Despite the violent impact, Force was conscious and communicating with NHRA Safety Safari personnel before being transported to the ICU at a nearby medical center.<\/p>\n
Now, after months of physical and cognitive rehab<\/a>, the 76-year-old drag racing icon says his love for the NHRA community \u2014 and the fans \u2014 has helped pull him through.<\/p>\n \u201cRehab is the\u2026 I got most of the work done,\u201d Force said. \u201cBut rehab was what hit my mind, and it\u2019s a lot of work. And I was already screwed up as a driver, okay? As a person, like, people come in and go, \u2018John\u2019s nuts,\u2019 but that\u2019s just the way I was always wired.\u201d<\/p>\n Force says he doesn\u2019t remember the moments after the crash, nor has he watched the footage<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember nothing. You don\u2019t see it. I haven\u2019t really looked at the videos unless somebody puts them up, but I mean, why go back to that?\u201d<\/p>\n Even though he says he probably won\u2019t return to the driver\u2019s seat, Force has no plans to leave the sport that made him a legend.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if I don\u2019t drive \u2014 and probably won\u2019t \u2014 I love the sport, I love the NHRA, I love traveling the country going to a new town every week,\u201d he shared. \u201cAnd I hate giving it up because it\u2019s been my whole life since high school.\u201d<\/p>\n That love for the sport, though, is tempered by the emotional impact the crash had on his family.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if a doctor\u2019ll let me drive again. Don\u2019t know if I want to,\u201d Force said. \u201cI put my family through a lot of pain. My daughters that drove, they knew the drill. And my wife \u2014 it was like, \u2018You\u2019ve got to get well.\u2019 And that\u2019s what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite still dealing with lingering effects from the accident, Force remains active with John Force Racing, mentoring young talent and focusing on his team\u2019s future.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve got some young drivers that I think they\u2019re better than me,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how many people could beat me. I turned 76 this year and didn\u2019t know it. I said, \u2018No, 66.\u2019 They said, \u2018You\u2019re 76. Why are you driving?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Force has spent more than 50 years building one of the most successful careers in motorsports history, earning not just trophies but the admiration of a multigenerational fan base.<\/p>\n \u201cI really love NHRA. I love racing with them,\u201d said Force. <\/p>\n And when asked about his empire, he answered, \u201cI never thought about it. I never looked at it like that. I looked at one thing: get some more race cars, generate more revenue, take care of the sponsors, take care of the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n That relentless drive \u2014 and devotion to the fans \u2014 is what\u2019s kept Force in the sport longer than anyone else.<\/p>\n \u201cI tell \u2019em all the time: they\u2019re the ones that get out there and tell the story. And when you don\u2019t win, they still love the stories,\u201d Force added. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what other drivers go, \u2018Man, I stand out here, I can\u2019t get a crowd.\u2019 You don\u2019t do it overnight. You do it over 50 years. And that\u2019s how I\u2019ve learned how to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n As he continues to recover, Force remains as committed as ever to the sport that has defined him \u2014 and the people who made it all worthwhile.<\/p>\n This story was originally published on July 10, 2025. The post John Force Opens Up About Horrific Crash in First Sit Down Interview<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nearly one year after a violent crash at over 300 miles per hour, 16-time NHRA Funny Car world champion John Force is speaking out about the wreck that nearly ended his life \u2014 and the sport that still fuels his spirit. In a CBS-KTLA 5 interview, Force opened up about his long road to recovery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Drag](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/DI_flat_red-e1711481551475.png\")
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