else was going
down the race track, we would start wondering what they're doing different.
But it looks like a lot of cars are missing it.

"But we're fifth best here, we're a top-half car, and we're postured to win
this thing tomorrow. Sunday is probably not going to be as hot as today, and
hopefully with the data from the last two runs, where we were too aggressive
at the same spot in the track, either the track will come to us if the
weather cools down or we'll back away from that a little bit.

"The fine line that you walk on is that you could back it off too much and
you could get outrun. If you don't back it off enough and you smoke the
tires, you get outrun. That's why (crew chiefs) Rahn Tobler and John Collins
sit up there in the brain central part of the trailer.

"It's so cliché, but I have all the confidence in the world," added Beckman
of the Valvoline/MTS crew. "These nine guys will figure out a way to get the
Valvoline/MTS car four runs tomorrow. I'm just the lucky you-know-what that
gets to sit in there and push the throttle down."

Beckman faces Jim Head in the opening round of Sunday's eliminations.

***