When it comes to drag racing, Monster Energy Chevrolet dragster driver Brittany Force admits she\u2019s a creature of habit. Be it qualifying or in eliminations, she likes to prepare for each round in a methodical fashion, not getting ahead of herself, but rather just focusing on the proverbial \u201cone round at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n
But this Saturday, as part of the NHRA season-opening 55th\u00a0Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., Force and seven other Top Fuel drivers \u2013 including five former champions \u2013 will battle it out for $130,000 in prizes, a special trophy, cowboy-style belt and bragging rights on the line for the third annual Pep Boys NHRA All-Star Top Fuel Callout at legendary Gainesville Raceway.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a unique event, two races in one at the Gatornationals,\u201d said the two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion. \u201cIt\u2019s just exciting to get on stage and hopefully get a chance to call somebody out. It makes it fun for the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the third of 16-time Funny Car champion John Force\u2019s four daughters admits the Callout format does impact drivers as they attempt to have strong qualifying runs for Sunday\u2019s final eliminations of the main event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t love it so much as a driver,\u201d Force said of the Callout. \u201cI\u2019m very routine. I like to know who I\u2019m going up against. But it\u2019s a great show for the fans and it\u2019s something different in our sport. We\u2019re excited to kick off in Gainesville, it\u2019s been a long offseason.\u201d<\/p>\n
Force begins her 12th\u00a0year in NHRA competition this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite earning No. 1 qualifier honors four times, Force finished seventh in the final standings, failed to win a race and reached a final round just once.<\/p>\n
Force is concerned that The Callout could somewhat impact her pace as she goes through a not so usual weekend due to the extra rounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s the mental load of it\u2019s the first race of the season, you\u2019ve been out of the car and out of competition since November,\u201d Force said. \u201cWe went testing a few weeks ago but that\u2019s different than competition, lining up next to somebody where every point matters till the end of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow you\u2019re going in with this extra race within a race. So that puts extra pressure on you. You only get two qualifying runs (on Friday) before you get thrown into it, and you have to make decisions if you get the chance to call somebody out.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo you don\u2019t get a lot to work with. It\u2019s kind of just taking a deep breath, focusing on doing your job like it\u2019s any other run really, looking in your lane. You can\u2019t worry about everything else going on. Crew chiefs are going to line you up, and you\u2019re going to call out the car you think you could beat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Force has most of last year\u2019s crew back for the new season, with one significant addition in veteran tuner John Collins, joining crew chief David Grubnic.<\/p>\n
Force hopes a strong performance in both the Callout as well as the Gatornationals will help set the tone for 2024 and the goal of winning a third Top Fuel championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely challenging,\u201d Force said. \u201cThe tricky thing about the All-Star Callout is you pull up there to make a run and you have to weigh is our focus on winning this run or trying to qualify well for Sunday?\u2019 So it\u2019s a battle for teams and crew chiefs to be able to do that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut again, it\u2019s just pulling up there with all the confidence that you could do it, drivers are going to have to step up, and crew chiefs are going to have to make some really tough decisions. But at the end of the day, we all want that win.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Callout, which began in 2022, has a field composed of eight finishers from last season. The No. 1 seed will get to pick their first round opponent. Then, whoever earns the lowest ET of the first round gets to pick their opponent for the second round.<\/p>\n
FS1 will carry a special feature highlighting the Callout Saturday at 9 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n
The post Brittany Force Ready for Battle in Pep Boys Top Fuel All-Star Callout<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated | Drag Racing News, Opinion, Interviews, Photos, Videos and More<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When it comes to drag racing, Monster Energy Chevrolet dragster driver Brittany Force admits she\u2019s a creature of habit. Be it qualifying or in eliminations, she likes to prepare for each round in a methodical fashion, not getting ahead of herself, but rather just focusing on the proverbial \u201cone round at a time.\u201d But this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91902","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"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}