There was every reason for Jordan Vandergriff to be nervous about the assignment facing him. He was a young driver with one Funny Car test session under his belt, taking over a John Force Racing machine that had won the previous two NHRA Funny Car championships.
The expectations were enormous, the experience was limited, and there was no shortage of people wondering whether the rookie could handle either one. Vandergriff, however, had a rather uncomplicated assessment of the situation: No big thing.
“No, I didn’t feel pressure. I didn’t feel the pressure,” Vandergriff said. “I didn’t want to put the pressure on me because I felt it would be unfair to myself to put that pressure on myself.”
Well, somebody might want to check his pulse.
With four victories in his first Funny Car season, Vandergriff heads into the NHRA season finale at Pomona just 39 points behind four-time champion Matt Hagan. His latest victory, Sunday at the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals, turned what had been a long-shot championship bid into a legitimate opportunity to deliver a third consecutive title for the Cornwell Quality Tools Funny Car.
Vandergriff defeated Ron Capps in the Las Vegas final, running 3.873 seconds at 331.36 mph to Capps’ 3.921 at 335.15. More importantly, J.R. Todd eliminated Hagan in the second round, giving Vandergriff the opening he desperately needed.
“Well, this is the biggest one. Yeah, this is the biggest one,” Vandergriff said. “Today literally worked out. I envisioned it this morning. It was like, how do we need today to go? We need the second round to go a certain way. We need somebody else to lose. We need this, we need that. And it literally played itself out the way I imagined.”
Vandergriff had already demonstrated an ability to look comfortable in situations that might make others uncomfortable. His time working as a Fox Sports reporter gave him experience handling interviews, cameras and the occasional question designed to make somebody squirm.
He’s become particularly good at smiling through press conferences while insisting that nothing is bothering him. If pressure is eating away at Vandergriff, he might have the best poker face in professional drag racing.
There is, however, a considerable difference between holding a microphone and holding the steering wheel of a Funny Car.
Vandergriff had competed in Top Fuel in 2019, but Funny Car presented a different challenge. When he climbed into the championship-winning car during preseason testing at Gainesville, he was still learning the peculiarities of driving a machine with the engine in front of him.
The expectations accompanying that assignment weren’t lost on him. He knew exactly whose car he was inheriting and what the previous two seasons had produced.
“Well listen, I think I’d be lying to you if I said it wasn’t the goal,” Vandergriff said. “I knew coming into this car, the Cornwell Quality Tools Funny Car for John Force Racing that what they’ve done the last two years, that the expectations are going to be high. And I wanted those expectations to stay that way.”
He wasn’t interested in having the rookie label used as an excuse for mediocrity. Nor did he want the organization lowering its standards because somebody new was sitting behind the wheel.
“I didn’t want to come in and say, ‘Oh, he’s a rookie driver. He’s going to finish sixth or seventh or kind of just field the car this year and then maybe next year it’ll be good.’ I didn’t want any of that,” Vandergriff said.
His confidence wasn’t entirely based on wishful thinking. He understood that Chris Cunningham, Jason Bunker and the people surrounding him had the equipment and knowledge to contend for victories, provided their new driver did his part.
“I wanted to come into this race car with our new team, with Chris Cunningham, with Jason Bunker and all the new guys there and go, ‘You know what? We’re picking up right where I left off,'” Vandergriff said. “So I think being second, I mean that car was always first going into Pomona, but being second 39 points out with all the new people that we have and myself, I think it’s what I though of.”
That confidence dates back to Gainesville, when the still-green Vandergriff was still trying to establish himself in the Funny Car cockpit. He couldn’t know whether his expectations would survive an entire season against drivers who had spent years mastering the category.
“I knew I could drive well from my days back in Top Fuel in 2019. I knew I could do it,” Vandergriff said. “And so I wanted to prove to myself that I could drive the funny car well.”
The results suggest he has answered that question. Four victories in a rookie Funny Car campaign would be an impressive accomplishment under ordinary circumstances, but Vandergriff has managed it while carrying the responsibility of maintaining a championship-winning operation.
His Las Vegas performance required more than beating the competition in his own lane. Vandergriff needed Hagan to stumble, and Todd provided that assistance before becoming Vandergriff’s semifinal opponent.
For somebody who claims he doesn’t experience pressure, Vandergriff acknowledged that the opening round was particularly uncomfortable. Once he survived it, however, the situation became easier to manage.
“Actually, I think it was easing up. I think the most nerves I felt was first round,” Vandergriff said. “You got to get the first one. If we go out in the first round, then what are we doing?”
With every round victory, the possibility of arriving at Pomona with a championship opportunity became more realistic. Vandergriff said the changing circumstances helped him settle into his work rather than become overwhelmed by what was at stake.
“And going to the second round, I was like, okay. The second round was huge because I knew it was on the other side of the ladder,” Vandergriff said. “I knew that it was on the ladder that JR and Hagan were going to run each other. So I was like, well, something’s going to take care of itself there.”
There is another side to Vandergriff’s personality that doesn’t always come across during his polished media appearances. Apparently, the young man who smiles for everybody has decided he needs to develop a little more of a mean streak.
Earlier in the weekend, Vandergriff had said he wanted to “beat the crap out of Matt Hagan.” Anybody who has stood next to the considerably larger Hagan knows Vandergriff would be wise to keep that fight on the racetrack.
When asked about the comment after his Las Vegas victory, Vandergriff admitted he was talking strictly about racing. At his size, picking a fight with Hagan probably wasn’t his smartest option.
“Well listen, that’s just figuratively because literally I cannot beat the crap out of Matt Hagan,” Vandergriff said. “But that’s the mindset I want to have and it’s not for any other reason other than just competitiveness.”
The two drivers are friends, and Vandergriff has considerable respect for what Hagan has accomplished. Respect, however, isn’t going to help him overcome a 39-point deficit at Pomona.
“I think sometimes I feel like I’m maybe too nice. I don’t know. I don’t know,” Vandergriff said. “And I want to have a little bit of an edge to me.”
He got his opportunity to practice that attitude against Todd in the Las Vegas semifinals. Todd had done Vandergriff a considerable favor by eliminating Hagan, but Vandergriff wasn’t about to return it.
“So in turn, it turned into I need to kick the crap out of JR and we did that,” Vandergriff said. “So we’ll see. Pomona is going to be tight. JR is right there still, so it’s going to be fun.”
Now the championship comes down to a race at a track Vandergriff knows from childhood. He grew up in Brea, California, near Pomona, and attended races there long before he could have imagined competing for an NHRA professional championship.
The rookie who entered the season hoping to prove he belonged in a Funny Car has reached the final race with an opportunity to win the whole thing. He still insists there is no pressure, although the next few days might provide the ultimate examination of that theory.
“I don’t really know the points yet, but it felt like we were far away and we needed him to go out early and he did,” Vandergriff said. “And now we can go to Pomona with a chance. So that’s all I wanted. All I wanted was a chance. Even driving these race cars, all I wanted was a chance and I’ve got that chance and now I have this chance. So hopefully Pomona, my hometown, my hometown, I grew up in Brea right next to Pomona. I went to that track the most growing up. Hopefully I can seal the deal in Pomona.”
