Brittany Force closed out the 2022 NHRA season at the summit of the drag racing mountain.

The 36-year-old capped a five-win season with multiple track records and 10 pole positions by claiming her second Top Fuel world championship. And she was successful largely because of her prowess for starting races at the head of the field.

On Friday, Force kicked off her 2023 campaign right where she left off as she drove her Monster Energy dragster to the head of the pack on opening day at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.

“It felt really good to come out in the first race of the season, on the very first run, and go to the top,” Force said. “It is (crew chief) David Grubnic and all of these guys. We have the same group, the same team as last year. We spent a lot of hours testing and it looks like we picked up where we were last season as we move into this season. It is a good start to the weekend.”

With only one qualifying session Friday after rain washed out the rest of on-track activities, Force drove her 11,000-horsepower machine to the only 3.6-second pass of the day, 3.699 seconds at 336.99 mph. If it holds, it will be Force’s 43rd career top-qualifier award.

Already a two-time champion with a sterling resume littered with many of the fastest passes in NHRA history, one would think that there wouldn’t be much left for Force to achieve coming into this season. Think again.

“Our motivation is that we always want to improve,” Force said. “We had five wins last season, but we want to go beyond that. We want more wins and, ultimately, we want another championship. Now that we have all done it together and know what that feels like, we want to do it again.

“When we won in 2017, I was the first woman in Top Fuel to do it in 35 years, and I said right after that it was not going to be another 35 years until a female does it again. It is pretty cool that we were able to pull it off again. There is always more out there that we want -- more titles, more wins, more track records. We want to accomplish it all. That is why we are here.”

Series veteran Doug Kalitta slotted in just behind Force in qualifying with a 3.723 at 327.82 mph. Leah Pruett was third with a 3.724 at 327.51 mph, and Clay Millican (3.728) and Antron Brown (3.734) rounded out the top five.

In addition to two more qualifying sessions, Saturday’s Gatornationals schedule will once again contain a special race within a race with the second iteration of the Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout. This special shootout, where eight qualified drivers select their opponent for a shot at nearly $100,000 in prize money, made its debut here in 2022, but weather weather issues in Gainesville pushed the action to Indianapolis in late summer.

Before a tire had turned Friday, Force, the top overall seed, called out Millican as her first-round opponent. Other Round One matchups Saturday include Steve Torrence taking on Kalitta, Justin Ashley versus Mike Salinas and Josh Hart battling Austin Prock.

“Today we would have really liked to have had that second run to get the setup going into the Callout,” Force said. “It should be interesting. It is a fun event, but I wish we could have all gotten a run in before we called anybody out just to see how it played out. Either way, we are confident going into this thing.”

Force, who got her first career win in 2016 at Gainesville, added that she is excited to have so much to race for this weekend in one of the marquee events on the NHRA calendar.

“This is a special racetrack for me,” Force said. “Our first win in 2016 was here. As a kid growing up, it was one we never missed. We came out every year and never missed it. To be able to win at a track that I remember coming to as a kid is very special.”