Brittany Force’s announcement last Friday before qualifying for the NHRA Reading Nationals presented by NitroFish yielded a glimpse of what direction John Force Racing (JFR) will go when no member of the Force family is on the dragstrip.
John Force, sidelined since June 2024 in the wake of a brain-injury accident, said his operation will expand and continue, despite no Force-family drivers.
Ashley Force Hood is heading John Force Entertainment, and her sons with JFR crew chief Danny Hood, Jacob and Noah, are involved in Jr. Drag Racing. Courtney Force Rahal and husband Graham have two daughters and a third baby on the way, and John Force said he expects the girls eventually will be immersed in IndyCar racing like their race-driver dad. Former son-in-law Robert Hight, the three-time Funny Car champion and former JFR President, is no longer racing.
Both John and Brittany Force confirmed that they “are working to keep [the David Grubnic-, John Collins-led crew from her Monster Energy dragster] together as one under the John Force Racing umbrella.”
Toward the end of their presentation Friday at Maple Grove Raceway, team owner John Force – the 157-time winner and 16-time Funny Car champion – offered his vision for JFR, and once again publicly acknowledged he doesn’t see himself returning to the seat of a Funny Car. He said, “We’re building. I’ve always been a driver. It looks like those days are passed, but what I’m looking at is multi-car teams.”
He said he had leaned hard on Brittany, trying to persuade her to stay in the seat of her dragster. Ultimately, he said, she has a mind of her own: “Brittany makes her own decisions. Brittany’s my last shot, and I didn’t want her to leave. We’ve argued over it. In fact, we argue all the time. But she’s done a great job. I don’t like her talking about quitting, but I know she had a plan, and she got married and she’s done all that.
“But I’m going to grow my team,” John Force said. “I’ve already started, and I’m going to have more teams. And I’ll have a place for her when she’s ready. And it came up in the meeting the other day in dealing with one of her sponsors. They said, ‘We don’t want to lose her.’ And without thinking, I said, ‘Well, you’re not losing her. If I fall over dead, she’ll run all this stuff. But she’s an owner. She’ll be with you forever. She owns it all. The girls [including eldest daughter Adria] … I know they’ll all come and help their dad. They love their mom, and they love me.’
“And I never thought about it all them years. I never told ’em if I die tomorrow, she’ll keep this thing afloat. So what I’m saying is she’s got a job here to help me run it. They know this world. They’ve grown up in it, all of them. And so I’m excited that this will live on through them.”
