John Force didn’t do much celebrating in the days following his NHRA Winternationals victory last weekend in Pomona, Ca. Instead, the 14-time champion took the few remaining crew members still in Yorba Linda, Ca, out to a celebratory dinner. Many of their co-workers had already headed to Firebird Raceway for this weekend’s NHRA Arizona Nationals outside of Phoenix.

As the group dined, offering up a toast or two, a new crewman showed his confidence saying, “We can win Phoenix.”

John Force didn’t do much celebrating in the days following his NHRA Winternationals victory last weekend in Pomona, Ca. Instead, the 14-time champion took the few remaining crew members still in Yorba Linda, Ca, out to a celebratory dinner. Many of their co-workers had already headed to Firebird Raceway for this weekend’s NHRA Arizona Nationals outside of Phoenix.

As the group dined, offering up a toast or two, a new crewman showed his confidence saying, “We can win Phoenix.”

That’s when Force, the winningest professional driver in drag racing history, counseled his employee, “Don’t get cocky.”

Undaunted, the crewman piped up, “No one knows it [Firebird] better than you.”

The crew member is right, so far.

Force’s record at Firebird is a stellar 51-17 and on Saturday at the NHRA Arizona Nationals the 14-time champion increased his career total of No. 1 qualifiers to 132 by outrunning a youthful Matt Hagan during the final qualifying session.

His 4.063 elapsed time outpaced Hagan's best Friday effort by .005.

“I started coming here about five or six years into the construction of this track and it was really like sacred ground back then,” said Force of its Native American roots. “I’m Indian too, and my mama was born in Broken Arrow, Ok. It’s sacred ground to me.

“I always said that if I was ever going to gamble in a casino, it would be here. It sure wouldn’t be Las Vegas. I love it here. This is like an oasis out here.”

Force’s claim of personal sacred ground is well founded considering he’s won at Firebird Raceway eight times (1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005). Although, the last three seasons have been tough with consecutive first round losses.

Armed with the confidence of Pomona’s win, Force’s tuning brain-trust adjusted their boss’ car for the final shot. Force believed they backed the car down for that final run.

“They don’t tell me what they do, but I asked them if they could get after it,” Force said. “They tried to tell me the conditions weren’t that good. I never thought it would run a 4.06 ‘cause I’m packing a lot of ballast.”

A lot of that ballast could arguably be his knowledge of Firebird Raceway, not the 205 he claims is his current weight.