John Force is 67 years old, and he clearly has an attitude.

“When these kids come over and say stuff to me, they aren’t hurting my feelings. They aren’t making me mad,” Force said in a video recorded in February, a week before the 2016 season.  

“When a kid says to me, ‘haven’t you proven enough? You look tired.' I have looked tired for the last 20 years.”

“I thrive on this stuff, and when they say this stuff to me, I told a kid the other day, ‘Why don’t you just march across the street and stay over there. You know what kid? I am coming with my s***; that’s what’s coming.”

Well, the competition cannot say the 16-time champion didn’t give ample warning.

Sunday, at the Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals, the second stop on the NHRA’s famed Western Swing, Force moved to within one race of making his second clean sweep of the grueling three-race portion of the tour where race teams travel from Denver, to Sonoma, Ca., and conclude in Seattle.

Force beat Ron Capps on both ends of the track, winning his second race of the season and No. 145 of his career. The Peak-sponsored driver recorded a 3.948 elapsed time at 324.59 miles per hour to outrun Capps’ 3.960, 320.13.

The victory moved Force three spots up to fifth in the championship point standings with three races left in the regular season.

“The love of beating the competition, and the cheer of the crowd motivates me when I don’t feel so young,” said Force. “It might sound corny, but it is what is it is. To be able to stand up tall and proud when they have whipped me the last few years … I’m used to winning ten straight and being in the hunt every year.

“Not only do I have to fight my own cars but I have to fight the likes of Ron Capps, Jack Beckman, Tommy Johnson and Matt Hagan. There’s a lot of big money over there [at DSR]. Del Worsham is running unbelievable. Tim Wilkerson, on a budget, can still run with the best. Cruz [Pedregon] is off a little, but he will be back there.  

“I know every time I have to turn on that switch and go after these kids there’s a lot of work to do just to stay in the game. I can run with them now.”

Force won last weekend in the same fashion at the Mile High Nationals in Denver, running good enough to win every time.

“We might have found a tune-up, or stumbled onto something,” Force admitted. “Whatever, when you can come down here and run with them, you leave here feeling pretty good.”

Force opened the day over Alexis DeJoria, who lost control of her Funny Car shortly after launching, and impacted the wall. She was transported to Queen of the Valley Medical Center in nearby Napa, where she was diagnosed with a high-energy fracture of her left pelvis.

Force then eliminated teammate Robert Hight and daughter Courtney Force in the semis.

“I’m proud of racers like Greg Anderson, who went through what he did [with open heart surgery] and returned,” Force said. “Knowing it beats on us, every day and it is hard on us. He’s a kid compared to me. Those kids beat me out here, but I was beaten the first fifteen years of my career. Why should now be any different?”

Except this time, Force was able to deliver a knockout punch.