Little points could be big for Beckman, Valvoline team as Countdown to the Championship kicks off Sunday

September 15

CONCORD, N.C. (Sept. 15, 2012) - Sometimes you just have to appreciate the little things in life. For Jack Beckman and the Valvoline NextGen team, the little things in life are the bonus points earned for their qualifying efforts.

For the sixth race in a row, the Don Schumacher Racing team will have a top-two starting spot when Sunday’s championship eliminations begin at noon at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C.

“That’s stunning,” Beckman said. “Now it’s even more important. The first 17 races were all about securing an entry position into the Countdown to the Championship. Once they bunch the points up those little qualifying points become exponentially more important.”

Out of four qualifying sessions, Beckman posted two 4.08-second efforts, another solid 4.13-second lap in the heat of the day and gained five points. NHRA awards points in a 3-2-1 system to the three best elapsed times in each qualifying sessions.

“I’m so happy that we continue to make good runs and continue to gather points from the sessions. We got those extra points on two of the runs and a little more for qualifying second.”

Beckman continues to keep his eye on the big picture, the Countdown playoff in the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. After the points were reset after last week’s event in Indianapolis, Beckman came into Charlotte seeded third for the six-race Countdown.

“We’re closing the gap on second place,” he said. “The thing about the points system is if you win the race and get 80 points on Sunday the little points don’t matter as much.

“The goal is to just win rounds but when you qualify in the top three spots you get a better first round pairing. There’s no gimmies in drag racing, we’ve won from the 15th qualifying spot but if we keep qualifying this high we keep stacking the deck in our favor.”

The following are DSR qualifying results from Saturday’s qualifying sessions and other notes:

FUNNY CAR
No. 1: Tim Wilkerson, 4.048 sec., 309.70 mph

Jack Beckman, Valvoline NextGen Dodge Charger R/T
Qualified: No. 2
First-round opponent: Alexis DeJoria

FRIDAY QUALIFYING
Session 1: 4.200 sec., 265.38 mph
Session 2: 4.084, 309.56
SATURDAY QUALIFYING
Session 3: 4.132, 304.80
Session 4: 4.082, 306.53

FULL THROTTLE EVENT SCHEDULE
SUNDAY: Championship eliminations, Noon

ON ESPN2 (times are ET, delayed)
SUNDAY: Qualifying, 2 p.m.; Eliminations, 8:30 p.m.

WEATHER.COM FORECAST
SUNDAY: High 79 degrees; 40 percent chance of scattered thunderstorms
About Valvoline
Valvoline, a brand of Ashland Inc, has been serving American motorists longer than any other motor oil. The Valvoline family of products includes Eagle One™ appearance products, Car Brite™ car restoration products, Zerex™ antifreeze, SynPower™ performance products, MaxLife™ products created for higher-mileage engines and NextGen™ motor oil, created with 50 percent recycled oil.
With more than 820 locations throughout the United States, Valvoline Instant Oil Change™ is a leader in serving the quick lube market.

About Don Schumacher Racing
Don Schumacher Racing, headquartered in Brownsburg, Ind., consists of seven professional NHRA teams: in Top Fuel, the U.S. Army dragster driven by seven-time world champion Tony Schumacher, the FRAM/Prestone dragster of Spencer Massey and the Matco Tools dragster of Antron Brown; and in Funny Car, 2011 NHRA Funny Car champion Matt Hagan in the Aaron’s Dream Machine/Mopar Dodge Charger R/T, Valvoline NextGen Dodge piloted by Jack Beckman, the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge of Ron Capps and the Service Central Dodge of Johnny Gray. DSR has won 191 NHRA national event titles and nine world championships.
Follow Don Schumacher Racing at ShoeRacing.com, on Twitter at @shoeracing and Facebook.com/shoeracing.

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