Jack Beckman knows how to win races. He also knows how to capture a world championship.

Still, the veteran nitro Funny Car driver from California also knows adding a second world title to his resume this year is a little far-fetched.

With two races left in NHRA’s 2016 season – Las Vegas (27-30), and Pomona, Calif., (Nov. 10-13) – Beckman sits in fourth place in the points, 131 behind leader and Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps.

“We would be a longshot at best for winning a championship, we are just too many points behind with too few rounds remaining,” said Beckman, who won his world title in 2012 by two points over Capps. “I’m not saying we have no chance, I’m saying realistically we would probably be looking at second place. Our goal is the same as it has always been; we want to win at Vegas. Then, you get that in the rear-view mirror and you want to go win Pomona.”

Although Beckman would love to be in first place in the points, he did put a positive spin on the situation his Infinite Hero Dodge is sitting in right now.

“If there’s any upside to the position we are in, it is certainly that there is far, far less pressure than when you are involved in a close (points battle) where every single pass down the track could decide the championship,” Beckman said.

The DSR stable of Capps, Tommy Johnson Jr., Matt Hagan and Beckman are occupying the top four spots in the point standings, but all Beckman is worried about is his team.

“My teammates are the 10 other folks who wear Infinite Hero shirts,” Beckman said. “I want to take care of my teammates and those are the folks who are wearing the black and purple. Maybe our year isn’t going to result in a championship, but if we can close out with two wins the crew will get bonus money and I get to keep two more trophies and we’re going to feel good going into the offseason. I don’t think our game is much different than it has been for the first 22 races. We just have to figure out what’s the best tune-up combination to give us the highest likelihood of success every time we go down the dragstrip.”

This season Beckman has had highlights, including wins at Chicago and St. Louis, but that is down from his stellar 2015 season when he won seven races and set the national elapsed time record four times. Beckman finished the 2015 campaign second in the points standings.

“We had a phenomenal season (in 2015) and we probably had a few things that went our way in terms of race day breaks or luck or fortune,” Beckman said. “This year it doesn’t seem like those close races have fallen our way ever, but that’s not an excuse. We’ve had some issues with bellhousings and we still run a five-disc clutch and the five-disc clutch is typically two used discs and three new ones. We don’t have the beauty of having the same thing we ran last year, we ran out of them, so we have been continuing phasing in new parts and they just haven’t given us the same consistency as they did last year. It has been brilliant at times and we have struggled at times, and you can do that and still win a championship as long as you don’t struggle during the Countdown and we have had a couple of issues in the Countdown where we felt like the car wasn’t as predictable as we would like it to be.”

Beckman also acknowledged unpredictably is part of nitro racing.

“(Nitro) Funny Cars are inherently tough to go down the race track,” he said. “Given what that NAPA car (driven by Capps) has done over the last couple of months, that’s pretty awe-inspiring. They’ve been consistent, which has meant they’ve been predictable, and when you are both of those then you can be quick. They have definitely put together a high-caliber season and they’ve set the bar pretty high for anybody trying to catch them.”

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