Two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Brittany Force announced Sept. 12 that she was stepping away from drag racing at the conclusion of the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series to focus on starting a family.
She had a weekend for the memory book at the 25th annual Dodge NHRA Nevada Nationals powered by Direct Connection at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
After capturing her 58th Top Fuel No. 1 qualifying position, she went wire-to-wire winning the event Sunday.
Force, driving her Chevrolet Accessories Top Fuel dragster, clocked a 3.704-second elapsed time at 337.33 mph in the finals to defeat Shawn Langdon’s 3.727 at 333.91.
“This win is a special one. Mostly the main focus is looking at my announcement I made in Reading in the beginning of the Countdown that I was going to step out of the seat,” Force said. “The one thing I was saying is, ‘I want to finish strong.’ And winning here is … We won here last year, so coming into this weekend, I did feel really good about it. But we wanted to end strong, and a win here is pretty outstanding for this team.”
This was Force’s 19th career Top Fuel victory, breaking the tie with legendary Shirley Muldowney for most wins by a female driver in the class.
“This race is now something more than any other race because it’s that number 19. And lining it up with the winningest female driver in Top Fuel, that makes it more special,” Force said, adding, “All wins are special in their own way, but this one now will be because we were able to do that; achieve that with two races left.”
Force has two wins on the season as she also made it to victory lane in Epping, N.H., on June 1.
“Friday, we had two solid runs and we’re currently No. 1, and then we held that No. 1 going into Saturday,” Force said. “Saturday, we struggled a little bit, but we knew that was a possibility. We were pushing to see what we could get away with, and we didn’t get down the racetrack, but we knew that we had enough runs. Again, we’ve won here multiple times. We had enough to pull from going into race day. We felt confident coming in today. That No. 1 gave us a great ladder. We had a bye the first round. Again, it was just focusing on our lane and seeing if we could turn on win lights. But our performance all day was strong. We put killer numbers on the board and especially in that final round.”
This was Force’s fifth career win in Las Vegas.
Force’s final race will come at the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., slated for Nov. 13-16. Force, who won NHRA Top Fuel titles in 2017 and 2022, is out of the championship hunt, but she did climb to fourth in the standings with 2,415 points. She sits behind leader Doug Kalitta (2,607 points), Shawn Langdon (2,463), and Justin Ashley (2,444).
“We’re not done yet. But again, I’m focused on this weekend, and when I get to Pomona, we’ll start over there,” Force said. “Yes, it definitely does help going into the last one [with this win] because if … Going into the last one, like I said, I’ve been wanting, we want to finish strong. And our goal was to achieve that today. If we got up there on that final round and it wasn’t our day, it’d be a lot of pressure going into Pomona that you want to get something done. And maybe again, it’s not going to happen. Our team puts everything into it, I put my heart into it, my team puts their heart into these cars and this job. And we try to do the best job that we can. Some days, it lines up, and other days it doesn’t.”
Force, whose Dave Grubnic/John Collins-led team had a first-round bye, beat Clay Millican, Tony Stewart, then Langdon.
“On that last run, it’s trying to find this place where you’re just in this zone, you’re completely focused, you’re not thinking,” Force said. “And there’s this pressure; it’s the final round. I have two races left. We have a great shot; we’ve had a great car all weekend. I need to do my job as a driver in the seat. And we have Shawn Langdon in the lane next to us, one of the best leavers, one of the best competitors out here. So, there’s a lot, but putting all that noise out of your mind, staying focused on that Christmas tree and staying in your lane, was my biggest thing. Focus on my lane and what I can do. I can’t control what Langdon does in his lane. Let’s stay in our lane and see if we could turn a win light on.
“I couldn’t even see him. I didn’t know until – well, I did see my win light at the end – but every run today, I couldn’t see anybody next to me. … I have a canopy on my car, so I lose a lot of side vision. I lose so much side vision. And it was just, again, stay in your lane and see if that win light comes on.”
Force is certainly full of praise for her team, led by Grubnic.
“It was David Grubnic, it’s John Collins. It’s every single one of the guys, … When I sat him down … before Reading, we had a team meeting, and I told [Grubnic] what my plan was. And then it was, we’re looking at this Countdown. And then we went into the Countdown at Reading where I made the announcement. At that point, my team – every single one of them, even David Grubnic, John Collins – every single one of my guys was, ‘Okay, we got to get you one more win.’ And it was this really … I don’t know, it was something really special. It just meant a lot that … For these final few races, they kept saying, ‘We have to win for you. You only have so many races left. We have to get you in that winner’s circle.’ And that just means the world to me.”
The fact that her win happened in Vegas wasn’t lost on Force based on her history at the track.
“I’ve said it forever, this has always been one of my favorite race tracks. I raced here in Super Comp and A Fuel, and for so many years, I wanted to get a win here because it was such a familiar track to me,” Force said. “It felt like a home track to me. Pomona is obviously my home track, but growing up as a kid, we came here all the time. I raced Super Comp. We’d come here, and I’d come and watch my sister Ashley and my dad race. And every time we’d pull into this racetrack, it just felt, ‘Okay, we’re home,’ even though we’re not. But it always felt that way to me, and it was always a special racetrack. And I wanted to win here so bad.
“Mostly because … well, the home feeling, but also because this racetrack puts on such a great show. It’s a win you definitely remember. The track’s beautiful, and the fans are just super dedicated. The stands were packed all weekend long, and it’s just a place you want to win. You’re in Las Vegas, there’s no better place to win.”
