If Texas is known for its largeness, then Top Fuel racer Brittany Force just wanted to fit in during Friday Night qualifying at the NHRA FallNationals hosted by the Texas Motorplex just outside of Dallas, Texas.

Force put herself in a league of her own with a 3.637 elapsed time, at 335.32 miles per hour, to grab the pot of gold in Friday’s Stampede of Speed qualifying session. Not only did Force grab the fifth quickest run in NHRA 1,000-foot drag racing history and seventh fastest run in Top Fuel racing since it began, but also took home a $15,000 bonus. If the run holds, it will be her 11th 2021 No. 1 qualifier. 

“That was a killer run,” Force said. “We were going for mid-3.60s, so when they told me what I ran on the top end, that was really impressive. With (crew chief) David Grubnic and Mac Savage, you can’t put that past them. They’re capable of running crazy numbers and setting records. We’re off to a good start to this weekend, and the great thing is we get two more qualifying runs (Saturday).”

Force was at the back of the pack for a session filled with seemingly never-ending delays. Following multiple oildowns, it took the Monster Energy team nearly two hours to get to the burnout box to make their run. How does one stay the course during this time?

“We’re watching track temps and making decisions and how far it drops what we’ll change,” Force explained. “But mostly, it was just the team hanging out. Some bonding time, really. I mean, we were up in the staging lanes for two and a half hours. So just hanging out, and honestly, I don’t think we made too many changes before we rolled up there. We were fortunate that we got to keep everything the same and roll up there with what we had set up pulling up hours ago.”

Saturday’s qualifying will likely offer no improvement over Friday’s primetime run but can offer preparation for Sunday eliminations and the chance to pick up more bonus points. 

“Tomorrow’s a whole new ball game,” Force said. “It’s going to be a different focus going into tomorrow. Two runs. That early run will really be the important run. If we could make a solid run on that, that I’d be more excited about that than putting a crazy number on the board in Q4, so we’re really going to be focused on that tomorrow and then roll right into race day.”

Following Force, points leader Steve Torrence drove to the second spot after going 3.678 at 326.48. The Texan is the defending winner of the event and has won at his home track at two of the past three years. Mike Salinas took third after his 3.680 at 330.47.