With five races already in the record books, John Force Racing moves into the second quarter of the 20-race 2024 NHRA season at this weekend\u2019s Route 66 Nationals presented by PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant at Route 66 Raceway in suburban Chicago.<\/p>\n
This is an especially big weekend for JFR, as PEAK is not only the presenting sponsor of the event, it has also been the primary sponsor of John Force\u2019s Funny Car since 2015 and will also be the primary sponsor for this race on Brittany Force\u2019s Top Fuel dragster.<\/p>\n
The sponsorship of the father-daughter team sets up a possibility of a \u201cdouble up\u201d end result: having both PEAK cars in the winner\u2019s circle after Sunday\u2019s eliminations (or perhaps a \u201cdouble up\u201d between Brittany and teammate Austin Prock in the Cornwell Tools Funny Car).<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the latest from John Force Racing heading into this weekend\u2019s race:<\/p>\n
The most successful driver in NHRA history with 16 Funny Car championships and 156 national event wins is especially looking forward to this weekend\u2019s race.<\/p>\n
First, Chicago is one of Force\u2019s favorite towns. He calls the Windy City \u201cour hometown\u201d because it is also the home of Old World Industries and PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant, the primary sponsor of Force\u2019s Funny Car (and will also sponsor Brittany Force\u2019s dragster for this race).<\/p>\n
Second, PEAK is once again the presenting sponsor for this weekend\u2019s big race in suburban Joliet, IL. It\u2019s one of the biggest events for parent company Old World Industries and its employees.<\/p>\n
Third, Force is coming off a strong weekend in his last race three weeks ago, one that saw him set an all-time personal-best record of 3.820 seconds, the 10th-quickest ET in NHRA history. Force also reached the finals of the 4-Wide Nationals in Charlotte that weekend.<\/p>\n
Force has three wins (2000, 2004 and 2006) at Route 66, tying him with Matt Hagan for most victories among Funny Car drivers there. Interestingly, each time Force has won at Chicago, he\u2019s gone on to win the NHRA Funny Car championship in those respective seasons.<\/p>\n
Force\u2019s eight total final-round showings are also tops among Funny Car drivers there, as well as his six No. 1 qualifying positions.<\/p>\n
Force made history at Route 66: his 2000 victory over Jerry Toliver (June 4, 2000), which was his 86th\u00a0tour victory, moving him past Pro Stock legend Bob Glidden and making him the most prolific winner in NHRA history.\u00a0Force has since won 70 more races.<\/p>\n
Force is hoping to \u201cdouble up\u201d with his daughter, Brittany. They have jointly won the same national event in the same weekend just once before: August 15, 2021, in Topeka, Kansas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very important race for us,\u201d Force said. \u201cIt\u2019s our home office (PEAK is headquartered in north suburban Northbrook, IL.), but Route 66, where NHRA puts on that national event, is unbelievable. It\u2019s fun to race there, the access to it is great, the stands wrap around so that the fans can see everything. It\u2019s just a great place to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m also excited to be representing PEAK and Blue Def. And with myself, a Funny Car world champion and Brittany, a Top Fuel world champion, if we were to double up wearing PEAK colors and at a PEAK race, that\u2019ll be huge. We\u2019d love to double up, so we\u2019re going to be trying. And this is also a home race for my son-in-law (and crew chief), Danny Hood, who is from Chicago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always said Indy (U.S. Nationals) was our granddaddy of races and, of course, the world finals at Pomona. And this is major, just as big to me, because of all the things that we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a big event at PEAK\u2019s headquarters on Wednesday, we\u2019re going to have media all over town, TV and radio appearances, and then we\u2019re going out to the racetrack for photo shoots. So, all this is exciting. I love this race, the track and we\u2019ve run good at it. We\u2019re going in there with guns blazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, Route 66 Raceway is high on Force\u2019s list of favorite racetracks. The NHRA raced there from 1999 until 2019, then returned last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the concept of Route 66, from the old days of the highway (Route 66) that went from Chicago and across the country, all the way to California,\u201d Force said. \u201cYou never want to lose a race. But you especially don\u2019t want to lose one that\u2019s in a market that\u2019s as huge as Chicago. We\u2019re excited that we\u2019re back in Chicago because that\u2019s where my major sponsor is. That\u2019s where we need to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Force enters this weekend\u2019s race fifth in the NHRA Funny Car standings.<\/p>\n
Austin Prock has had a dream season thus far. Since switching from driving a Top Fuel dragster to filling Robert Hight\u2019s seat in the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car at the beginning of this season, Prock\u2019s performance has been nothing short of outstanding.<\/p>\n
He already has one win (Arizona), has finished runner-up two other times (Gainesville and Las Vegas), has been No. 1 qualifier in three of the first five races and has led the Funny Car point standings for the last two races.<\/p>\n
Not bad for a guy who is considered a \u201crookie\u201d in Funny Car.<\/p>\n
However, Prock is anything but a rookie. Prior to switching to a Funny Car this year, he earned four wins and eight final round appearances in four seasons driving a Top Fuel dragster for JFR.<\/p>\n
Prock, whose father Jimmy and brother Thomas are his crew chief and assistant crew chief, respectively, has a legacy at Route 66 that he hopes to extend. Hight was the No. 1 qualifier in three of the last four races at Route 66 (2017, 2019 and 2023) and last year set the current track records of 3.831 seconds and 335.07 mph.<\/p>\n
Prock is seeking to become the fifth different JFR Funny Car driver to win at the Chicago track after John Force (2000, 2004 and 2006), Tony Pedregon (2002 and 2003), Mike Neff (2011) and Hight (2018).<\/p>\n
Having grown up three hours east of Route 66 Raceway in Lansing, Mich., Prock is excited to have a number of friends and family members to cheer him on this weekend.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all big races throughout the season, but this is always a good one for us,\u201d Prock said. \u201cGrowing up in Lansing, it\u2019s kind of like a home race in a sense to have some family members and friends out there, it\u2019s always a good time and it\u2019s a huge race for PEAK and quite a few of our partners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being the points leader heading into the second quarter of the season, Prock is aware of the challenge he faces to remain No. 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some very challenging tracks coming up,\u201d Prock said. \u201cNew Hampshire is always a challenging track, you\u2019ve got Bristol, of course, and Chicago as well. How do we keep our momentum going? I\u2019m just excited to get back to the racetrack, sitting out of the seat for three weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, there are some tough tracks ahead, but we\u2019ve also done well at some other hard tracks in the first part of the season already. This team and this car have been really successful at all those racetracks. So I\u2019m looking forward to getting back doing what I love, driving this race car. It\u2019s like riding a bike, it\u2019ll all come back real quick, but we\u2019ve just got to keep our heads down and keep being really focused. So I\u2019m looking forward to what should be a good weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
The success Prock has enjoyed thus far has caused him to say several times that he has to keep pinching himself to make sure all the good he\u2019s enjoyed this season has been real.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year has just been a blur,\u201d Prock said. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy that we\u2019re already a quarter of the way through the season. It just seems like it\u2019s flown by and it\u2019s been a lot mentally to process and it just doesn\u2019t seem like it\u2019s really happened. So I\u2019ve just got to keep doing the same job I\u2019ve been doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been working so far, but we\u2019ve got a long ways to go. I\u2019m just head down, got to stay focused, can\u2019t get too caught up in everything surrounding you and just go up there and do everything one moment at a time and try to be perfect every moment you do something.\u201d<\/p>\n
After roaring to her second Top Fuel championship in 2022, followed by a challenging year in 2023, positive signs abound for Brittany Force thus far in 2024.<\/p>\n
Thus far this season, the younger Force was No. 1 qualifier and reached the semifinals in her home race, the Winternationals, in Pomona, Calif.; qualified No. 2 in Arizona, and reached the semifinals in both 4-Wide races at Las Vegas and Charlotte.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team struggled last year and we need to get our car back on track,\u201d said Brittany, who comes into this weekend ranked ninth in the Top Fuel standings. \u201cWe were lost all last season. I already feel the improvement that\u2019s come into this season, looking at what we did last year and all the testing we\u2019ve done this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re kind of combining the last few years and trying to create our tune-up that way, combining all the good from those last few years. But it\u2019s something you can\u2019t do overnight, it\u2019s always a work in progress. But this extra testing is definitely getting us closer to the ultimate goal, to turning on the win lights and getting us back into the winner\u2019s circle.\u201d<\/p>\n
A two-time No. 1 qualifier at Chicago in Top Fuel (2016, 2017), Force has one final round appearance (2014) and reached the semifinals in last year\u2019s race. She also set the Route 66 Top Fuel track speed record on May 20, 2023 (334.82 mph), but still is seeking her first Chicago win. Ironically, before he became Force\u2019s crew chief, David Grubnic as a driver was No. 1 qualifier at Chicago in 2004 and finished runner-up to Del Worsham in 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team is very structured with how we move through the season,\u201d Force said. \u201cSo we had a goal coming into the first quarter, the first five races, that we should have so many round wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, the problem is we\u2019re already behind, which is why we\u2019ve been doing (so much) extra testing to get us moving forward quicker than what we\u2019ve been doing this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brittany is excited to not only carry PEAK colors on her dragster this weekend, she also would love to double up and share the winner\u2019s circle Sunday afternoon with her father.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to coming to Chicago because it\u2019s a unique setting,\u201d Brittany Force said. \u201cThis year, with my dad running PEAK and me running PEAK, it gives us the opportunity for a double-up in all-PEAK colors, and gives us the opportunity to do something we\u2019ve never been able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on May 14, 2024. <\/p>\n
The post John Force Racing Aims for the Peak in Chicago<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With five races already in the record books, John Force Racing moves into the second quarter of the 20-race 2024 NHRA season at this weekend\u2019s Route 66 Nationals presented by PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant at Route 66 Raceway in suburban Chicago. This is an especially big weekend for JFR, as PEAK is not only the […]<\/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-93045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93045","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=93045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93045\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}