The dragstrip is no place to be cutting off the guy in the other lane, or making right and left turns for that matter.

However, that is exactly what John Force did in his first round race against Jack Beckman. After a lengthy staging battle, Force left on Beckman, only to lose the advantage in the latter portion of the track.

Force slid out of the groove and made an abrupt right turn into Beckman’s lane, barely avoiding a collision.

"I've been wearing glasses lately for better vision. If they're going to give me that good a vision for the rest of the year I don't ever want to wear them again," Beckman said with a laugh. The dragstrip is no place to be cutting off the guy in the other lane, or making right and left turns for that matter.

However, that is exactly what John Force did in his first round race against Jack Beckman. After a lengthy staging battle, Force left on Beckman, only to lose the advantage in the latter portion of the track.

Force slid out of the groove and made an abrupt right turn into Beckman’s lane, barely avoiding a collision.

"I've been wearing glasses lately for better vision. If they're going to give me that good a vision for the rest of the year I don't ever want to wear them again," Beckman said with a laugh.

Beckman got in trouble early on the run battling tire shake and then spun the tires, which turned out to be a good thing.

"It moved over towards the centerline quite a bit,” Beckman said. “So, I had my hands full and I had my eyes full. I'm trying to get our car back over in the middle of the lane and then all of a sudden this big green and white thing is sideways in my lane.

"And, in these cars everything is delayed. You hit the throttle, there's a small delay. You lift off the throttle there's a small delay. You move the steering wheel and it doesn't respond right away at speed because there's so much downforce everything deflects and it's got play in it. So it looks like I'm not doing anything for a while.

"I'm telling the car to go right, I'm steering the car right and it's not going right. And here's Force further in my lane. So, here's that moment when you're thinking, Do I try to lock the brakes up, which means letting go of the steering wheel with one hand or do I try to get back on the throttle without being too abrupt and squeeze on through.

"So I'm trying to squeeze the throttle down and by that time he'd started moving over some, and I kind of shot (past) him. Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful run," he said with another laugh.

Force was fighting an errant car like a driver amped up on Full Throttle Energy Drink, or maybe one with a new steering box.

“I was wound up,” Force admitted. “We changed the steering box in the car. It was real hard steering, so the guys loosened it. It wasn't the feel that I knew but close enough. I just needed to put a few runs in it. When it went right, I whipped it back, like I always do, but it whipped too far and then when it went left I thought 'oh man whip it back' and I whipped and it blew the tires and made a violent right turn and that's when I could see blue.

“I thought, 'he's going to t-bone me' and then I whipped it as hard as I could and that old Mustang it steers and I brought her back. And, he was doing some steering too to stay off me. So, we got out of there.”

This was definitely a time when Force needed a lot of experience.

“Oh without a doubt, and two pairs of shorts!” Force added, with his trademark smile.

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