Beckman sent home fellow HEMIR-powered Monster Energy Dodge Charger R/T driver Tommy Johnson in the first round. He dispatched Gary Densham and Cruz Pedregon before meeting Tim Wilkerson in the finals, where his run at taking home a second straight Mopar Mile-Highs Funny Car title ended.

 
"The nice thing is it's Mopar's race, we put Mopar into the final in Funny Car, we're back in the top 10, and maybe we got a little bit of steam going now," said Beckman, who scored a win earlier this year at the NHRA Phoenix event. "And the great thing is you always want to leave Denver on a high note, because in two weeks it's bam, bam, two more races, and this is where we're going to have to make our move."

 
Mopar/Oakley Dodge Charger R/T driver Gary Scelzi shocked No. 1 qualifier Tony Pedregon in the first round, taking out the defending champion with a pass of 4.333/286.62. That was as far as the "Wild Thing" would go, as he was sent to the trailer in the quarterfinals by Robert Hight.

 
"Well, I was hoping we could have made a bigger move in points today," said Scelzi, who fell to No. 13 but is now just 39 markers out of the top 10, "but we learned a lot of things over last night to today. We found some power and we're making the clutch do some different things."

 
Scelzi added, "I know I keep saying I feel really good about it, but I really feel good about what's going on. We were close before, but we're a lot closer now. We're just figuring out that we're not running the Mopar/Oakley Dodge hard enough."

 
Ron Capps also made a quarterfinals appearance in his NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger R/T. Jerry Toliver exited in round one in his Rockstar Energy Drink Dodge Charger R/T, as did Colorado native Melanie Troxel in her ProCare RX Dodge Charger R/T.