Dodge NHRA Finals Presented by Pennzoil
Event No. 11 of 11
The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Las Vegas, Nev.
October 31 – November 1, 2020
Highlights:
- Don Schumacher Racing capped off the 2020 NHRA season by adding three new pieces of hardware to its collection of 358 national event trophies and 18 world championships.
- Newly-crowned 2020 Funny Car champion Matt Hagan and Top Fuel racer Antron Brown won in their respective categories, earning the 67th nitro double-up for DSR
- DSR Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car drivers ‘swept the season’ by going undefeated in 2020 and extending DSR’s Funny Car win streak to a record 14 consecutive victories
- Each of DSR’s four Funny Car pilots contributed to the win streak, allowing DSR to finish the year occupying the 1-2-3-4 positions in the championship standings
- Brown and Leah Pruett earned ‘top five’ rankings in the Top Fuel category
- Mark Pawuk closed out his 2020 Factory Stock Showdown campaign with a third-place finish
(EXCERPT)
JACK BECKMAN
Driver of the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
Qualified: No. 10 (3.996 E.T. at 309.70 MPH)
The Results:
E1: 3.975 E.T. at 317.05 MPH defeated by Paul Lee 3.933 E.T. at 327.82 MPH
Race Recap:
Runner-up in the 2019 Funny Car championship standings last year, Jack Beckman and the Infinite Hero Foundation Funny Car team picked up right where they left off at the start of the 2020 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season. Beckman and the Dean Antonelli/John Medlen-guided team started the year with a win at the season-opener in Pomona, Calif., kicking off DSR’s undefeated season. The win propelled Beckman to the top of the Funny Car leaderboard, a ranking he maintained throughout six of the first seven events, positioning himself as a solid contender for the 2020 world title. Beckman visited the final round a total of five times during the year, and picked up his second triumph at the prestigious NHRA U.S. Nationals, before racing to victory at Dallas, earning his first Texas Motorplex trophy.
The 2012 Funny Car world champion, who had the honor of driving one of the Chandler families’ two ‘giving cars’ since 2014, entered the Dodge NHRA Nationals presented by Pennzoil in the No. 3 spot and within striking distance of the lead, but a disappointing first-round loss put an end to Beckman’s 2020 title hopes. Beckman closes out the season with 33 career Funny Car wins, and 28 No. 1 qualifiers.
Quotable:
“We lost the war, but I’m going to have to be comforted by the fact that we won a lot of battles this year. We won the Winternationals, we won the U.S. Nationals, we won at Dallas, those are all huge races. We had a fantastic year. We had a car that contended up to the last day. I can’t put a positive spin on losing the championship. I truly thought we were going to do this. I thought it would be the most fitting way as a tribute to the Chandler family going out, and perhaps the end of my career. I’m just going to have to step back and get my perspective and remain an adult about this. As disappointing as it is, it’s been a fantastic year. It’s been a fantastic ride with the Infinite Hero Foundation and the Chandlers and if it’s ended, it’s been a fantastic career.”
NHRA Camping World Countdown to the Championship Final Standings:
Top Fuel
1. Steve Torrence – 1015
2. Doug Kalitta – 822
3. Billy Torrence – 793
4. Leah Pruett – 754
5. Antron Brown – 709
6. Shawn Langdon – 595
7. Justin Ashley – 594
8. Clay Millican – 493
9. Tony Schumacher – 464
10. Terry McMillen – 436
Funny Car
1. Matt Hagan – 1020
2. Tommy Johnson Jr. – 915
3. Jack Beckman – 848
4. Ron Capps – 828
5. Bob Tasca III – 679
6. J.R. Todd – 663
7. Tim Wilkerson – 615
8. Alexis DeJoria – 605
9. Paul Lee – 464
10. Cruz Pedregon – 436
About Don Schumacher Racing:
Established in 1998 as a single-car Top Fuel team, Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) has grown to become the winningest organization in NHRA Drag Racing history. Including team owner Don Schumacher’s five NHRA Funny Car titles from the 1970s, DSR’s current win count stands at 358, and DSR is one of a very small handful of teams in the motorsports industry to surpass the 350 milestone. DSR owns 18 world championships in three different NHRA categories.
Headquartered in Brownsburg, Indiana, DSR currently fields seven professional teams competing in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. In Top Fuel, the Matco Tools/Global Electronic Technology/Toyota dragster driven by three-time world champion Antron Brown, the Mopar/Pennzoil dragster driven by Leah Pruett, and the Okuma/Sandvik Coromant machine driven by eight-time world champion, Tony Schumacher. In Funny Car, the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat driven by 2016 world champion Ron Capps, the Mopar Express Lane/Pennzoil Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat piloted by three-time series title-holder Matt Hagan, and in Doug Chandler’s ‘giving cars,’ 2012 NHRA world champion Jack Beckman in the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge, and Tommy Johnson Jr. behind the wheel of the MD Anderson Dodge.
DSR also campaigns two Factory Stock Showdown entries. The duo is piloted by Pruett, the 2018 Factory Stock Showdown Series champion, and former Pro Stock racer Mark Pawuk.
Follow Don Schumacher Racing at Shoeracing.com, on Twitter and Instagram at @shoeracing and Facebook.com/shoeracing.
