Jack Beckman couldn’t have made the road to victory any harder for himself in St. Louis.

Three rocky rounds of qualifying, a narrow escape to a smaller, independent team in round one, a paper-thin .0012 margin of victory to the most recent event winner in round two, and a couple of close calls against his teammates in typical Beckman fashion, all added up to the second win of the year and 24th of his career for the boisterous driver of the Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car.

“Every win is special for one reason or another, but this one will go down as our team is in a slump and what we did was incredibly difficult with the way our car was acting,” said Beckman, who snapped a streak of six consecutive races failing to advance past the second round. “I had some pretty mediocre outings as a driver the last few races and you want to be there with your driving in case the car is not dead-on and vice versa. And, frankly, we were struggling on both ends of it.

“The car was smoking the tires and I think that my confidence got down and I’m not quite sure what changed. I think I had a good outing as a driver today and I’ve had my share of those that don’t end up in the winners circle. Today was just a perfect deal. The guys tuned smart, I did my job as a driver, and we turned on the win light every time.”

Riding two-straight first-round exits, Beckman entered the second race of the Countdown to the Championship looking for a turnaround as the 2012 champion slipped from second in the standings just three months ago to eighth following last week’s round-one exit in Charlotte.

But after a rocky start to the weekend with only one productive pass during qualifying, Beckman responded profoundly with four big round wins on Sunday culminating with a win over Tommy Johnson Jr. in the final of the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park.

In the deciding round, Beckman got away first and stayed ahead as Johnson’s Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger slowed just past the 330-foot mark and Beckman cruised to win number 24 with a 3.928-second pass at 324.51 mph. Johnson crossed the stripe with a 4.185 at 231.40 mph in his third runner-up finish of the year.

Beckman also added a big win over points leader Ron Capps in the semifinals to rocket from eighth to third in the Countdown to the Championship. Beckman again got away cleanly at the hit and watched his narrow reaction time advantage blossom as Capps began to drop cylinders off the line. Beckman ran a 3.954 at 319.60 mph to advance to his fourth final of the year. Capps had a 4.112 at 285.71.

“When we left Charlotte, we knew that our chances of winning the championship were predicated on other teams stumbling,” Beckman said. “You want to think that you can control your own destiny and win championships by winning rounds, but eventually there comes a time where you can’t win enough rounds and somebody else has to lose.

“When we saw the way the ladder lined up, having Capps third round, nobody had to say anything, but we pretty well knew that was going to be it for the championship. Let’s be realistic, the way that NAPA car is running, they are not going to go into a slump. We are going to have to find a way to outperform them.

“Yes we are leaving with the trophy, but there is still cause for concern with the Infinite Hero Mopar. We have to figure out what to do with this car to make it consistent. Then we can turn it up a little bit and make it quick again.”

Of course, Beckman’s championship-altering round wins almost never happened following two early round nail-biters. In round one, Beckman lost a spark plug 100 feet into his run against Dale Creasy Jr. and narrowly escaped with a 4.042 to a 4.076. In round two, Beckman and 16-time champion John Force locked up in one of the closest races of the year as Beckman pulled out a holeshot win by .0012 as Force ran quicker and faster to the stripe. Beckman won with a slower 3.978 at 318.17 mph to Force’s 3.961 at 324.83 mph.

“To the average fan, they don’t necessarily get reaction times and ETs. For me, I want to race smart and try to preserve lane choice for the team which means you stage shallow and it gives you the worst possible reaction times,” Beckman said. “You really have to be up on your toes and leave on time and to win on a holeshot that way is extra gratifying. Let’s face it, to beat Babe Ruth, that is never a bad thing.

“Then against Dale Creasy, he runs his career best ET and barely lost to us. To think we could have just as easily been done first round is amazing. But that is the great thing about racing in Funny Car in particular, an independent team can take one of the killer cars out first round.

“We dodged a bullet first round and then, fortunately, we figured out a way to start firing our own bullets for the next three rounds.”

With the win, Beckman sweeps the state of Illinois with his other win this season coming at Chicago back in July. Beckman now sits third, 70 points back of leader Capps, and 22 points behind Johnson.

“It is easy to drive well when the car is running well and it is easy to make excuses when the car is not running well,” Beckman said. “I am here to do well no matter how the car is running. But this certainly doesn’t hurt.”