16-time Funny Car champ makes 1st appearance at track after crash

Top Fuel driver Brittany Force isn’t afraid to say this year has been the toughest of her career. The main reason has nothing to do with her racing on the track.

Her father, John, a 16-time Funny Car champion, suffered a traumatic brain injury after a crash during the NHRA Virginia Nationals in June.

Brittany missed the following race in Norwalk, Ohio, as she spent time with her father in the hospital. John spent more than four months in the hospital, but will be back at the track for the first time since his injury.

The Ford Performance NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will take place this weekend. Qualifying will be Saturday, and elimination rounds are Sunday. John will be watching at the track with his two Funny Car teams and Brittany’s Top Fuel team for John Force Racing.

“He’s doing really great,” Brittany said last month. “We’re really proud of him. He’s doing outpatient therapy back at home. I love to see him in Vegas just to be with our team to get back into his old routine of things, being out there with all his teams.”

‘A hard time’

It could be a big weekend for John Force Racing. Austin Prock has a 147-point lead in the Funny Car standings and could clinch his first world title with a strong run at Las Vegas and one race remaining after this weekend.

John had won twice and was right near the top of the point standings in contention for his 17th title. After his injury, his team missed the next three races before bringing 2012 Funny Car champion Jack Beckman out of retirement to drive John’s car.

Beckman won at the Midwest Nationals in Illinois in September. While Beckman is driving, the points in the standings will be credited to John, who is second behind Prock in the Funny Car standings.

“It was tough because his team has had an amazing season,” Brittany said.

John thanked the fans as he gave an update in a YouTube video Oct. 24. He said he’s been getting better physically but is working on “getting my mind right.”

“You’ve really been good to me in a hard time,” John said. “I’ve had four, five months that I’ve been laying in hospitals, going through rehab, but I’m going to get better.”

Brittany said the support for her father has been “overwhelming” and “emotional.” She is eighth in a loaded Top Fuel standings, 190 points behind leader Justin Ashley. The two-time Top Fuel champion qualified for the Countdown for the Championship and said the focus is to get her first win of the season.

She qualified in first place Friday at 3.675 seconds and 336.74 mph.

“We got into the top 10 (in the standings), which was huge for us. Now, we’re focused to get our team in the winner circle,” Brittany said.

Champ eyes 11th win

Erica Enders is the two-time defending Pro Stock champion, but her 2024 campaign hasn’t been her best season. She’s fourth in the standings and 111 points behind leader Dallas Glenn.

But she isn’t out of title contention with two races remaining. Enders is a 10-time winner at Las Vegas and can kick-start a late rally to her seventh world title this weekend.

She was sixth in qualifying Friday (6.621 seconds, 206.89 mph).

“Coming off back-to-back world championships, it’s not as extremely successful as we had hoped, but we’re not out of the running at our seventh world title,” Enders said. “… We are looking forward to the weekend and hopefully catapulting myself deeper into the points.”

At the season finale in Pomona, California, there are points and a half on the line with the winner getting 150 points compared with the usual 100.

Enders said it’s been hard to balance the peaks and valleys of the season after winning 10 times last season. She said she thinks she has an advantage in dealing with the pressure after being in so many title fights.

“The pressure is something you have to learn how to handle,” Enders said. “It’s not something that most people are naturally given, so I actually love the pressure. I feel like my team and I thrive underneath it. When our backs are against the wall, we perform really awesome.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.