In an event in which she has done everything except hoist the winner’s trophy, two-time Top Fuel World Champion Brittany Force tries to go one step further when she sends her Monster Energy Chevrolet back to work this week in the 40th NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park.
Three times the Top Fuel runner-up (2014, 2016, 2017) on a track on which her dad, John Force, won a record eight times in the Funny Car class, the 38-year-old is hoping to jump-start her bid for a record-tying third Mission Foods Championship after an unexpected misstep in the season-opener at Gainesville, Fla.
“That’s not the way our Monster team wanted to start the season,” said the NHRA national record holder for both time and speed. “But we still have a lot of races ahead of us, starting this weekend at Phoenix.
“Firebird has been good to us,” she said. “We hold both ends of the track record at 3.643 seconds and 337.92 miles per hour. We have a good team and a good racecar and I’m excited to see what we can accomplish. With four shots at qualifying, we’re definitely aiming for a top five starting spot.”
Despite the early exit in Florida, the 17-time tour winner remains confident in the course plotted for her by crew chiefs David Grubnic and John Collins, underscored by her acceleration to 302.69 mph at the eighth-mile distance during her final pre-season test session. That’s the fastest speed ever achieved at that distance, an indication of the team’s 2025 potential.
“We have four new guys on the team,” she said. “But I feel like we got into a solid routine pretty quickly during testing.”
The significance of a third series championship is that it would tie her with Hall of Famer Shirley Muldowney for the most championships by a woman in either of the sport’s signature classes. She also is just one victory away from equaling Muldowney’s category best 18 race wins.
In addition to setting the current NHRA national records at 3.623 seconds and 338.94 miles per hour, she is the record holder for time, speed, or both at 11 of the 17 tracks that currently host tour events, including her home track, In-N-Out Pomona Dragstrip, site next week of the 65th Lucas Oil Winternationals.
After serving apprenticeships in the Super Comp and Top Alcohol Dragster classes, Brittany made her Top Fuel debut in 2013, earning Rookie-of-the-Year honors. Although she was winless in her first three seasons, she came into her own in a 2016 season in which she won three times and, a year later, became the first woman to win the Top Fuel championship since Muldowney last accomplished the feat in 1982.
This story was originally published on March 19, 2025.
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