BECKMAN FIFTH IN MEMPHIS QUALIFYING

MILLINGTON, Tenn. (Sept. 15, 2007) - Jack Beckman demonstrated his and the Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team's prowess once again, by qualifying No. 5 at the O'Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals, his ninth straight top-five qualifying effort.

Consistency was the key, as Beckman, fifth in the Countdown to Four standings, posted four solid passes of 4.915 seconds at 309.56 mph, a 4.873/311.99, a 4.851/313.73 and his quickest, a 4.832/313.07.

"I'm happy," said Beckman. "We probably could have gone up there more aggressive for that last session, so it's entirely likely we could have moved into the top two or three in that one. But, we got down the race track and because we didn't smoke the tires we will have learned a lot from that.

"We got four great runs down the race track again in qualifying and, I'm telling you, the pairings are perfect for us (for the Countdown to Four). It's like they asked me to write out the ladder. Mike Ashley (No. 2 in points), who just won Indy, didn't qualify. (Teammate Ron) Capps has got to race Tony Pedregon (No. 3 in points). They're the two cars right in front of us right now. This is awesome.

"But, again, if we just win the race, the rest of the points will take care of themselves. I'm really excited going into Sunday.

"It is so cool to feel this way on Saturday. And to back up even further, it was so cool to know after we made our first run that we had a great hot rod, and there was no chance we weren't qualifying well. I was confident we were going to go down the track every run. It's a high that's hard to explain, to have that kind of confidence in the car and the Mail Terminal Services Dodge team."

Beckman faces Jerry Toliver in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday.