At NHRA’s Gerber Glass Route 66 Nationals — Funny Car’s Jack Beckman needed his own impressive performance on the starting line for his final round confrontation. An he delivered that exactly, winning on a holeshot in the final round against John Force Racing teammate and reigning world champion Austin Prock with a run of 3.935 at 325.77 in his PEAK Chevrolet SS.

Prock went a quicker 3.933 at 329.02 and had his own solid reaction time, but Beckman went .049, which made the difference at the finish line as he earned his second victory this season and 37th in his professional career. Since returning to racing and taking over driving duties for the legendary John Force late last year, Beckman has four wins in 14 races, moving to second in points on Sunday with the memorable victory at his sponsor’s race.

The veteran and former world champion got past Dave Richards, Chad Green and Cruz Pedregon to set up the all-JFR final round. It ensured a fourth JFR win in the first six races of 2025, as both Beckman and Prock continue to roll at an impressive pace. On Sunday, though, it was Beckman who got back on track in a major way after first-round losses at the previous two events.

“Every win is great and I have a lot of trophies from places like Indy and my home track in Pomona but winning here in Chicago, a track that was off the tour for a while is as good as it gets,” said Beckman, who was making his first appearance in Chicago since 2019. “It’s also the headquarters for PEAK and we’ve got 623 employees here.
 
“I was off the tour since 2019 and I never thought I’d race here again. Austin Prock is great. Honestly, he’s .01 or .02 better that the rest of us. You just have to do your best. This time it all seemed to work out for us. Overall, we were good when we had to be. I try to keep an even keel but at this point, I’m more appreciative of every opportunity I get.”

Prock advanced to his third straight final, fourth this season and 24th in his career, defeating Bobby Bode, Paul Lee and defending event winner Matt Hagan. With that strong event placing, he retained the overall NHRA points lead.

Saturday’s event schedule did include another exciting edition of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge series.

For Funny Car, it was defending event winner Matt Hagan who continued to find success at Route 66 Raceway, this time taking the victory with a run of 3.880 at 331.85 in his Direct Connection Dodge//SRT Hellcat to slip past Ron Capps.

Hagan was certainly in race mode during the specialty race, posting a stellar .055 reaction time to keep Capps at bay and earn his first win in the Challenge in 2025. Matt had defeated Alexis DeJoria in round one of the 4-car shootout.

NHRA Gerber Route 66 Nationals – Funny Car Class Summary

WIN: Jack Beckman – 3.935 secs 325.77 mph (Career win #39)
R/UP: Austin Prock – 3.933 secs 329.02 mph
Low ET: Jack Beckman – 3.859 secs
Top MPH: JR Todd – 336.40 mph
Bump: 4.085
Entries – 19 cars

Posted with files by NHRA Communications & Bruce Biegler
Photos by David Ostaszewski & Courtesy NHRA