Jack Beckman tested a Top Fuel dragster last week in Indianapolis. The sophomore Funny Car racer drove the ex-Melanie Troxel SKULL SHINE dragster that she vacated when moving over to the Morgan Lucas team.

Beckman said no imminent plan exists to switch to a dragster. The test was nothing more than keeping that car turn-key if a deal comes along for a second Don Schumacher Top Fueler, so the start-up will be minimal, Beckman said.

“My crew got elected to go out and test the car in Indy,” Beckman said. “We’ll probably have one more shake-down before the end of the year. That way, what Don has is a car ready to go once he decides what he wants to do.”

Jack Beckman tested a Top Fuel dragster last week in Indianapolis. The sophomore Funny Car racer drove the ex-Melanie Troxel SKULL SHINE dragster that she vacated when moving over to the Morgan Lucas team.

Beckman said no imminent plan exists to switch to a dragster. The test was nothing more than keeping that car turn-key if a deal comes along for a second Don Schumacher Top Fueler, so the start-up will be minimal, Beckman said.

“My crew got elected to go out and test the car in Indy,” Beckman said. “We’ll probably have one more shake-down before the end of the year. That way, what Don has is a car ready to go once he decides what he wants to do.”

So how did he do?

“It was a very difficult race track,” Beckman said. “There were a lot of other good drivers out there, and out of their runs, one may have hit the 300-foot mark once. It wasn’t for lack of effort.

“The IRP crew was there and [track specialist] Lanny Miglizzi was on hand, too. I have pictures of Lanny scraping the track. It was just a difficult track. We made three runs, two of which were early shut-offs.”

Beckman’s best during the test session wouldn’t make it in an average field, but a 4.78 elapsed time and 299 mph with a soft tune-up proved to be better than average for the day.

“It would have been nice to leave with a 4.5-second tune-up, but the track just wouldn’t take it,” Beckman said. “I think it was a success. There weren’t the usual butterflies that would accompany something like this.”

Even the crew passed the test.

“It took them all of three runs to figure out how to make a long car run,” Beckman said. “The clutch program is different. When we got back after making a run, the guys forgot which side of the cockpit to go to in order to drain the oil.

“It was interesting watching the fastest Funny Car crew wrench on a Top Fuel car.”

Beckman’s test marked the first time he has been in a dragster since November 2005.