Jack Beckman 1-on-1 Interview Ahead of US Nationals Return

the 70th edition of the US Nationals is sponsored by Peak Peak original Equipment Technology matches all vehicle manufacturers any free technology requirements and Peak has the perfect match for your vehicle with their line of Premium coolant specifically designed to match the technology and color requirements as well as easy to read color cues on the packaging and label and a list of covered Vehicles make it easy to identify the right match for your ride find out more information about all Peak an freezing coolant at Peak auto.com or using the link below and be sure to sign up for our Peak us Nationals giveaway contest we're giving away three Swag Bags from our friends at Peak Performance winners will be announced during Monday's recap video following the 70th edition of the US Nationals a link to the form will be provided below all right so we're here with Jack Beckman you have graciously led us into your home away from home this week and as you get set for the 70th edition of the US Nationals first question I got for you does it even feel real yet that you're the one that's going to be driving this car it's starting to but but I'll clarify something I didn't let you in here they had to open the doors to let me in here yeah this this is John Force Racing here and you know I had 14 years driving at Don Schumacher racing and their headquarters is right down the road and if you were doing an aerial view they are the two biggest race shops that drag Racing's seen and yeah I still pinch myself every day you know you talked about those 14 years you spent with Don Schumacher racing you spent your entire career chasing this car as well as Robert right down the street from here you finished third in the championship when John won his last back in 13 does it feel kind of surreal now that you've gone from chasing it to the one that's sitting behind it you know I had a an enviable record against John head to- head and I got asked many times why and and my stock answer is in most most of those races I had the quicker car you know the crew chiefs give you a tuneup your job as a driver is don't screw up that tuneup but I also think that all these people would get intimidated against John they'd get worked up they'd want to fight they they just get in their own heads and make mistakes I loved pulling up next to John Force I just felt like this is something I could tell my grandkids that I got to race against that man and then remember I've been sitting on the sidelines fixing elevators for almost 4 years so when the call came one of course you're going to jump at that opportunity I I mean who wouldn't um two is I know I'm not replacing John Force I I get that there's just no replacing that guy there's been a lot of phenomenal drag racers over the years there's only one John Force I'm getting to drive John's car and my jobs do the best that I can I'm not going to let that get in my head and you talked about you know those four years you spent as a surface elevator you know take me back to 2020 Fox played the interview that you had back at the end of Vegas at the end of the season you talked about you not knowing if you're going to be back at this when you left that track knowing that you were out of a ride going the next year and did you ever think that you were going to be back in this position yes and that thought diminished every month that I wasn't I'm not great at marketing um but I thought maybe something would open up but out of sight out of mind and when you're not out there driv in a car I let my license expire I just saw myself getting further and further away from a chance to get back in the cockpit there was an opportunity to get back in a dragster for two races last year but NHRA had just rescinded the co policy which is you can have replacement driver for I believe it was two races and so that opportunity went away and I really thought that probably was my last harra and then Not only was it surprising when I got the phone call this year but then to find out there's a new driver replacement policy in effect and it's eight races and at the time I got the phone call there were 10 races left on the tour but for me to get my medical get licensed and get to that first race at that time would have been Seattle was doable but it was Monumental and then Robert height called me back he said change a plan eight races we just found out about the policy that would bring you back at Brainard we can go license you at Norwalk Night Under Fire gives us a little bit of breathing room I got to make sure sponsors family everybody's on board with this so just stand stand down for a little bit and then you asked if this felt real going to Norwalk didn't feel real I fixed elevators the day before I fixed elevators two days after that going to brainer once I started getting into the rhythm of the qualifying back to where I was used to it was it was going to work it started feeling real and you talked about you know you went back to Norwalk your first runs in this car again were less than a month ago at Night Under Fire then you went to Brainard and you did a pretty good job I would say at that race as well now you're going to us Nationals then you're told go win it's the championship no pressure right so I'm a I'm a big fan and an employee of the Frank Holly School of drag racing and the way you think about things affects the way you handle things right so pressure is often self-induced right the the pressure of throwing that complete pass on fourth down in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl is no more pressure than throwing a complete pass in preseason scrimmage but if you think it is you might screw it up by putting undue pressure on yourself in a perfect world I won't let that happen in the real world that does happen so my goal is just to manage it the best I can I'm still Rusty I'm still a little bit behind the car I haven't had any race Day Tire Shake Tire smoke opportunities where I get to react to what the car does and I hadn't practice reaction times in 3 and 1/2 years I'm going to keep working on that stuff to the best of my ability to get better and better so we'll have Indie which is the biggest race of the Year there there's no necessary incentive to win Indie Indie is its own incentive then we're going to reset the points and you got six races in the playoffs and you need to play airfree baseball here so when I walked in here I ran into your son jack I have been in contact with him the last couple months he's done some design work for me in the past including the us we call him Jason but that's okay I get confused with you s like time sorry so I walked in here and saw him and when you got announced for this ride or I was hearing speculation you're going to be won this ride I found this old picture from 2007 you walked out onto the stage holding him as an infant with a sign sign on his shirt saying get well soon John does it make it any more special that now you get to come back in this Sport and now they're old enough to the point where they're involved with the sport as well because Jason himself is working on Chris king's car somebody who you're going to be racing this week and does it make it that more special that they get to be here and be involved in this activity so I had completely forgotten about that sure it was a onesie that we had made uh JN had just got injured in Dallas yeah and Jason was wearing that get wellson wow I had completely forgotten about that well there you go I've Loved John for a long time right I'm not a I'm not a Johnny come lately to being a John Forest fan by the way I really am a John my birth St it says John Russell Beckman um yeah I think it is special cuz my son was raised around drag racing so I don't think he appreciated that much it was just what Dad did for a living and and it was always available so if you live right next to Disneyland doesn't seem like that big a deal right if you got got to travel across country and sacrifice something all of a sudden it seems like a big deal so he's now starting to get a little more appreciative of it he's hardcore NASCAR guy and I that's I'm fine with that I don't care I just want him to be passionate about something um he's here this weekend wearing a John Forest Peak Chevrolet shirt I think that's pretty cool and then another question I got for you too you know we talked about you're being thrust into a position to go try and win a championship what would it mean to you to win JN a 7 championship in the NH and I believe 18th overall with the H one well I would say ask me after Pomona I mean that's clearly the goal right nobody says at the beginning of the year man we want to finish second that's our goal we we want to we want to go out there and win races and and really if you win rounds that same philosophy should enable you to win races and if you win races that same philosophy should enable you to win the championship uh we're going to have a tough road because Austin procs get a ton of those missions points that will add after the countdown reset and he'll carry those into the playoffs um and there's a bunch of hot rods running excellent right now so the competition is as tough as it's ever been but people said well there'll be an asteris next to this Championship if you win it for John I said sure okay whatever each individual wants to put on that I totally understand that and and you can do whatever you want to do with that but that is the rules package that all of us are racing with in it wasn't instituted for John Forest that policy went into effect during the last off season it was there specifically to help out the ladies that might want to be out of the cockpit for a while to start a family that's why I went to eight races instead of two but if we can benefit from that and it is completely within the rules and John can get up on stage at the end of the year and give Champion speech number 17 for NH um I'll sit back and just smile and have Goosebumps and just add on a little bit of that uh Ray harun Indianapolis one of 1911 500 he had a code driver no one ever talks about that so I don't think dri is going to be a worry um another thing I need to ask you talked about Austin proc you know over the course of the season I've talked to a lot of drivers and they've all talked about how lethal this funny car class is you've been gone since 2020 you come back just talk about how lethal of killers these guys are because as Matt Hagen put it to me back in Chicago there are no more gimme rounds in this class how are you experiencing that coming back here well I I mean I can tell you we we barely beat Bob Bod by 6,000 of a second my first eliminations round back and then I got left on an outrun by Blake Alexander uh in the second round so and and those two cars there were times when they may not necessarily be favored to win races and and they're right in the thick of the mix now and then a half a dozen others and if you look at reaction times over the years they seem to get better and it's not just that human evolution has made us react to things quicker the kuchies find things with the injectors with with the clutch discs with the with the wheelie bar setup that makes the car move that one foot faster recognize reaction time is the difference between when the Christmas tree activates and the front tire rolls forward far enough to reestablish the stage beam you can make them look better just by Rolling the car in further but your foot didn't move any faster my goal is to help my foot move faster and that's all taking place here and that's going to take some practice and right now Austin proc is a standard there and I tell you it's a tough combination you got the same thing going on in top field with Justin Ashley when you have a great driver in a great car it's hard to get past it but I know I got a great car my job is to rise the to the occasion you know with this now you have a great opportunity to showcase to all the team owners now including John Force Racing themselves that you still have a right to be out here that you can still hang with these guys even being away for four years do you still feel that this could open opportunity to where you can come back next year and further beond as a full-time driver once again uh great question Noah I've got seven races left unless I really screw something up right um and then at the end of the finals at Pomona this year I'm going to take a deep breath I'll still be fixing elevators uh when I'm back home during the week and if something opens up for next year that would be a wonderful problem to have to to to wonder what I would do at that point because for three years I haven't had that Dilemma to face so I don't want to get ahead of myself I mean this still is this is a second dream come true the first dream was when Don Schumacher hired me in 200 six and to get to have done it for 14 years I knew it was going to end at some point it probably wasn't going to be my decision and that's exactly what happened and I also reminded myself over the years handle it like an adult and and be grateful for what you got and I was and now I got a second opportunity so I'm going to make the best of the next seven races and and we'll see what happens in the off season and then last question I got for you this weekend marks the 70th anniversary of the US Nationals you know Indianapolis Mecca of Motorsports you have the big track downst J I mentioned the 500 earlier 1992 Allen Jr won the race for the first time and said in Victory Lane you don't know what Indie means as somebody who has won this event twice you have your name in the history books of the US Nationals what does indie mean to Jack Beckman more than just Indie um I think my first Indie win was the best weekend you could have in Drag Racing we won the shootout and we won the race I don't think it possibly could get any better than that but there's a lot of things in life that you don't necessarily appreciate how awesome they were until later so it's a fine balance in life because if you really get caught up in the emotion of it and enjoying it in the moment it also means when things don't go your way it's going to be a really tough thing to deal with emotionally so I think in retrospect my Indie wins mean even more 2020 the year the the world was falling apart we had four Indie races but only one was the US Nationals the John Force cars did not show up after the co uh restrictions came in so we didn't have them in the mix but I still treasure that win because it was Indie and it was against a lot of tough cars out there but the extra deal this year if we could win it is I haven't won a race since Dallas of 2020 I've won one round since Dallas of 2020 and this team has put together a wonderful race car they were in contention they'd won two races with John they had a low I think they need that emotional boost as much as I do and then also mention that now you talk about you won 2020 that means you are now still a defending us Nationals winners you still go two in a row this weekend I don't I don't think I'm going to be on the cover of the program but but you're right the last time I ran Indie I won Indie yeah all right so thank you so much for your time this weekend one last bit with Peak we're doing a giveaway for the US Nationals we have three Swag Bags that we're giving away sign ups for that now do have one question for you and there goes the shark hey look at this I brought my own perfect always he always comes prepared did you learn that from John too thank you Christine if you wouldn't mind sign this that way so I'm going to tell you guys something for 3 years and 9 months I've been jacked the elevator repair man I've never fixed somebody's elevator and they're like can I get a picture can you sign my so for 3 years and 9 months I was not practicing signing my name it is a wonderful opportunity to get to hang out with the fans to sign autographs and hopefully somebody will enjoy a peak hat and you know Peak has just been amazing to this team it's like you never left time Jack thank you so much for your time thank you to John Force Racing and pig for letting us come in here good luck this weekend and again if you want to win one of these including now the grand prize giveaway a signed Jack Beckman hat how cool is that sign up a link will be down below Jack thank you so much for your time appreciate you Noah take care guys