FUNNY CAR

(Michael Fischbeck photo)

It had been about 10 months since the 2012 NHRA Funny Car world champion visited any winner's circle or media center for a post-race celebration and interview after winning a title in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.

And Jack Beckman had never advanced to a final round at the track near Chicago until Sunday when his Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T team funded by Terry Chandler and led by crew chief Jimmy Prock with assistants John Medlen and Chris Cunningham defeated teammate Ron Capps to snap a 15-race winless streak.

(Brad Turk photo)

"Even though we had been to three final rounds this year, we really didn't have our car," he said referring to last year's performance which produced seven titles. "This year we had never made it more than 200 feet in any of those final rounds, and we were struggling. We set the national record this year, qualified No. 1 four times this year, but we just couldn't put it together."

(Michael Fischbeck photo)

Ron Capps was philosophical about finishing runner-up this Sunday after winning at the last race at Norwalk.

"Tobler used our runs on Saturday to break-in some new clutch discs for our rotation that will help us in the Countdown (to the Championship),” Capps said. “That will pay off for us. On the run against Jack, it just got to be too much to control. This car is such an animal that you have to really work at keeping it under control.

"We sure wanted to win it but losing to a DSR teammate isn't the worst thing that could have happened. We'll be ready for the Denver in a couple weeks, and the Western Swing is the best part of the season for me because I'll get to spend a lot of time between races with my family and friends from San Luis Obispo (Calif.)."