NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

A pair of two-time U.S. Nationals winners, a pair of old teammates, a pair of dads, and a pair of drivers with multiple cars in their camps are set to compete in Sunday’s PlayNHRA Funny Car All-Star Callout after a spirited session of first-round callouts Saturday morning of the Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals in the Top Eliminator Club at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Jack Beckman, who this weekend is running a 1996 John Force tribute car, had the first callout and even though Beckman’s encyclopedic knowledge of the sport spans decades, his pick for round one only required his memory to go back two weeks,

“In Brainerd, I thought we had the hottest car on the premises, this guy comes up and whoops our ass, and some cones jumped out in front of me, so I want a little retribution. I'm going to call out my buddy Chad Green.

Being called out first was not a surprise to Green.

“I was standing second in line backstage behind Jack because I was expecting to get called out first, and, you know, by the performance of our car lately, that's kind of what I was expecting,” he admitted. “But I'm hoping that we got a surprise for him today. We got lucky against him last week in Brainerd, but we want to beat them heads-up today,

Matt Hagan, winner two weeks ago in Brainerd, called out Spencer Hyde, for tactical and compassionate reasons for the expectant father.

“I guess he’s got some cribs and baby toys to put together, so we're hoping to send him home a little bit early today, and make sure he has time to put all these things together. I’m a dad – I’ve got four kinds – so I understand”

Asked which was tougher, racing the four-time world champ or being a father, Hyde responded cleverly, “Probably becoming a dad; Hagan's not that tough. No, I'm just kidding. They’ve got a they got a really good hot rod over there; they proved that last week in Brainerd. But it’s Indy. It's going to be hot. It's going to be anybody's drag race, and I got Jim Head in my corner. That guy knows how to uncork one every now and again.”

Ron Capps, who had some truly memorable Indy weekends, including a pair of Big Bud shootout wins, called out Alexis DeJoria for multiple reasons, not the least of which was to force a first-round matchup of the two guys without a pick, J.R. Todd and Austin Prock.

“This one is kind of twofold,” Capps explained. “I want to see the other matchup that's left, but also the driver I’ calling out and I have had great matchups in final rounds. Alexis is one of my old teammates, and we always get up for racing each other. Two great teams, and we got the best seats in the house. I can't talk any trash about her. I'd love to be able to talk some trash. We just we're two of the same kind. We love the same heavy metal bands, so we're going to look to get it on tomorrow.

“I knew he was going to pick me,” responded DeJoria. “Why? Because he's been a thorn in my side. We've been racing each other for a long time, back and forth. We've thrown down some good finals, but yeah, we’re due. Thank you for picking me. Are you shaking? Are you nervous?”

That left Todd, who won the race back-to-back in 2017-18, and Prock, who’s won the last two U.S. Nationals.

“I kind of figured this is going to be the scenario,” said Todd. The last couple of years I've been in the Callout, I haven't had the chance to call out or be called out. I've been coming to this race since 1993, and the Big Bud Shootout on Sunday. That was always like one of the coolest things, seeing the Funny Cars lined up there on the starting line taking the group photo, and now being a part of it, it'd be really cool to win it.”

“Our package just works really great here,” said Prock, “and this race team has really turned this Ford Racing Mustang around. We’ve earned the most points out of any Funny Car in the last nine races, and we're really getting hot when it counts, so I'm looking forward to this. These big first-round matchups are what I live for.”

The big-money bonus race awards the winner $80,000. The first round of the Funny Car All-Star Callout takes place at 12:45 p.m. ET on Sunday, with the semifinals at 2:15 p.m. and the final round at 3:40 p.m. A special broadcast of the Callout takes place on FS1 at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday.