Before the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Series began, Jack Beckman knew his team was facing challenges.

The 2012 nitro Funny Car world champion, who drives for Don Schumacher Racing, was adjusting to new crew chief Rob Flynn.

Actually, Beckman and Terry Snyder were the only two people who returned to Beckman’s team for 2014.

The ever-positive Beckman isn’t about to let the wholesale changes bother him.

“Here’s the deal - we hire qualified crew chiefs,” Beckman said. “The crew chief’s job is to hire the crew. The crew chief doesn’t want to make himself look dumb so he hires people he’s comfortable with, who are competent and who can work well together. Step one in this deal is always getting the funding. You can’t get the right people without good funding. Step two is getting the right parts and Don always gives all seven of his cars all the same high-quality parts. It really kind of takes a lot of the burden of worrying off of my shoulders.”

Todd Smith, who won the world title with Beckman at DSR, was relieved of his duties after the 2013 fall race at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Todd Okuhara was Beckman's crew chief for the NHRA Finals last November, the season finale.

“Change is difficult sometimes, especially when you come so close to so many of the crew chiefs and crew members over the years, and watch them depart and change and switch and all that stuff,” Beckman said. “But, I’ve learned not to second-guess Don. He’s a smart man when it comes to winning races. That guy is competitive at every single thing he does. He wants all his cars to go out and battle for this deal. His goal is to have the three best dragsters and the four best Funny Cars, and we just need some runs. We just need to get Rob Flynn data. He’s not familiar with this tune-up combination. Under Todd Smith last year, we made a big tune-up change prior to Indy, so all of our data prior to Indy last year is not useable for this year.”

At the season-opening Winternationals this past weekend, Beckman qualified No. 8 and then was upended by his DSR teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. in the first round Sunday.

Johnson clocked a 4.048-second elapsed time to beat Beckman’s 4.071-second lap.

“We have to get the power level right in this thing,” Beckman said. “Once you get the power level right and get the clutch application early right, you can tune up what it is does down track.”

Beckman acknowledged he also will continue to adapt to his virtually entire new crew, but he doesn’t expect it to take long for his team to mesh. The NHRA national event season continues at Phoenix Feb. 21-23.

“It is somebody different strapping me in, and that, believe it or not, changes things,” Beckman said. “The people’s feel, how they get the harnesses laid out on you. It is somebody different backing you up.  It’s somebody different pulling you up to the starting line and telling you when to stop. Everybody has their subtle differences and nuances in that. Yes, you have to be aware and adapt to what they are doing. After 10 to 12 runs, everything kind of starts gelling again sand pretty soon you don’t even know that they are new people. This is the team now.”

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