For those of you that REALLY follow the sport (read the PR releases, listen to local interviews, etc.) you’ll know that I am NOT a fan of this new “bonus” points system for qualifying. Briefly, here’s what NHRA elected to do: Each session of qualifying (four at all races except Indy, unless weather or other factors intervene) now will feature points for the quickest three cars. Low E.T. of each session gets three points, two for the second, and one point goes to the third quickest car.

Currently, final qualifying positions are awarded “bonus” points, with No. 1 getting eight points and No. 16 getting one. This system has been in effect for quite some time, with no complaints. “Recent” changes to the points system include eliminating any points associated with speed (national records were worth one round of points, and top speed of the meet was worth a fourth of a round) was done in 1990 in response to the rising speeds and fixed-length shutdowns (Connie Kalitta’s 291-mph run at Pomona really was the impetus…Tony Schumacher went 337 in the same distance years later!); reducing the round points from 200 down to 20 in order to fall more in line with NASCAR points differentials (it looked like a runaway points lead in the newspapers if someone had a 1,200-point advantage, even though that translated into only six rounds of eliminations); cutting qualifying points in half (from 16 for the No. 1 qualifier down to 8), done in conjunction with the reduction in round points. Realize that before this reduction, qualifying number one was only worth one-twelfth of a round; currently the same position is now worth more than third of a round win. These changes were done in 1995, and since then the system has pretty much been left alone, with the notable exception of the Countdown format, implemented in 2007 and altered in 2008.

My gripe with the new system (which could potentially award 12 points per race to a team if they qualify low each session, times the six races in the Countdown, which is 72 points, or nearly four rounds of eliminations), is two-fold. First, take a driver like Jeg Coughlin who, as perhaps the best driver in the sport right now, found himself sitting atop the Pro Stock standings when the points were reset following Indy. Though his car seldom is even in the top five in qualifying, his driving and good tuning calls on Sunday put that team #1. Jeg’s lead went from nearly two races down to less than two rounds, but we all knew that was the system in effect (the Countdown), so you heard no grumbling. However, Mike Edwards has nearly eaten up Jeg’s entire points lead solely with these new qualifying bonus points in only two races. If Edwards keeps up this pace, it means that Jeg will have to counter by winning more rounds than Mike for the remainder of the season, even though Jeg had a substantial lead going into Indy (which, by the way, he won). This new points system literally could take the championship from the most deserving driver/team! Second, and far more important as far as I am concerned, is that an unannounced, mid-season rules change that could determine the championship, and certainly will shake up the standings in the Top Ten. I have been an ardent NHRA supporter since I was seven years old, but I must be true to my own analysis of this issue.

Though I am vehemently opposed to this new system, I will do my best to put a good face on it. In fact, I am volunteering to work with NHRA (who implemented this change to both “deter testing during qualifying in order to make a better show for the fans” as well as to “provide extra excitement in the points chase”) to further stimulate this new points system. Throughout this blog I will give suggestions on bonus points and how they can be awarded; let me know what you think (don’t really let me know … just have fun reading the blog!).

Hold on, I need to come down off my soapbox so I can get myself back into “blogging mode”. Okay, I think I’m ready/ Llet’s pick back up in Charlotte, though by now I’m sure you know that we runner-upped last weekend in Dallas, and currently we are sitting in the pits in Memphis, having just pulled in this afternoon.

We were in town one day early for the Charlotte race, as I had an appearance at a local Lowe’s store on behalf of Mechanic’s Wear gloves. Actually, we took our MTS show car so we could show both the employees and customers what NHRA drag racing is all about. By all accounts, the display was a smash hit, and we may do a couple others to build excitement before some national events. I don’t know about you, but I definitely think NHRA should give me two points for that deal (someone needs to keep a running tally on this).

The following day I participated, along with Antron, John Force, Tony Shoe, and Ashley in the press conference for the race. I may be selling myself short, but I’m calling that one point, maybe 1 ½ (I’ll take whatever I can get).

From there I headed over to a local hotel to film some segments for NHRA’s end of the year DVD…one point.

We also made a trip to a local business in support of Cory Mac and Petey’s Promise, a group which takes care of needy animals. Good for the dogs and cats, one point for Jack (and Mac).

Doug Herbert put on his annual BRAKES dinner and fundraiser to help educate young drivers on good choices behind the wheel, and Rodger and Karen Comstock bought an entire table to support Doug. Jenna is still pissed that I didn’t bid high enough on the puppy (her new goal in life is another child or a dog…I say “none of the above”), but Pro Stock Allen Johnson just did outbid me. OK, who the hell am I kidding? I wouldn’t bid $500 for something that’s gonna cost five grand to raise, and Alan paid Ten Grand, then gave the dog to Bruton’s daughter Anna Lisa! So, no dog, but I believe it would be fair to get one point for attending Doug’s very important function.

Oh, before I completely forget, the six Goodyear tires that I have purchased in the past few weeks fall under a little known “tires for support equipment” points bonus, and they’re good for one point EACH, so add six more to my tally.

Well, we didn’t defend our title at zMax Dragway, but at least we got a round win before we headed to Texas. Hey, even though we only had a few days to get to the “Big State” (I have no idea if anyone else refers to Texas that way, but it makes me sound intelligent {unless you live in Alaska I, guess}). Just one more Charlotte comment before we move this blog to the highway, and that is regarding the “four-wide” exhibition passes: WOW! Maybe the coolest thing I’ve ever seen at a dragstrip; we hung out in the stands with dozens of other crews and drivers and just marveled at the “bitchin’ factor” of those two passes.

When we hit the road Monday morning (OK, you know better than that. It was more “lunchtime-ish” on Monday) we had a grandiose game-plan: We were going to cross several more state Capitols off our list, and we needed to be efficient to get it done. If life ran on my schedule, we could cruise on in to any of these buildings around 9 p.m., hang out a couple of hours, and then be on our way. The trick for us was making it to these towns, getting sleep in their local WalMart parking lot, getting up and getting all three of us on the road in the PT, and showing up somewhere before closing time. I have to say that lately we’re getting straight A’s in all categories.

From Charlotte (we saw the Raleigh, N.C., Capitol right before the race) we headed down to South Carolina and made our first stop in Columbia. I have to say that, being raised in Southern California, seeing some of the other areas in this country has provided some eye-opening moments of contemplation. For instance, I had always been educated on the Civil War (there’s an oxymoron if ever I heard) from the perspective of the Union. After all, history is written by the victors, not the vanquished. The South believed in slavery, one of the worst periods in this country’s history, and deserved to lose. But, after visiting many areas in the South and reading up on their history, pride, and beliefs, it appears that many of my conclusions were premature. That period in our history in so fascinating to me; how close our country came to being divided, and whether or not that would have been such a bad thing. If you go back to the Constitution, our country was set up to provide plenty of individual rights to each state, something that many of the Southern States were quick to point out as the reason for seceding from the Union. As big a hero as Lincoln is for preserving our United States, I suppose some in the South could rightfully think that he overextended his authority and started a war that resulted in more than half-million Americans dying…too much responsibility for me, and incredibly interesting debate material. Anyway, we spent Monday in S.C. checking out some Southern history.

Tuesday we got even more ambitious, planning out two Capitol visits in one day. Though I had visited Atlanta last year, I only was able to spend about 20 minutes there, as I was between appearances for the race. Jenna had yet to see Georgia’s State House, so we booked on down and checked it out. From there it was back in the RV, put the compass on “West”, and leg it to Alabama. Montgomery was next on our World Tour ’09, and it was worth the stop. I should note here that if we are counting Capitol visits, there are a couple ways of doing it. I suppose the absolute count is that of the current State Houses, so I’ll stick with that. However, many states still possess older Capitols that are still open for tours, or have been converted to museums. In many states we have visited more than one Capitol, and I think that deserves a few bonus points from NHRA!

From Alabama, we just kept heading towards Texas. Of the 1,100 or so miles that we travelled from race to race, I would conservatively estimate that it rained for 700 of them. Occasionally drizzle, and at times so hard we had to slow down to 35 just to be able to see, you’d have thought that at least the RV and PT would get clean, but I later had to do a double-wash on both of them just to see what color they were!

We weren’t about to let Mississippi escape our State House visits, so Jackson became the next destination for the Beckman clan. This was one of those states with an “old” and “new” Capitol, so we spent extra time sightseeing. Mississippi’s newer Capitol ranks right up at the top of my list…very impressive.

Let me cover our arrival in Texas before I pass out right now, and this will get me close to caught up with the blogs: We pulled in and parked at the Motorplex Thursday. The rains that we had driven through for the past few days had obviously been through Texas, and the campground area was a mess. We saw no less than three people who had buried their car/truck/trailer up to the axle pulling into the site. Once we parked, we headed up to Arlington to see my dad and Teri. My dad’s newest gig is goat ranching…sort of. I’m really not quite sure why he likes goats so much, but lately he could be considered “the goat whisperer” of Texas. Yep, my dad is into “goat-power” lately, and he has “kids” spread around the state. We went a few miles from his and Teri’s house to see the local flock (gaggle, pod, swarm, pride, pack, school, murder, group, herd, flight, drove…you get the picture) of goats, plus a donkey named –get this - “Fast Jack”. I can’t make this stuff up! After that it was off to the annual “Bob surprises Jack” dinner at a cool hot-rod themed restaurant near Arlington. By the way, I think you’ll agree that incorporating photos of livestock into this blog should merit a bonus point or two.

At earlier mentioned, the race went very well for us, and hopefully it showed we are getting back to running up to our potential. I’ll include some photos from activities at the race in the next blog.

I’d love to write more, but tomorrow I need to be up early and I’m totally empty on creativity right now. However, having a donkey named after me surely gets me one more championship point!

Stay tuned.