After losing in the first round two weeks ago in Chicago, a mistake that briefly prevented her from winning her 300th NHRA round, Brittany Force responded Sunday as one might anticipate from a two-time Top Fuel World Champion. She defeated point leader Tony Stewart and No. 1 qualifier Doug Kalitta in the final two rounds to win the 12th NHRA New England Nationals at New England Dragway.
In the final round, the second youngest of John Force’s drag racing daughters outpaced Stewart by.007 of a second, navigating her Monster Energy dragster across the finish line in 3.694 seconds at a thunderous 340.39 miles per hour.
She remarked, “This is just a big one.” “I wanted to win for my dad because that was the last time I was in the winner’s circle with him. This one is devoted to him and all that he has accomplished in the past year (since he was hurt in a crash near Richmond, Virginia, at 300 mph). It’s been incredibly difficult, and we’re so proud of him. I’m just glad he’s here. Out here, I need him.
The thrilled team owner exclaimed, “I’m always thrilled to see my daughter win and get to celebrate with her in the winner circle.” “I sincerely hoped she would finish it. To the entire Monster Energy crew, congratulations. Today, the automobile was rolling. She set two of the fastest speeds in Top Fuel ever, and it ran down the racetrack on each run in the eliminations.
“It was an overwhelming victory,” the 16-time Funny Car champion exclaimed. It took on greater significance when she noted that I had won this race the year before, which was quite awesome. For Monster, HendrickCars.com, PEAK, Cornwell Tools, GRP, and all the sponsors who help JFR, she is doing an excellent job.
In addition to becoming just the 12th Top Fuel driver in the 75-year history of the NHRA series to win 300 rounds, Brittany tied Shirley Muldowney for the most event victories by a woman in the sport’s signature class by raising the winner’s trophy for the 18th time during her 12-year professional career.
In her semifinal victory over Kalitta, she applied an exclamation point by speeding to a track record-setting 341.42 mph, which was only a hair slower than the 341.59 mph NHRA national record she established in Charlotte, North Carolina, last April.
It was her second victory at New England Dragway, the all-concrete course where she won her maiden championship in 2017.
When she declared, “I’m feeling optimistic (and) believe we have a good shot at picking up our first win of the season,” at the end of qualifying on Saturday night, an apparently prescient Force virtually foretold the result.
For the 38-year-old and a Monster Energy team lead by David Grubic and John Collins, Sunday night was “mission accomplished.” She will begin the qualifying process for this week’s 23rd NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tennessee, in fifth place, less than 100 points behind Shawn Langdon in second place but 164 points behind Stewart.
“I’m so proud of all these guys,” the 2013 Rookie of the Year grinned, “and I knew we would get back to this winner’s circle.” There was a positive vibe throughout our entire team as we approached race day.
The story of Tony, who faced a Force in the final after five consecutive final rounds, was fantastic. Before the run, Grubnic informed me, “You’ve been here before.” Here, you’ve won. Simply go enjoy yourself. I was reminded of the reason we do this. We adore it. As my dad says, you have to drive from the heart.
Even though Austin Prock and Jack Beckman were still 1-2 in the Mission Foods driver standings at the end of the day, it was a disappointing and costly day for the JFR Funny Car contingent.
The unpredictable actions of a Cornwell Tools Chevy SS that has taken on a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality type once more enraged Prock. His national record-holding Chevy mysteriously lost traction as soon as the reigning series champion hit the throttle against No. 16 qualifier Buddy Hull, leaving him upset in round one after qualifying No. 1 for the seventeenth time in twenty-seven starts since switching from Top Fuel to Funny Car.
Regarding the result, Prock expressed frustration. “Everyone is. That was the last thing I was expecting, and I guarantee you (it) was the last thing my team was expecting. We don’t blast the tires off at the hit. I can’t tell you the last time it did that.
“I got it to recover (but) it just wasn’t enough,” he said, “so we’ll regroup and go to Bristol. But this stings, for sure. We had a wonderful race vehicle this weekend and the weather conditions were going in our favor to go to another final round and fight for another win, and we fouled it up.”
Nevertheless, Prock at least was able to avoid the disaster that befell Beckman who was unhurt when his PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevy drove into the guard wall in a failed attempt to chase down Spencer Hyde in the semifinals.
“I’m fine,” Beckman said after climbing out of the wreckage. “My feelings are hurt, our race car is hurt and we’re still not quite sure what happened, but I’m not hurt. I’ve never had anything like that happen, but the safety equipment did its job. Thank you to Simpson and everybody that’s helped us with the safety gear. We’ll rebound. We’ll unload our spare car, which is last year’s PEAK Chevy SS, and we’ll be back in Bristol and ready to win again I promise you.”
Leave a Reply