Jack Beckman should have plenty to smile about this weekend in Englishtown. While he didn't win in Joliet just last week, the outing was by all other measurements extremely successful.

With testing limited to four days throughout the entire season, bringing out a new car halfway to the Countdown to One could have been viewed as a rather risky endeavour. As it turned out the debut of the newest generation DSR Funny Car chassis was a rousing success.

Prior to making his first runs on Sunday morning at Joliet, Beckman sat down and talked about the risk, the reward and the new chassis.

His first revelation, at least for a guy with a stock car background, involved the driver's seat.

Jack Beckman should have plenty to smile about this weekend in Englishtown. While he didn't win in Joliet just last week, the outing was by all other measurements extremely successful.

With testing limited to four days throughout the entire season, bringing out a new car halfway to the Countdown to One could have been viewed as a rather risky endeavour. As it turned out the debut of the newest generation DSR Funny Car chassis was a rousing success.

Prior to making his first runs on Sunday morning at Joliet, Beckman sat down and talked about the risk, the reward and the new chassis.

His first revelation, at least for a guy with a stock car background, involved the driver's seat.

A new car means a new driver's seat?

“Yes,” said Beckman, adding, “We don't cannibalize. The other car is still an intact chassis.”

Time for culture shock. Seats seem almost interchangeable.

“You would love to think they are and maybe when we get the final aluminum bucket ironed out,” said Beckman, adding, “remember we're building for three different drivers. Then maybe we can take the seat insert and transfer from one car to another. But we're not at that stage yet simply because we keep moving some things around to see if we can make a better mousetrap that will suit all three of the team drivers.”

Three drivers, three very different physiques. Beckman and Ron Capps being the closest of the three, while Matt Hagan is far more stocky. Not fat, just not nearly as lean as Beckman or Capps. Still, Beckman's new ride is new, from top to bottom, including the seat.

Halfway to the Countdown, Beckman sits down in a totally different race car with a totally different seat. How weird is that?

“You do get a comfort zone in your car,” admitted Beckman. “Like Don Shumacher likes to say 'it needs to feel like a wore out pair of shoes,' you just slip it on and go use it. So it is a little different. Not only is the seat different we've changed a lot of things in the weight balance of that car. That might even be the big difference.”

The big difference, to which Beckman refers is the chassis itself.

“It tends to be more responsive,” Beckman reveals. “So, you can't get after the steering wheel to get the same response you get in a new car and you almost have to back-off your sensitivity ratio. In other words what 10 degrees of steering used to provide now might only be 6 or 7 degrees.  You don't know that. You can't necessarily tell yourself to under-steer or else you could be in big, big trouble.

“What tends to happen is you over-steer a couple times and  OK I get it this one is more sensitive slow down a little bit. That actually takes a few runs. With the NITRO Funny Car though with all the different parameters of ignition, track conditions, etc., no two runs ever really feel the same anyway so it's not like driving your car on the freeway every single day then going and getting a rental car because the freeway changes every day. In racing, the lane, it changes round to round.

“Then we go to different ones every single race so you never quite get perfect familiarity even if you get close to it with the car, track conditions and the material conditions are what will change that.”

The key, it would appear is familiarity with how a car will react given certain conditions. A new car can toss a few extra curve balls into the mixture. And, then the key is constructing a car which reacts consistently so the driver can do the same.

The parameters are always changing, which in fact, makes it less threatening to bring a new car out mid-season.

The weather changes and no two tracks are the same. Some, according to Beckman are close, but ever track has it's own special signature.

“There is not a uniform length of concrete pad. The crowning might go one way or the other. The grooves, some of them can run down the middle, most of them tend to bias toward the center line because drivers tend to drive away from the wall. Some tracks have a tendency to push right in both lanes. Some push out in both lanes. Some push in, in both lanes. Sometimes, like at Topeka, you might have a lane that tends to  pull you left. All of a sudden you have a strong crosswind blowing from left to right and it takes you the other way and you weren't expecting it.

“All I'm saying is you can never truly get comfortable with a Nitro Funny Car because something as simple as the wind or the outside temperature takes away that familiarity, that predictability, from the car.”

It is according to Beckman the unpredictability which is the key enticement to running a Funny Car.

“Yes! Oh yes, without a question. That is the lure of Funny Car drivers. I think if you talk to all of them and really get to the core of why a Funny Car, (it is because the cars ) are totally unpredictable.”

Predictably unpredictable, Beckman agrees. Which, makes it possible to drive them. With time behind the wheel, reaction times shorten and success follows.

“Right. That's it. React. That's exactly it. Programmed response. When you've got as many runs as John Force you have an answer for almost every situation. You'll never have an answer for every situation. Ever. Because ninety-nine times out of hundred you will steer a certain amount to fix a certain problem and that one hundredth time there's a little variable out on the racetrack and that doesn't work. But there certainly is a lot to be said for experience.”

It is the experience, the knowledge, which comforts Beckman during this mid-season chassis change.

“You know we are not the first team that has changed a chassis in the middle of the season it's happened a lot of times and improved a team; just giving it fresh life,” Beckman explained. “The concern for me was not new tubing it was changing all the weight around. Ultimately we think this is going to be the better package for us.

“And, it wasn't that I was concerned of how it was going to handle so much as to how is it going to respond to our tune up input. Every car, you know when you switch from A to F in a tune-up map that worked this way for car two but car three all of a sudden wanted you to go from A to M on the tune up change to get the same result there. So that is a potential concern with four races in a row and seven races in eight weeks you're really in a situation where you gotta play no error ball here. It is not to say you won't get beat the first run but you have to use every single run to learn something.”

“We need to collect data right now. We need to figure out what the brand new car wants so that we are strong once we get to Indy and get prepared for the Countdown. So I am actually excited about the new pipe and I'm excited about learning what it wants on each track and I'm excited about this one hopefully being the one carries the number 1 on it next year.”

Carrying the No. 1 is after all, what life in the Funny Car world is all about.