Top Fuel driver Brittany Force finally parlayed a No. 1 qualifying position into the winner’s circle at Topeka, Kan., Sunday.

Force clocked a 3.783-second elapsed time at 324.75 mph to outlast Clay Millican’s 3.830-second lap at 288.58 mph at the Menards NHRA Nationals presented by PetArmor at Heartland Motorsports Park.

“It feels great,” Force said about the victory. “It's been tough on us this season. We came out strong. We've had a good season. We're No. 3 in points. We've had a bunch of No. 1 qualifiers. It's just, we keep getting stuck on race day, and that's hard for a driver, a crew chief, our entire team. That's where you really want to excel. That's where you really want to do well is on race day.

“Like I said, we have a closet full of No. 1 hats, but we don't have those race day hats. So, I knew we were getting closer. I knew it was right around the corner for us. Over the last few races, it's been driver error, it's been team error, just little things kept getting us. We knew eventually our luck was going to turn around.”

Force defeated Scott Palmer in the first round, had a bye run in second round and then knocked off three-time reigning world champion Steve Torrence in the semis before ousting Millican in the finals. She improved her 2021 elimination-round record to 15-10.

Force, who pilots the Monster Energy dragster for John Force Racing, captured her 11th career Top Fuel national event title. This was Force’s first victory since the fall race in Las Vegas, Nov. 3, 2019. Her father, legendary John Force, won for an NHRA-record 154th time in his nitro Funny Car moments before she went in the burnout box, but that didn’t change her mind set at all. 

“When I'm in that car, I knew he was in the lane in front of me, but it's no different than before when I sat behind them, or any other run,” Brittany said. “When there's somebody in front of me, my focus is not there. Yes, I could see the excitement. I could see what's going on. But, in that moment, I was on the radio talking to Grubnic about what our plan was, where they want me to point the car, what are we doing up there on the starting line. That's where my focus was. Again, you could see what's going on. You could see the commotion in the background, but that was not where my focus was. I could set on that once I got down to the top end and figure it out there.”

Force began the event by snaring her fourth consecutive No. 1 qualifying position. She now has 26 No.1 qualifying spots in her career. Prior to Sunday, her best race day finish were runner-up efforts in Charlotte, N.C., and Norwalk, Ohio.

Co-crew chiefs David Grubnic and Mac Savage are the tuners behind Force’s success.

Force, the 2017 NHRA Top Fuel world champion, arrived in Topeka third in the points standings and moved up one spot to second – 342 points leader Steve Torrence.

“Definitely that run against Steve was a huge one for us,” Force said. “He's No. 1 in points. He's won most the races this year. He's the guy that we're chasing down. We knew that was going to be a tough one for us to get past. But we had a consistent race car all weekend long. The only run we didn't make was, I think it was Q2 or, shoot I don't remember which one it was. There was only one qualifying run we didn't make it down there, But every other run just solid passes down the racetrack (with) consistency.”

Force acknowledged claiming the No. 1 qualifying position with a 3.717-second elapsed time at 322.27 mph Saturday benefitted her team on race day.
“Yesterday, was big for us,” Force said. “When we made that run in the heat. That Q3 run in the heat was big for us. We knew that would help set us up for today, because that's always where we struggled was that Q2 run that I don't think we made it down there. That's in the heat of the day. That's the one that's most comparable to race day on Sunday and that's where we'd end up going wrong. So, we finally did get a run in the heat. It was solid, it was good, and it set us up for strong day today.”

As much as Force appreciates her six No. 1 qualifying spots this season, she was glad to talk about Sunday rather than Saturday.

“It feels good,” said Force to talk about a win. “No. 1 qualifier, that’s just as exciting. But really the big excitement is on race day. Like I said, it would get tough when you get those No. 1 qualifiers, and then you'd go out and you wouldn't do so well on race day. For a while, I thought the No. 1 qualifiers were jinxing us. I didn't want them anymore. It seemed like it was working against us, and that's just superstitions of a driver.”

In four of the five previous races Force had qualified No. 1 she lost in the second round. Force credited Grubnic for swinging for the fence in qualifying.
“That's David Grubnic,” she said. “Every run we go up there he never wants to play it safe. He always wants to push. He wants to see how far he could push this car, how far you can push this team and see really what we’re capable of. He's afraid of backing down. That's what it really is. He never wants to back down. He wants to push all the way and then he excels. No. 1 qualifiers and a win today.”

Brittany said sharing the winner’s circle with her dad in Topeka is something she will cherish.

This will be one I'll never forget,” she said. “This has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. The thought of it, I remember there's been so many close calls where we thought, ‘Hey, this could be our day that we're going to double up.’ Just to get a race win is hard enough, and then you want to do it with your teammate. It's almost impossible.

“It's like you almost put it on the back burner. To double up with your dad. You both run well all weekend long, and then you double up. It just seems impossible. So today we pulled off the impossible, and it's pretty cool that will always share this. This will be a special racetrack for us, and it's pretty cool to have that with him.”

After John Force Racing parked its entire race operation after two races in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brittany said the 2021 season had a different feel, one of worry.

“Honestly, coming into the beginning of the season when we went testing at the beginning of the season, I was worried,” Brittany said. “I mean, just normal standard season how we've been doing it since I've been driving since 2013 where after the holiday season off, you'd be out of the car for barely two months and getting back out there to go testing. 

“So nervous. Feel everybody in our pit area, crew chiefs, the team, me as a driver, you get this fear of, “oh, my gosh. I haven't done this in so long. Am I going to forget how to how to drive this thing? It's been too long. That was my concern. A year out. I've never been out of the seat that long. It's only been a couple of months. So going into it all this season that was my biggest fear was I have to deal with those nerves and that pressure of being out of the seat for so long. But once we got out there, beginning of the season went testing, we were all so freaking excited to be back. It was gone. It was not there. We were just pumped to be back out at a racetrack, be together again and doing what we love.”

Force believes her team has what it takes knock Torrence off his championship throne, a place he has sat three years in a row.
“I think we're one of the best teams out here,” Force said. “I don't know if we're still third in points, but we got one of the best cars out here. We run killer weekend after weekend and our consistency is finally getting better. We finally stepped it up on race day. We're turning a corner at the right time. We're getting ready to go into the countdown. 

“So, all those silly mistakes we’ve made an all season long, we're putting those behind us. We've learned from them. They won't happen again. You will not see us making those mistakes again. We're moving forward from them. And this is a great place to have this win right here before we go into a Countdown.”