{"id":4075,"date":"2019-11-21T16:12:57","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T16:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=4075"},"modified":"2019-11-21T16:13:47","modified_gmt":"2019-11-21T16:13:47","slug":"fast-is-first-at-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=4075","title":{"rendered":"\u201cFast\u201d is First at Finals!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dodge\/\/SRT Mopar driver “Fast Jack” Beckman closed off the 2019 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season by racing the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car of Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) to his second victory of the season at the 55th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Calif.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The win for Beckman, his 30th career Funny Car class victory, concluded a season where four drivers raced Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Cars to 11 wins in the 24-race NHRA campaign.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beckman and fellow Dodge\/\/SRT Mopar and DSR driver Matt Hagan made strong championship bids, but both came up short in the end. Beckman finished second and Hagan, winner of the two previous NHRA events, finished third in the final season standings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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(“Fast Jack” Beckman was victorious racing his Dodge Charger – during the 2019 season ending AAA Auto Club NHRA Finals)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never won in Funny Car at Pomona,\u201d said Beckman. \u201cIf you win at the Winternationals (in February), the rest of the year is going to be okay because you\u2019ve already won something, but if you do it in the finals (at the end of the year), your off-season is fantastic. My Infinite Hero Foundation guys have given me such a great race car lately. I stumbled a couple of times, and I don\u2019t want to \u2018woulda, coulda, shoulda\u2019 myself in the off-season. We finished solidly in second, capped off the year with a win. We have a phenomenal Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, and things are awesome right now. I\u2019m feeling on top of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beckman opened the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoff with a victory in the Mopar Express Lane NHRA Nationals in Reading, Pennsylvania and was in contention throughout. He advanced to the final in Charlotte and established new track records in Las Vegas en route to a semifinal finish before this weekend\u2019s season finale in Pomona. After qualifying second, \u201cFast Jack\u201d was within two rounds of the top spot in his Dean Antonelli\/John Medlen-tuned Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. His machine-like performances all day included consistent runs for the 2012 Funny Car champion starting with his pass of 3.946 seconds to defeat John Hale.<\/p>\n

He ousted J.R. Todd in the second round and took down upset-minded Blake Alexander in the semifinal to advance to his seventh final of the year. The final was a rematch of both the season opener, also at Auto Club Raceway, and the Charlotte Countdown race versus eventual Funny Car champion Robert Hight. Beckman made the fastest pass of race day with his lap of 3.920 to secure his first Auto Club NHRA Finals victory, but he came up just eight points short of earning his second Funny Car title.<\/p>\n

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(Matt Hagan set both low ET and top speed of the event during qualifying)<\/p><\/div>\n

Event Essentials: \u00a0 NHRA AAA Auto Club Finals (Nov. 14-17th, 2019)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nNAME<\/strong><\/td>\nET<\/strong><\/td>\nMPH<\/strong><\/td>\nCAREER WIN<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Winner:<\/strong><\/td>\nJack Beckman<\/td>\n\u00a03.920<\/td>\n323.27<\/td>\n\u00a0 \u00a033rd<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R\/UP:<\/strong><\/td>\nRobert Hight<\/td>\n\u00a0NTR<\/td>\nNSR<\/td>\n\u00a0Broke<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Low ET:<\/strong><\/td>\nMatt Hagan<\/td>\n\u00a03.872<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Top Speed:<\/strong><\/td>\nMatt Hagan<\/td>\n<\/td>\n333.58<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bump Spot:<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\n\u00a04.394<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Event Entries:<\/strong><\/td>\n\u00a019 Cars<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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(Robert Hight clinched his 3rd career NHRA Mello Yello Championship when he beat Matt Hagan in a dramatic semifinal showdown — by a 3.9977 324.59 to 4.015 326.95 mph count)<\/p><\/div>\n

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JR Todd’s last pass as the defending NHRA FC World Champ came in round #2<\/p><\/div>\n

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Blake Alexander had s strong “final four” finish in the Pronto-sponsored Ford Mustang<\/p><\/div>\n

Posted with files by Bill Klingbell and Bruce Biegler<\/em><\/p>\n

Photos by Randy Anderson – Courtesy of National Dragster & Auto Imagery\"\"<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dodge\/\/SRT Mopar driver “Fast Jack” Beckman closed off the 2019 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season by racing the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car of Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) to his second victory of the season at the 55th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[104,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4075"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4075"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4079,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4075\/revisions\/4079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}