This breakout season for Top Fuel driver Brittany Force picked up more momentum Sunday.

Force won her third race of the season as she took home the title at the Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minn.

Force clocked a 4.169-second run at 180.21 mph to defeat Antron Brown, who slowed to 6.566 seconds.

“It’s just awesome to be able to win here,” said Force, who had a runner-up effort at Brainerd in 2015. “I felt good coming into this weekend just because we had some success last year and I’m pretty sure we did OK the year before. So, to be able to come out here, we’ve been struggling a little bit, so to come out here and get the win it is exactly where we want to be. We go into our biggest race of our season at Indy (Aug. 31-Sept. 5), so we’re exactly where we want to be.”

Force, who drives the Monster Energy dragster for her father’s John Force Racing team, also has wins at Gainesville, Fla. (March 20), Charlotte, N.C. (April 24) and a runner-up performance at Phoenix (Feb. 28). Force’s victory parade consisted of wins over Terry Haddock, Doug Kalitta, Shawn Langdon and Brown.

“I have to say thank you to my entire Monster Energy team for all of their hard work and it feels so good to bring home another win,” Force said. “I definitely think this makes it a very special one (because of the people she beat). I mean all those guys we took down to get to the winner’s circle, none of them are easy. They’re some of the best drivers out here. So, to be lined up against them and turn the win light on, I think it makes the entire team proud.”

The victory Sunday by Force came on the heels of her not getting past the second round at Chicago, Denver, Sonoma, Calif., and Seattle. Force arrived at Brainerd International Raceway fourth in the points.

“We’re hoping we turn everything around and just keep heading up,” she said. “Sometimes you push the car and you want to try new things and you struggle because of it and you don’t turn those win lights on. But, this weekend, we got all four of them on.”

Force acknowledged losing in the 2015 Brainerd finals to Richie Crampton was fresh in her mind in her return trip.

“Being able to come here and go to the finals last year and not quite get it, we just wanted to completely finish it this weekend,” Force said. “It feels good to do that and actually this is kind of a new track to me. I I’ve been just to about every track on the circuit as a kid coming out to watch my dad, but this actually a new track for me in 2013 (her rookie year), so to be able to win here is pretty awesome.”

In the finals, Force was just trying to get the finish line one way or another.

“If we’re going to blow everything up at least get a win light, and we did that,” Force said. “I didn’t see Antron next to me and I had no clue where he was or what he was doing and I was going to keep my foot in it and then I just felt it blow up and felt the tug and as long as we could hang on until we get through the 1,000-foot stripe and it did and I saw the win light on, and I jumped out of the car and the thing was on fire, but we are in the winner’s circle.”

When the engine blew, Force felt like time was standing still.

“It feels almost like it is in slow motion,” Force said. “It has happened to me before. I’ve done that many times and you see the 1,000-foot and you’re just trying to get to it and you see someone come around you, and that’s happened to me a few times. There’s no worse way than losing like that when you can’t do anything and your just hoping your car is going to coast to the finish line first and it worked.”

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