No one saw this coming.
When Jordan Vandergriff was tabbed to drive the John Force Racing Cornwell Tools Funny Car this season – the same one Austin Prock drove to the 2024-25 NHRA championships – getting just one national event win would probably be a pretty big ask.
Well, it is safe to say that the former Top Fuel driver and NHRA TV analyst has exceeded all expectations.
Vandergriff won his fourth race of the season – the 26th annual MOPAR NHRA Las Vegas Nationals on Sunday – to vault himself into second place in the season points standings a mere 39 points behind leader Matt Hagan with just one race remaining.
Vandergriff clocked his fastest time of the weekend – 3.873 seconds at 331.36 mph – to edge Capps’ 3.921-second elapsed time at 335.15 mph.
“This is the biggest one [win of his career],” Vandergriff said. “Today literally worked out. I envisioned it this morning. It was like, how do we need today to go? We need the second round to go a certain way, we need somebody else to lose, we need this, we need that, and it literally played itself out the way I imagined. And I also imagined us winning as well, so that worked out.
“But this fourth win, I think, is obviously huge just because, you know, we’re 39 points back now of Hagan, and we were coming into today with a really, really long shot. I don’t really know the points yet, but it felt like we were far away and we needed him to go out early, and he did. And now we can go to Pomona with a chance. That’s all I wanted. All I wanted was a chance. Even driving these race cars, all I wanted was a chance, and I’ve got that chance, and now I have this chance. I grew up in Brea right next to Pomona. I went to that track the most growing up, and hopefully I can seal the deal in Pomona.”
On Sunday, Vandergriff ousted Julie Nataas, Spencer Hyde, J.R. Todd, and then Capps. This was the first time in his career that Vandergriff beat Capps.
Vandergriff was able to gain substantial ground in the points race when Todd upset Hagan in the second round.
“There’s a learning curve. There’s a learning curve, trust me,” Vandergriff said. “I’d be lying to you if I said it wasn’t the goal [to win a championship]. I knew coming into this car, the Cornwell Quality Tools Funny Car for John Force Racing, that what they’d done the last two years, the expectations were going to be high. And I wanted those expectations to stay that way. I didn’t want to come in and say, ‘Oh, he’s a rookie driver, you know, he’s going to finish sixth or seventh,’ or kind of just feel out the car this year and then maybe next year it’ll be good. I didn’t want any of that.
“I wanted to come into this race car with our new team, with Chris Cunningham, with Jason Bunker, and all the new guys there, and go, ‘You know what, we’re picking up right where it left off.’ So, I think being second just 39 points out, with all the new people that we have and myself, I think it’s what I thought of. It’s what I thought of in the Gainesville [preseason] test, and I didn’t know if it was going to come true, but now that we’re here, it’s coming true.”
Surprisingly, Vandergriff never let the pressure of his position in the cockpit overwhelm him at all.
“No, I didn’t feel pressure. I didn’t want to put the pressure on me because I felt it would be unfair to myself to put that pressure on myself, right? And I think coming into this, I just wanted to prove to myself that I could just drive the car,” Vandergriff said. “That was the thing. I wanted to just drive the car. I wanted to do it well. I knew I could drive well from my days back in Top Fuel in 2019. I knew I could do it, and so I wanted to prove to myself that I could drive the Funny Car well. And I knew if I could drive it well, that all the parts and pieces around me, all the people around me, were going to be fantastic at their jobs as well, and we were going to have a chance.
“I was going into this final, I didn’t feel any pressure. I’m going up against Ron Capps, and I’d just taken out J.R., which was a huge round, and Spencer and Julie this morning. You have to be up for everybody in this class. This class is so competitive right now. Ron’s a guy I looked up to. I remember being a kid getting stuff signed by him. My uncle Chris used to bring me in the trailers and get stuff signed by Ron. So, it’s just … it’s a dream come true for me to be here, and it’s not over yet. It’s not over yet.”
