Alan Youngblood / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
In Oct. 2022, Brittany Force, the daughter of drag racing legend John Force, set the national record with fastest Top Fuel run in history at 338.17 MPH at the NHRA Midwest Nationals. Later that year, she broke that record at the World Finals in Pomona, going 338.94 MPH. This past weekend, she did it again.
At zMAX Dragway during a qualifying run at the American Rebel Light 4-Wide Nationals on Friday, Brittany Force went 341.59 MPH in just 1,000 feet. It was the first run ever in Top Fuel history of more than 340 MPH and, again, a new record.
Not only that, during that same run, she hit eighth-mile mark (660 feet) in just 3.667 seconds at exactly 301.00 mph. That means her 11,000 horsepower dragster added another 40.59 MPH to the run in just 340 feet.
“We’re off to a great start,” the 38-year-old Brittany Force said after the run. “In Q2, this HendrickCars.com dragster went 3.667 and 341.59 mph. I didn’t know until I was mid-interview (with the FOX TV crew) at the top end that we ran that kind of mile per hour and it’s just something really exciting for every single one of these guys on this HendrickCars.com team.
“They work so hard,” she added. “My crew chiefs, David Grubnic and John Collins, and every member of this crew, and for us to be able to accomplish that together and hold on to that, I hope we hold it for a long time. It’s pretty special.”
Putting Brittany Force’s run at the 4-Wide Nationals into some perspective is the fact that it was in August of 1964 that Don Garlits became the first NHRA driver to break the 200 MPH barrier. It took another 11 years for someone to break 250 MPH – Don Garlits again – and almost 28 years for an NHRA driver to go 300 MPH – Kenny Bernstein in 1992. At this rate, will we see someone go 400 MPH in the not too distant future?
By the way, also during the 4-Wide Nationals, Doug Kalitta set the track ET record with a run of 3.646 seconds, while NASCAR and IndyCar legend Tony Stewart picked up his first career NHRA Top Fuel win, defeating Antron Brown, Jasmine Salinas, and Justin Ashley in the finals.