Last year, the Winternationals were a nightmare for nitro Funny Car driver Jack Beckman.

The 2012 NHRA world champion failed to qualify.

Beckman is on the opposite end of the spectrum in 2016.

Beckman clocked a 3.888-second lap at 326.16 mph to capture the No. 1 qualifying spot at the season-opening Winternationals in Pomona, Calif.

“It didn’t affect us at all last year,” said Beckman, who drives the Infinite Hero Dodge for Don Schumacher Racing. “With the Countdown format you were going to erase that deficit and we wound up finishing first in the first part of the season anyway. It literally didn’t affect us, it just hurt our pride. As a hometown guy, man, it’s tough to come out to the first race of the year. I have lots of friends, relatives, high school people and I ran into a gal from junior high I had not seen in 30 something years. There’s a little bit of extra pressure to do well and it’s a little bit more embarrassing if you don’t qualifying, but we are over that now.”

Beckman had an amazing season in 2015, registering seven wins and two runner-up efforts, just losing out to Del Worsham for the world championship. It was the first season of Jimmy Prock, John Medlen and Chris Cunningham working together to tune Beckman’s Dodge.

“Last year when I didn’t qualify (at the Winternationals) I was still confident,” said Beckman, 49. “I knew we were going to have a good year, but I didn’t know we were going to have that good of year. We bent the car we had last year, so we unloaded the new car (at the Winternationals) and we smoked the tires and we smoked the tires and then we had an early shutoff, 3.92. Then we came out here and smoked the tires and we had an early shutoff on the second run. So, it has only been to the finish line twice and both of those runs were low ETs of those sessions. It is clear that Jimmy, John and Chris are getting a handle on this car. It’s very interesting because when you see somebody that is so good at what they do and once they start zeroing in and adjusting that scope and getting closer to the bullseye, you know great things are going to happen for this team.”

Beckman also talked about what a power wheelstand feels like at 300 mph.

“It’s interesting because what happens in these cars is a reaction time every time you go up there,” Beckman said. “You get to practice it, literally, every run you make in the car. Smoking the tires, maybe that’s going to do that 1-out-of-every-5 times and in qualifying you don’t pedal it, so you don’t get a lot of practice pedaling, and shaking the tires is the same thing. I’ve never had a wheelstand in 1,500 runs in a nitro Funny Car. I had nothing to fall back on. As that thing started reaching for the sky at some point you say quit. I snapped my foot off that throttle pedal as quick as it would possibly move and I kind of gritted my teeth as the thing was coming down.”

There’s no question Worsham flew under the radar to grab the world title a year ago, but Beckman isn’t overlooking any driver this season.

“It’s not just Del, because what Del did last year is certainly attainable for a handful of teams at least,” Beckman said. “Look at Courtney (Force), she didn’t even finish in the top 10 last year and I didn’t finish in the top 10 the year before and look what happened on our comeback. (Robert) Hight’s car and (John) Force’s car are back to running good and they are going to have lighter bodies coming in the next three races and it is going to make them even more competitive. Our own (DSR) cars, we know what they are capable of.”

Beckman also is aware John Force and his former renowned crew chief Austin Coil are talking again.

“That may not bode well for the rest of the Funny Car teams,” Beckman said. “It’s very interesting and it’s an exciting time to be a fan of the sport and an exciting time to be a participant.”

One thing Beckman isn’t excited about is that NHRA changed the rule for 2016 that when Pro drivers set new national records they will no longer receive an additional 20 points.

“It’s a poor decision,” Beckman said. “I’m entitled to my opinion and NHRA is entitled to make their decisions. That is a poor decision that has offended a lot of people, race teams, owners, drivers and fans. The one thing that has decided two championships, Tony Schumacher’s in 2006 and ours in 2012, and it has added all kinds of late season drama and you are going to do away with it. It’s now technically more important to be the third quickest qualifier in the heat of the day on Saturday and get one bonus point, than to set the all-time world record and back it up because it is worth nothing anymore and I don’t understand that.”

Beckman also acknowledged he’s not a big fan of the qualifying bonus points either.

“If A equals B and B equals C, it doesn’t mean C equals Z,” Beckman said. “The qualifying bonus points are exciting and I understand them, but they are way too high in proportion to a round win. If you’re going to give 3, 2, 1 points, you need to go up to 50 points for a round win. There’s no way somebody should be able to beat somebody first round at Indy and have less points than them. The math is disproportional.”  

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