“I screwed up last week,” admitted Beckman. “I had a car that could win the race, but I gave it away in the final. You never want to do that, so this is a little bit of redemption. Getting that trophy for the crew means everything.

“Racing Frank Hawley was huge. Like I said, it’s like a Little League pitcher that’s just a huge fan of the sport, and they bring up Mickey Mantle to play ball with you. Frank’s meant so much to this sport, and having him back in this sport is only going to make it better. Of course, the last thing we needed was another tough Funny Car out here. I was so happy for him when he won his rounds, and he was happy for me up until the final round, so that was cool. It was just a fairy-tale weekend.”

Beckman, like Dixon a winner earlier this season in Phoenix and winless since, reached his second straight final round and his third in the last five races after a disappointing string of events where he failed to reach the second round in six events and did not qualify at three others. Beckman, who clinched his spot in the Countdown playoffs in eliminations, powered his Tommy Delago- and Johnny West-tuned Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge past points leader Tim Wilkerson, 14-time world champ John Force, and 1992 champ and low qualifier Cruz Pedregon in the semifinals.

“Closing out a spot in the top 10 is good,” added Beckman. “We go into Indy a little bit more relaxed. The crew gave me such a great, consistent race car. A couple of times, it wanted to move over toward the centerline, but it was a pretty smooth car all weekend long. We just stunk in the middle part of the season — nine races without a round-win. We had to kind of take a couple of steps backward to kind of start picking away at this. We’ve been consistent for a few races. Now, I think we’re starting to get quick, and I think if we can take that into cold-weather tracks, we will be contending for the championship.”

“We did a good job today, but we were also pretty fortunate. You don’t expect Kurt Johnson and Dave Connolly to go red against you, but we’ll take it,” Coughlin said. “Our car was struggling, we qualified 11th, and we knew we’d have our work cut out for us. The last couple of weeks, we’ve kind of been on that end of the qualifying, but we’ve been real strong on race day, so my hopes were still high. I have a lot of confidence in this team, and I felt we’d be a top-five team on Sunday.

“We need to carry this momentum into the Countdown. Indy is the biggest race of the year, no question about it, but come Charlotte [the inaugural NHRA Carolinas Nationals], we’re running for the POWERade world championship, and we want to win a fifth championship. We’ve got all the ingredients to make that happen, even against the likes of Allen Johnson, KB Racing, and Warren Johnson and that group. We’re poised, and we’re ready to fire. We’re getting that look back in our eye.”

Connolly, who began the season five races late while pursuing sponsorship, moved his Charter Communications Cobalt past Gaines and Mike Edwards in points, leapfrogging from eighth place to sixth. He put a dagger into the heart of longtime rival Warren Johnson’s playoff hopes by beating “the Professor” in round one, then defeated low qualifier and points leader Greg Anderson on a holeshot, the 42nd such driver-crucial victory in his career. In the semifinals, Connolly aced Dodge runner Allen Johnson to reach his 35th Pro Stock final.

Matt Smith

The Pro Stock Motorcycle final round was a rematch of Smith's and Sampey's clash in Brainerd, where Sampey’s bike refused to fire due to a faulty cam sensor and Smith soloed to victory. Though she made it to the line this time, the results were the same, with Smith flashing to victory, the 10th of his career, 6.98 to 7.06.

Defending world champ Smith, who moved past points leader Andrew Hines when the latter fouled in round one, rode his Nitro Fish Buell past Paul Gast, Craig Treble, and Steve Johnson to reach his 19th final round.

Sampey, who scored the first win of her career at this event in 1996 but has not won a national event in more than two years, since she beat Smith in the final in Columbus, Ohio, in 2006, raced from seventh place to fourth in points, rebounding from her Brainerd disappointment to reach the final again -- her 10th in 13 appearances at this event -- with her Rush Racing Buell. She trailered Wes Wells, Chris Rivas, and Karen Stoffer to make it to the money round, the 68th of her career. Stoffer did herself a huge favor by reaching the semifinals with her GEICO Suzuki, crashing into a provisional playoff berth and moving Hector Arana to the outside with one race to go.

Lucas Oil Sportsman titles were won by Marty Thacker (Top Alcohol Dragster), Frank Manzo (Top Alcohol Funny Car, the 77th win of his career and ninth straight at this event), Dan Fletcher (Super Stock, his 53rd win), Anthony Fetch (Stock), Jeff Strickland (Super Comp), and Iggie Boicesco (Super Gas).

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