Photography: John Force Racing / Gary Nastase / Auto Imagery
JOLIET, Ill. (May 17, 2025) – With a host of PEAK executives and employees providing an emotional boost, “Fast Jack” Beckman powered the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet SS through the 1,000-foot course in 3.859 seconds at 332.75 miles per hour Saturday and will start Sunday’s NHRA Route 66 Nationals from the No. 1 qualifying position.
While it will be the 30th No. 1 start of Beckman’s Funny Car career, it will be just his second since he was summoned out of retirement last August to fill the seat previously occupied by Hall of Fame owner and driver John Force.
The 58-year-old’s bid to win a second Route 66 title to bookend the one he won in 2016 will begin with a first-round match against No. 16 qualifier Dave Richards.
Not even the fact that the crew was unable to fire the engine on the PEAK Chevy in the final qualifying session, leaving Beckman sitting at the starting line while Bob Tasca III made a solo run, was enough to blunt the 2012 World Champion’s optimism for Sunday.
“I don’t know, and I don’t want to speculate,” he said when asked what happened. But boy, if you could look at the faces in there when nothing happened. It was an electronic issue of some sort. The silver lining is that we stayed No. 1, and it didn’t happen on race day, and I promise that that won’t happen tomorrow.”
Despite the issue in the last session, the U.S. Air Force veteran had high praise for tuners Daniel Hood, Chris Cunningham and Tim Fabrisi.
“This is a track that isn’t run on much so (Friday) we had to pull the cars back (because of traction issues),” he said. “Then today it was 20 degrees cooler so our guys went back to the data and took a look at past runs on similar tracks in similar conditions and made a call and, for a driver, it is so awesome when they make a call like that and it does exactly what they say it should.”
Meanwhile, the other half of JFR’s dynamic Funny Car duo, reigning World Champion Austin Prock, will start his Cornwell Tools Chevy SS from the No. 7 position after throwing down a 3.910 at 333.58 mph on his final qualifying attempt and gaining eight positions in the order. He will race Bobby Bode in Sunday’s first round.
“We’ve been struggling this weekend but working hard to sort it out,” Prock said. “To go A-to-B like we did in the final session and still be able to go 3.91 at 333 definitely put a pep in our step and she was on railroad tracks. Definitely gives us some confidence going into tomorrow. We’re on opposite sides of the ladder with Beckman so hopefully we can meet him in the final.”
The Mission Foods point leader after back-to-back wins in four-wide races at Las Vegas and Charlotte, Prock hasn’t given up on three wins in a row.
“That would be huge,” he said. “We got off to a rough start here but as long as you’re in the field on Sunday, that’s all that matters. I’ve seen my dad win from sixteenth plenty of times in my life and we’re rolling off seventh. The ladder looks nice tomorrow. We can knock out some high contenders in the points and try and extend this points lead.”
After locking down the provisional No. 3 starting position on Friday with a time of 3.833 seconds, two-time Top Fuel World Champion Brittany Force improved her performance to 3.780 seconds on Saturday, but did not improve her position. In fact, she fell back as many spots as Prock gained and will start the Monster Energy Chevy from the No. 12 position as she chases her 300th round win. The 17-time tour winner will oppose Justin Ashley in Sunday’s opening round.
“I’m proud of this Monster Energy team,” said the former NHRA Rookie-of-the Year. “It’s been a bit of a rocky weekend for us. We really only got down the track once, but we made the show. We’re definitely going for (the 300th round win), but we want more than just a first-round win light, we want to win this thing. We’re in the hometown of Old World Industries and PEAK and we want to make all our sponsors happy and that would be getting this team to the winners circle.”
