Rookie NHRA POWERade Series Funny Car driver Ashley Force was voted “Hottest Female Athlete” by AOL users and now faces NFL Quarterback Tom Brady, of the New England Patriots, for the overall title of “Hottest Athlete in Sports.”

Force defeated IRL’s Danica Patrick en route to the title. Voting continues through Monday, with the winner to be revealed Wednesday.

The surprising part of it all is that Force had no idea she was even in the contest.

“I actually didn’t find out until I had already gone to the second round, and a girlfriend of mine that I had grown up with, sent me a text and she said, ‘I voted for you,’ and I didn’t know what she was talking about,” Force said. “And then a couple of other people sent me phone messages and texts and finally I asked the people at work – because we’re on the road a lot and I’m not able to get online very often when we’re traveling – and they looked it up and they found out. It was kind of a surprise.

“I didn’t know that they were even doing the contest, so I had to get online and check out all the different people that were in it – and I’m sponsored by Oakley and there were a couple of other athletes sponsored by Oakley, so it was cool to be in that contest with them. The fans at the races, once they caught on and were hearing about it, they were pumped up as well to have a drag racer in the mix.”

Rookie NHRA POWERade Series Funny Car driver Ashley Force was voted “Hottest Female Athlete” by AOL users and now faces NFL Quarterback Tom Brady, of the New England Patriots, for the overall title of “Hottest Athlete in Sports.”

Force defeated IRL’s Danica Patrick en route to the title. Voting continues through Monday, with the winner to be revealed Wednesday.

The surprising part of it all is that Force had no idea she was even in the contest.

“I actually didn’t find out until I had already gone to the second round, and a girlfriend of mine that I had grown up with, sent me a text and she said, ‘I voted for you,’ and I didn’t know what she was talking about,” Force said. “And then a couple of other people sent me phone messages and texts and finally I asked the people at work – because we’re on the road a lot and I’m not able to get online very often when we’re traveling – and they looked it up and they found out. It was kind of a surprise.

“I didn’t know that they were even doing the contest, so I had to get online and check out all the different people that were in it – and I’m sponsored by Oakley and there were a couple of other athletes sponsored by Oakley, so it was cool to be in that contest with them. The fans at the races, once they caught on and were hearing about it, they were pumped up as well to have a drag racer in the mix.”

Once Force realized there was a contest, she paid more attention. The fact she won still amazes her.

“I wasn’t thinking I would go as far as I did. I wasn’t able to follow it each and every round because that’s right when we were traveling and racing weekend after weekend. So I wouldn’t know, and then I’d get call: ‘You went on to the next round.’ My friends would keep me up to date. I didn’t know how long each round would be – seven days or two weeks, I wasn’t sure. So, yeah, just kept going rounds and the big joke going around in my pits was, ‘Man, if I win this semi and I haven’t even won a semi in a race car, then I’m going to be mad.’ Now, I really have my work cut out for me. I’ve got to catch up in the car.”

Force said this experience has been a light-hearted diversion for the team.

“It’s something fun for them and their family and their friends to check out, and a lot of their families have been voting,” Force said. “It’s been fun for my friends at home. My friends aren’t involved in racing but they always follow our racing series and kind of know what’s going on, but now this is something that they get to be a part of. They were e-mailing everyone their MySpace pages, friends of mine that I hadn’t seen since high school, they found out about it, and they were voting. So, it’s kind of fun, because of the people I ended up getting in touch with just because of this competition.”

Being the daughter of media hound and 14-time champion John Force, Ashley realizes that publicity is always a good thing.

“It’s fun to be a gal and to do things that aren’t the typical race photos,” Force said. “It’s fun to show the fans I’m still a girl and I like dressing up, and those were a lot of the photos that they were showing of all the different athletes – the fancy, out-on-the-town photos, and what we wear when we’re competing, so it’s kind of fun to see all the different gals in all the different sports they had in it.”