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Earlier in the season, Jack Beckman and his Don Schumacher Racing teammate, Ron Capps, swapped Funny Car crews, cars, trailers, just about everything.

Capps even got Beckman’s old crew chief, Rahn Tobler.

On Sunday at Heartland Park Topeka, Beckman and Capps switched spots in the winner’s circle, with Beckman posting his first victory of the season in the NHRA Dollar General Summernationals.

That win came at the expense of Capps, who had won the previous Full Throttle Series event at Atlanta.

Beckman, who posted his 13th career win in 18 final-round appearances, beat Capps with a quicker reaction time to register his first win at Heartland Park.

Beckman got too aggressive in staging with his Valvoline Dodge Charger, lighting both bulbs on the tree, but it didn’t burn him, with Beckman clocking a time of 4.158 seconds at 303.09 mph while Capps had a 4.107 run at 304.39 mph.

“I think I dodged a little bullet on the starting line,” Beckman said. “I’m not sure I could have beat him any other way, and that’s the irony.

“I felt like I drove really good the first three rounds and had a hiccup in staging in the final round that could have bit us. The nice thing is it’s easy to fix the driver. When the car’s having problems, it’s a little bit tougher to fix that. And now that we know that we’ve got a good-running race car again and can take that to the next race, we’re right back in the hunt.”

Beckman qualified in the No. 6 position and dispatched Alexis DeJoria, Mike Neff and finally Capps, the No. 4 qualifier, to get the win.

“That was my 13th win and every win I get now I’ve told myself, ‘Appreciate every single win you’ve, got because you don’t know if it’s going to be your last,’ ” Beckman said.

Beckman and Capps shared a conversation at the end of the track after the final.

“I went up and I said, ‘I got away with one there. Clearly I dodged a bullet on that one,’ ” Beckman said. “And you know what, he was happy for me.”

Capps made it to his fourth straight final round since hooking up with Tobler, and he took sole possession of second place in the Funny Car point standings.

Capps had started the weekend tied with Mike Neff, who lost to Beckman in the second round.

Robert Hight has a 179-point lead in the standings, despite losing to Capps in the semifinals.

Beckman jumped from sixth to fourth in points.

Cruz Pedgregon, the event’s No. 1 qualifier, went out in the second round against Hight when he crossed the center line and took out a center cone.

Rick Peterson can be reached at (785) 295-1129 or rick.peterson@cjonline.com or on Twitter @peterson_rick