Jack Beckman reached his fourth final round of the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, and 16th of his career, at the NHRA Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex, bowing out to Robert Hight.

En route to the money round in the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Funny Car, No. 7 qualifier Beckman dismissed his teammate Matt Hagan in the first round with a 4.241-second pass at 292.77 mph, then disposed of 14-time world champion John Force in the second round with a 4.219/294.11.

Jack Beckman reached his fourth final round of the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, and 16th of his career, at the NHRA Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex, bowing out to Robert Hight.

En route to the money round in the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Funny Car, No. 7 qualifier Beckman dismissed his teammate Matt Hagan in the first round with a 4.241-second pass at 292.77 mph, then disposed of 14-time world champion John Force in the second round with a 4.219/294.11.

It was important to earn lane choice for every run, as the right lane produced only one winner all day in the Funny Car class, and that was Jerry Toliver, whom Beckman was matched up against in the semifinals. Beckman had the luxury of choosing his lane in that round and eliminated Toliver with a 4.546/218.55 to reach the final against Robert Hight.

The only stanza for which Beckman failed to earn the coveted lane choice today was the final one. With a track steaming at 114 degrees, the duo took off. And, although Hight grabbed the victory with a 4.218-second run at 296.44 mph, Beckman was right there with him to the finish, crossing the stripe in 4.271 seconds at 292.58 mph. Margin of victory: .0821 of a second.

"I have to tell you, losing in the final round stinks," said Beckman, who moved into third in the Countdown to 1 playoffs standing, "but we recognize what we did here and everybody on this Valvoline/MTS Dodge crew has that look in their eye right now. We did what nobody could do all day, we got down that right lane. And our goal on that one - what Johnny (West, crew chief) wanted to do - was make them beat themselves.

"If I had stayed shallow (at the starting lights) we'd have run a 4.23 on that pass, which is a decent run in either lane and we did it in the less-favored lane. They just did a better job. And that's what lane choice got them that run.

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