{"id":31223,"date":"2019-11-18T21:00:13","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T02:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=31223"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:23:54","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:23:54","slug":"fast-jack-beckman-wins-nhra-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/racing\/2019\/11\/fast-jack-beckman-wins-nhra-finals.html","title":{"rendered":"\u201cFast Jack\u201d Beckman Wins NHRA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was a season finale NHRA wanted – drama, intrigue,\ntension and heated exchanges between racers. Of course, packed grandstands during\nthe annual NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, California, was the icing on\nthe cake. At stake was the world championship being contested in Top Fuel, Funny\nCar and Pro Stock. With constant reshuffling of the points standings during the Countdown\nto the Championship – NHRA\u2019s playoffs – it would come down the last race of the\nyear. The unpredictability of drag racing left the door open for some racers to\nmove up in points while others saw their hopes of claiming a championship go up\nin blazing tire smoke. For two of our Dodge\/\/Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> drivers, Matt Hagan and Jack\nBeckman, they rolled into Auto Club Raceway still in the hunt to claim a Funny\nCar world championship. There was only one problem, they\u2019d have to get around\nRobert Hight\u2019s Camaro as he still had a solid points lead going into the NHRA\nFinals. Qualifying strategy would determine what side of the eliminations\nladder the competitors would be on. There was a chance for Hagan or Beckman to\nbe crowned world champ, but it was not to be. Hight got the massive NHRA trophy,\nbut the Dodge Boys didn\u2019t leave Pomona empty-handed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was during the semi-finals that Hight had locked up the 2019 NHRA Funny Car World Championship based on the points needed to claim the title. But, there was still a race to finish. Ironically, Hight would square off in the final round against the guy who gave him one hell of a fight during the points chase, \u201cFast Jack\u201d Beckman and his Dodge Charger SRT\u00ae<\/sup> Hellcat. Beckman\u2019s march to the finals was methodical as his team, led by co-crew chiefs Dean Antonelli and John Medlen, tuned his 11,000-horsepower HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> engine for consistency. In the final round against Hight, Beckman\u2019s Charger SRT Hellcat machine was hitting on all eight as he thundered to his 30th<\/sup> career Funny Car victory to defeat Hight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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Beckman\u2019s teammate Matt Hagan also made a solid show for\nthe Dodge\/\/Mopar contingency with his Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Funny Car.\nUnfortunately, he also came up short, but finished the season in third place just\nbehind Beckman. Over in Top Fuel, Leah Pritchett started race day qualified\nsecond on the eliminations ladder in her HEMI engine-powered Mopar Dodge Top Fuel\ndragster. She was not in contention for the world championship, but it didn\u2019t\nstop her from defeating her first round opponent and advancing to the\nquarterfinals, where she had the quickest run of the round. Unfortunately,\nPritchett\u2019s day ended in the semi-finals when she lost a cylinder against eventual\nevent winner Doug Kalitta. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the Sportsman Classes, Dodge\/\/Mopar drivers were going\nrounds and advancing in the Stock and Super Stock classes. The starting line at\nPomona had plenty of bite and the racers were going fast. Longtime Mopar competitor\nand New York resident John Shaul made the cross-country trek in his 426 Max\nWedge-powered AA\/SA 1964 Plymouth Sport Fury. After qualifying 12th<\/sup>\namong 60 competitors, Shaul was going through the Stock Eliminator field like a\nhot knife through butter until he broke out in the semi-final round. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In Super Stock, Joe\nFaherty from Apple Valley, California, drove his SS\/AS 1968 Dodge Dart to a\nsemi-final finish at the NHRA Finals. Faherty raced his high-flying 383-cubic-inch Mopar-powered machine to low nine-second ETs, but he broke out in round\nfive of eliminations by running a 9.38 ET on a 9.42 ET dial-in. Both Shaul and\nFaherty won\u2019t leave Pomona empty-handed as they both collect $500 for being the\nDodge Top Finisher in Stock Eliminator and Super Stock at the NHRA Finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So, that\u2019s a wrap from the 2019 NHRA Finals where the\nthrill of victory and the agony of defeat come at over 300 mph, or just a flick\nof the Christmas tree. The off-season has now begun, but don\u2019t worry, our\ndrivers and teams will unload their supercharged HEMI engine-powered Top Fuel Dragsters\nand Funny Cars in less than three months for the 2020 NHRA Winternationals\nright here in Pomona. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, check out these cool images from the\nNHRA Finals!<\/p>\n\n\n\n