Don Schumacher Racing has mixed Friday qualifying results at Charlotte

DSR's Massey, Beckman second after Friday qualifying, while points leaders Brown, Capps falter to No. 12 spots

Spencer Massey

Photo by: Michael C. Johnson

CONCORD, N.C. (Sept. 14, 2012) - Jack Beckman and his Valvoline NextGen team continue to be the surprise of the year in Funny Car after producing the second quickest time on Friday's opening day of the NHRA Nationals at Charlotte Motor Speedway's zMAX Dragway at Concord, N.C.

Beckman and crew chief Todd Smith held the provisional pole in one of Don Schumacher Racing's Dodge Charger R/T Funny Cars with a best time of 4.084 seconds at 309.56 mph until the final pair of Funny Cars ran and Tim Wilkerson uncorked a shocking 4.048 (309.70) effort.

In Top Fuel, DSR was edged out of the provisional pole by four-thousandths of a second when Shawn Langdon of Al-Anabi Racing finished his run in 3.807 seconds (324.12) and topped Spencer Massey's FRAM/Prestone team (3.811 at 322.73) and the U.S. Army's Tony Schumacher (3.817 at 320.05).

Qualifying didn't go well for Full Throttle Drag Racing Series points leaders Antron Brown and the Aaron's Dream Machine/Matco Tools team or Ron Capps' NAPA AUTO PARTS team. The DSR drivers are 12th in their respective categories after two sessions.

Matt Hagan's Mopar/Aaron's Dream Machine Dodge ranks sixth and Johnny Gray's Tire Kingdom/Service Central team is qualified 15th out of 15 entries.

The event starts the Countdown to the Championship in which the top-10 drivers in each of NHRA's four professional categories compete over the last six events of the 23-race season.

The final two qualifying sessions are set for Saturday at 1 and 3:30 p.m. leading to Sunday's championship eliminations, which begin at noon.

Source: Don Schumacher Racing