Jack Beckman has had his share of memorable moments while competing in NHRA’s nitro Funny Car class – namely winning the 2012 championship while driving for late owner Don Schumacher.
Add to that this weekend’s 72nd annual Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals trophy.
On Sunday, Beckman won Funny Car’s PlayNHRA All-Star Callout at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park for John Force Racing, defeating Matt Hagan in the final round of the bonus race as part of the U.S. Nationals.
Then, Monday afternoon, he doubled his pleasure.
Beckman clocked a 3.965-second elapsed time at 327.35 mph to defeat Hagan’s 4.030-second effort at 318.84 mph in the finals and claim the coveted U.S. Nationals victory.
The two wins were quite lucrative for Beckman as he earned $180,000 for the Labor Day Weekend’s work. His PEAK Chevrolet SS Funny Car was sporting the same iconic black-and-white flame job paint scheme that carried team owner John Force to his 1996 championship season and Driver of the Year Award.
“I heard one of the fans shout and ask John if he could run it again,” Beckman said about the paint scheme. “It might not be a bad idea. I doubled up in 2015. That was an Infinite Hero car, and it’s the greatest day a Funny Car driver could ever have, that double-up. Remember, this is before the Mission Challenge.
“Is your first time doing a milestone the best? Yes, for some situations it is the best. That was just a phenomenal weekend. We tend to give preference to the most recent accomplishment, but this one might be more significant because we did it in John’s tribute car. To bring that thing out – and Brian Bohlander [Director of Marketing at PEAK’s parent company, Old World Industries] made the call, he said, ‘That’s the one I want at the 2026 race.’ And it wasn’t a lot of pressure, but the car ran once and won once. And then yesterday we did the Callout, and it ran twice and it won twice, and then today we start clicking off the round wins. And I’m thinking to myself, ‘Stop thinking to yourself. What we’re doing is working. Just keep doing it.’ And it worked.”
Prior to this weekend, the legendary Force, owner of 16 NHRA nitro Funny Car championships, had only run that scheme once at the 1996 NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif. Force won the event, beating his then-teammate Tony Pedregon in the final round.
“That’s a great question,” Beckman said about the pressure of running a Force tribute – undefeated paint scheme. “It’s a complex question. I’ll let everybody come to their own conclusion on that. Any loss sucks in a drag car, right? And I said [Sunday], ‘The fans all see the outside of the car. I only see the inside.’ I don’t see that it’s John’s ’96 tribute car when that body comes down and the motor’s running. You know, some people said, ‘Fate’s on your side.’ No, it’s not. Fate doesn’t know how to tune a fuel car. And we didn’t really benefit from any luck today. We went out there and we dominated every session.”
Beckman’s victory parade Monday consisted of wins over Jeff Arend, Alexis DeJoria, two-time defending U.S. Nationals victor Austin Prock, and Hagan.
“What we did do is we raced smart – staged shallow, best possible ET, protect lane choice. And we were able to stay in the left lane all day. And I know that made a difference at least once, probably twice, and maybe in the final round,” Beckman said. “You know, Hagan’s car was wicked quick in qualifying, but I think they knew with that little bump in the right lane, there’s only so hard they can push.
“It was 127 degrees for that final round. On a 127-degree racetrack, that’s an exclamation point. Our 3.92 [ET] earlier in the day [in the second round against DeJoria], I thought, ‘Apples to apples’ was the run of the weekend. And then a couple pairs later, Austin Prock’s 3.93 in the bad lane, I thought, ‘Man, that’s as good a run as ours was.’ Then we had to race him in the next round. So, nobody gave us anything this weekend. We went out and we earned every single one. And it’s the same trophy, but we know how much we kicked butt today.”
The win was Beckman’s third in the U.S. Nationals. He also won the storied race in 2015, defeating Robert Hight, and again in 2020, ousting J.R. Todd, and he is also a four-time runner-up.
Beckman notched his 39th career NHRA nitro Funny Car victory and second this season – he also won at Epping, N.H.
Beckman enters the six-race Countdown to the Championship – which begins in Martin, Mich., Sept. 18-20 – third in the points standings just behind leader Hagan and Ron Capps.
“The end of ’24, beginning of ’25, our tune-up margin was so wide. Even when we missed it, we were a top-three car. It was just … it was stealing candy,” Beckman said. “It just was such a great car to drive. We tried some things and we struggled a little bit. Then earlier this year we had to change some clutch discs, and we struggled a little bit. Then we widened that tune-up window again. And then we tried to push a little harder for performance. I don’t think we struggled a little bit. I think that we just weren’t going down the track every single run because we were pushing harder. What we did today is fantastic. So, I think that hot-weather tune-up, I don’t think there’s a better car out there right now. When we get 85-degree track temps, there’s five cars that I think can run on the level that we run and since we don’t know what kind of conditions we’re going to get, whatever, we’ve got great data. No matter what the track conditions are. However, Martin and Rockingham [N.C.], we have no runs on those racetracks.
“But this is where comparable data matters. Because we’ll go check the racetrack, and say, ‘Hey, this looks a lot like Bristol last year, or Charlotte earlier this year.’ Then we can go back, plug those in there, make our Q1, see if we can get down the racetrack, and then tune from there. And it’s so gratifying to drive for a team that makes intelligent call after intelligent call, and to drive for an organization that shares data.”
While answering questions in his victory press conference, Beckman took a moment to reflect about when he was a young boy in Orange County, Calif., who used to watch John Force compete.
“I’ve never lost that 7-year-old kid just geeking out at the drag races. The way it smells, the way it feels. You guys get it,” Beckman said. “There’s just something bitchin’ about this sport. I mean, it’s just as cool as it gets. And I never knew I could dream this big. When I thought my career was over in 2020, it’s easy to get sour grapes and woulda, coulda, shoulda and be bitter about something. And I stopped because I was kind of feeling that way. And I said, ‘You know, I had 33 wins and a Funny Car World Championship, four Countdown wins, more than I ever dreamed of. Ever. So, when John had his accident and Robert Hight called me, I thought, ‘Well, this is eight races.’
“This is a little bit of icing on the cake. That’s fantastic. I won two of those races. And I thought, ‘That’s probably it, but, oh, my goodness, what a way to get to come back.’ Then I got all of 2025 and then I got all of 2026. But if you told me three years ago, ‘Hey, 75th anniversary, you’re going to be sitting in the media room with two trophies,’ I’d say, ‘That’s pretty cool.’”
What’s more, Beckman is the only nitro Funny Car driver who gets to take home NHRA’s special-edition “Diamond Wally” trophy from the U.S. Nationals. The Diamond Wally is being awarded exclusively during the organization’s 75th anniversary season in 2026.
“When I said that this one might exceed the 2015 [U.S. Nationals] double-up that I did, I think it’s those little things. The fact that that is a completely special one-off trophy, that the body was a completely special one-off deal. I think those are the things that give it a little bit of an edge,” Beckman said. “I could truthfully tell you, this is the greatest weekend I’ve ever had holding the steering wheel. Doesn’t get any better.”
Beckman also cherishes his two NHRA titles. The first came in Super Comp in 2003.
“The greatest thing about winning the Super Comp world championship is that I got to do everything on the car myself,” Beckman said. “The greatest thing about winning the Funny Car championship is I got to celebrate with a group of people who worked together on that. The worst thing about sucking on a team is that a group of people did the exact same job and you went out and screwed it up for them [like at Brainerd, the race prior to Indy]. It is a punch in the gut. And when you tow back to the pits, that’s one of those reality checks where you say, ‘It’s time to act like a grown-up.’ Because you feel like running and closing the door and screaming and crying and kicking. It’s a horrible feeling. And sometimes in life things don’t go your way.
“So, no, I don’t think that took any pressure off me because we still had a shot. Hagan and Capps had to go out by the second round. And I thought we had a car that could win the race. What it did was like, ‘Wow, now they’re really going to be pissed at me.’ Because we got so close that what I did in Brainerd may have cost us a regular season. But since life doesn’t give you a chance to rewind and replay it, I’m just going to move on. And here’s where I think racing for your team and not your ego pays dividends. I staged shallow. I protect their ET up there all the time. So, when I go out there and do something stupid, they’ve got my back, too. Nobody pointed fingers.”
Beckman also realizes nothing will come easy for him and his team in the six-race Countdown to the Championship.
“The field is so loaded and in Funny Car, it’s so wide open right now,” Beckman said. And you’ve got me; the dark horses are Alexis [DeJoria] and Dan Wilkerson. Neither of them has won this year, and both of them could go on a two or three-race win streak there. Jordan [Vandergriff] is driving his butt off. That car runs fantastic. Our car’s solid. J.R. [Todd] is one of the best drivers. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Ron Capps – he’s pretty damn solid. And Matt Hagan stunned me [Sunday], when he said before when we each won in the semis and we’re going to face off in the final, he said, ‘I’ve never won one of these Callouts. He’s won everything else but that.
“So, people say, ‘Well, this is where the cream rises to the top.’ Let me tell you, if I can drive as good as I did [Monday] for the next six races, that’s all I can give the team.”
