Beckman earn season's first round win of the season, continues to grow together as a unit at DSR

CHANDLER, Ariz. (Feb. 23, 2014) - Jack Beckman and the Valvoline MaxLife Dodge Charger R/T team are still battling to overcome one streak but at least kept a second one from growing.

Jack Beckman

Photo by: Todd Steitle

But Jack's team now has gone 29 national events without leaving with an event Wally trophy.

After qualifying sixth and defeating Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan in the opening round with a time of 4.057 seconds at 312.71 mph, which was the quickest in the first round, he stumbled in the quarter-finals when he ran 4.127 (306.81) to Robert Hight's 4.059 (314.97).

"Hight just kicked our butt with that 4.05," Jack said. "We wanted to run a little better than our 4.12. They loaded it up and it stuck.

"I'm frustrated. We don't show up at races to be a little better, to pick at this thing or that, to massage it and make it little more consistent. We show up at races to win and leave with the trophy. We didn't leave with the trophy and that's frustrating."

But only Jack and assistant crew chief Terry Snyder were with the Valvoline team last year.

"When you step back from this you have to consider it's the second race in a 24-race season, we are new together and it's been several years since Rob has tuned a Funny Car," Jack said. "We looked pretty darn good this weekend. We made it down the track on five of our six runs and the only one that we didn't make it we took a big swing because we had the luxury of doing that because we already qualified well.

"We picked up more data on the car and got our first round win of the year. We're heading in a positive direction and everyone on the crew is starting to realize that this can be a big year."

DSR