Jack Beckman and John Force Racing\u2019s PEAK Chevrolet SS Funny Car team qualified first and set low elapsed time of the meet in eliminations but came up short in the final round of the inaugural NHRA Potomac Nationals at Maryland International Raceway.<\/p>\n
Beckman, who earned his 35th\u00a0No. 1 qualifier the day before and set low elapsed time of the event in the semifinals (3.923 seconds), ran 3.971 seconds at 323.50 mph in the final round but it wasn\u2019t enough to get around Austin Prock\u2019s run of 3.958 seconds at 324.20 mph.<\/p>\n
Jordan Vandergriff and the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car team rebounded well from their first-round exit two weeks ago at Chicago with the semifinal finish against Beckman. Josh Hart and Alexis DeJoria, who both qualified seventh in Top Fuel and Funny Car, respectively, were eliminated in the first round.<\/p>\n
The runner-up finish was Beckman\u2019s 78th\u00a0career Funny Car final round appearance (10th\u00a0for John Force Racing) and second final round appearance this season after finishing runner-up at the 4-Wide Nationals at Charlotte.<\/p>\n
\u201cCharlotte was our first \u2018runner-up\u2019 of the year but I still didn\u2019t think we had jumped that final hurdle to get back to where we needed to be,\u201d said Beckman. \u201cI just didn\u2019t think our season had turned fully in the right direction. It did here. We made eight good runs. We should have been more aggressive in the final. We went out there and ran low ET of the meet in the semifinals. We didn\u2019t want to push any harder. I think the track came to us but it kind of ate up our tuneup. We can kick ourselves all day long but we got outrun by a great run in the other lane.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was John Force Racing\u2019s sixth final round appearance of the season. In addition to Beckman\u2019s pair, Hart won at the season-opener in Gainesville, Vandergriff earned his career first Funny Car event win at South Georgia, and Alexis DeJoria finished runner-up at both Gainesville and Chicago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have two more races in the next two weeks. I\u2019ve been asked if I like these back-to-back to back races,\u201d said Beckman. \u201cI like them now because our hot rod\u2019s back. Every call Dan and Tim (crew chiefs Hood and Fabrisi) made, the car responded. Before you can win races, you have to run consistently before you can run consistently quick. Our car\u2019s doing what we ask it to do now.\u201d<\/p>\n
In round one, Beckman dispatched of No. 16 qualifier Joe Morrison with the second-quickest run of the event to that point, covering the 1,000-foot racing surface in 3.939 seconds at 324.69 mph to Morrison\u2019s 5.027 seconds at 161.23 mph. The PEAK SQUAD then eliminated J.R. Todd in round two with a run of 4.003 seconds at 324.05 mph to Todd\u2019s 4.018 seconds at 311.41 mph, setting up the semifinal showdown with Vandergriff.<\/p>\n
In the all-John Force Racing semifinal, Vandergriff had lane choice, but Beckman grabbed the holeshot (.076 to .081) and never looked back, running 3.923 seconds at 328.22 mph to Vandergriff\u2019s 4.122 seconds at 250.83 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think anybody was going to beat Jack Beckman in the PEAK car that round,\u201d said Vandergriff. \u201cHe went low ET of the entire race that round. It was a great weekend for this Cornwell Quality Tools team, a great bounce back weekend after what happened in Chicago. Coming here and going to the semifinals is exactly what we needed as a team to carry momentum into these next two back-to-back races.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vandergriff dispatched first-round opponent Dave Richards with a run of 3.988 seconds at 322.27 mph to Richards\u2019 14.327 seconds at 64.45 mph. The Cornwell Tools team then earned the trip to the semifinals and lane choice against Beckman with a second-round win over Chad Green, running 3.996 seconds at 324.98 mph to Green\u2019s 4.008 seconds at 321.81 mph. Vandergriff earned lane choice over Beckman by seven thousandths of a second for the semifinal matchup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hart, the No. 7 qualifier in Top Fuel, lined up against No. 10 qualifier Clay Millican in round one. They left just four-thousandths-of-a-second apart (Hart\u2019s .065 to Millican\u2019s .061) and Hart was just ahead past halftrack before the Speedmaster Top Fuel Dragster lost traction and spun the tires. Hart slowed to a run of 4.026 seconds at 268.92 mph to Millican\u2019s 3.823 seconds at 330.39 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, that\u2019s why they call it racing, not winning,\u201d said Hart. \u201cThe car was dancing around really, really good at the top end. I knew it was spinning but kept my foot in it trying to get down the track. I knew we were out on him there for a little bit\u2026until we weren\u2019t. For the Speedmaster team and John Force Racing, I\u2019m really grateful just to even be in this seat so we\u2019ll regather our thoughts. We\u2019ve been working at it, round by round, and we\u2019ll get it figured out. I appreciate everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
DeJoria was the No. 7 qualifier in Funny Car, giving the Bandero Caf\u00e9 Chevrolet SS Funny Car team lane choice in round one against No. 10 qualifier Ron Capps. She ran the sixth-quickest run of the round, 4.009 seconds at 326.56 mph, but wasn\u2019t enough to get around the fifth-quickest run of the round, Capps\u2019 4.001 seconds at 321.12 mph.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am extremely proud of the Bandero Nitro Funny Car team,\u201d said DeJoria. \u201cI have never driven a better race car. They just drive so well and Neff (Mike Neff, crew chief) and Jonnie (Jonnie Lindberg, co-crew chief) are getting a great handle on it. I love this track. It\u2019s beautiful. We made some good runs this week so we\u2019re progressing. We\u2019re getting better and we just need to get a little bit faster. We got five bonus points in qualifying so that helps. We have Epping and Bristol the next two weeks, so we don\u2019t have much time in between, which I love, especially after going out first round, I want to get right back in that race car.\u201d<\/p>\n
The eighth of 20 races of the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series is the June 5-7 New England Nationals presented by bproauto at New England Dragway in Epping, N.H.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The post Jack Beckman Grabs Runner-Up at NHRA Potomac Nationals; Jordan Vandergriff Reaches Semifinals<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jack Beckman and John Force Racing\u2019s PEAK Chevrolet SS Funny Car team qualified first and set low elapsed time of the meet in eliminations but came up short in the final round of the inaugural NHRA Potomac Nationals at Maryland International Raceway. Beckman, who earned his 35th\u00a0No. 1 qualifier the day before and set low […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}