It’s rare to see an NHRA Camping World Drag Racing team carry the points lead an entire season.
A bad weekend will bring storm clouds at one point or another, and yet, there are still plenty of drivers who have enjoyed dominant campaigns in the Top Fuel category.
In 2018, four-time champion Steve Torrence became the first to win all six races of the Countdown to the Championship. He earned 11 victories that season. In 2008, Tony Schumacher visited the winner’s circle 15 times in 24 races — the highest tally in Top Fuel history.
But in 2022, dominance looked a little different for Brittany Force and her John Force Racing team. In what was the best season of her nine-year career, Force thundered to the win light five times on her way to collecting a second Top Fuel championship.
“Comparing it to last season, we only had one win, so to have four wins before going into the Countdown was huge,” Force said.
As the regular season wound down and the Countdown to the Championship neared, Force’s main objective was to maintain the points lead — which she had held since the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals in July.
“We didn’t care how much, we just wanted that points lead, so when everything reset, we would be on top and be able to battle it out for those next six races,” Force said.
With her confidence high and the points lead resting with her Monster Energy/Flav-R-Pac dragster team, the 36-year-old had no reason to doubt her championship chances when she entered the opening round of the Countdown in early September.
She finally had a glimpse at redemption after coming up short in 2021.
“The playoffs were the first time you saw our team start to falter,” Force said. “It seemed like right when we lost our momentum was when it mattered. There’s nothing that will break your heart more than that.”
It was one swift hit after another, as Force endured a string of bad runs and failed to make it past the second round of eliminations at four consecutive races in the Countdown. While Force, crew chief David Grubnic and eight other crew members held fast to the belief that “this was our championship,” they were quickly running out of time to change their trajectory.
“You can’t just have great weekend after great weekend from start to finish. You’re going to drop at some point. We just happened to do it at the worst time possible. More than anything, it was frustrating,” Force said.
The frustration continued to push the team forward as it arrived at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the penultimate race of the season. With points leader Justin Ashley making an early exit in eliminations, Force bounced back to claim the Vegas Wally and regain the lead by seven points over Ashley.
“It put us back in the fight,” Force recalled. “Then we had to sit and wait for two weeks. I’m telling you, it was the longest two weeks of my life. For all of us, it was almost painful sitting there, waiting for Pomona to roll around.”
During the two weeks between the Nevada Nationals and Auto Club NHRA Finals, it was a constant “gut ache” for Force as she attempted to keep busy at the race shop. However, she admitted it was almost impossible to keep the Pomona finale out of her mind.
She spent most of her time running through the potential scenarios.
What if she lined up next to Ashley in the first round? What if it miraculously all went her way? Or what if they had made it all this way, just to go home empty-handed?
Upon arrival in Pomona, Force ignored the nerves, relied on her years of experience and the lessons she’s learned, while yielding her trust to the John Force Racing crew. This was her championship, she kept telling herself.
“It was a little anticlimactic,” Force said with a laugh, reflecting on the moment she learned the title was hers. “My team was back in the pits — we won the round and were going to the second round — my crew chief was up in his lounge and found out we won the championship by a text message.”
Her championship rival, Ashley, was defeated in the first round, solidifying Force, who won her elimination, as Top Fuel champion.
“When they announced us as No. 1, I was standing at the end of the drag strip with Steve Torrence and Shawn Langdon,” Force recalled. She did a short interview with Amanda Busick on the FOX broadcast, then scrambled back to the pits to celebrate with her crew. She added, “It wasn’t until 45 minutes later that I actually got back to all of them and we celebrated. Then Grubnic came out and yelled at us to get ready for second round.”
Out of all the scenarios that Force had pictured the last two weeks, that wasn’t one of them.
Regardless, Force had a wide smile on her face as she accepted the championship trophy, marking her second Top Fuel world title in nine years.
“I’m very proud of what we did last season. Track records, national elapsed-time (ET) and mile-per-hour records, but mostly the championship, because that’s the reason we’re all out here,” Force said.
Force set eight of the fastest speeds in Top Fuel history last year, also resetting the national speed record to 338.94 mph at the Auto Club NHRA Finals. But while the fanfare over performances like that is enjoyable, it’s not what she’ll be striving for in 2023.
“We want more wins than we had last season,” Force said plainly. “It’s wins, it’s qualifying points — anything that will get us closer to the No. 1 spot.”
Her win column last year might not match Torrence and Schumacher’s staggering numbers during their championship runs, but when people look back on 2022, there are five words that will be remembered.
Brittany Force. Top Fuel champion.