Photography: John Force Racing / Gary Nastase / Auto Imagery
NORWALK, Ohio (June 28, 2025) – On a hot, challenging racing surface at Summit Motorsports Park, two-time Top Fuel World Champion Brittany Force made the quickest run of the day Saturday and locked herself into the No. 4 qualifying position from which she will start her Chevrolet Accessories dragster in Sunday’s 18th NHRA Norwalk Nationals.
On a day when only a handful of drivers in the fuel categories reached the 1,000-foot finish line under power, the second youngest of John Force’s drag racing daughters stopped the timers in 3.788 seconds while posting the event’s fastest speed at 334.65 miles per hour.
Her Saturday time was just a click off the 3.784 she posted on Friday and was the only sub-3.80 performance on the final day of qualifying.
“We laid down two consistent runs in the heat,” the 18-time tour winner said of her qualifying effort, “so that gives us a lot of confidence going into race day. We race Lex Joon first round. We’re going to go out there, race hard and hopefully turn on four-win lights and land in that winner’s circle.”
It was a frustrating day for Brittany’s Funny Car teammates, Austin Prock and Jack Beckman, neither of whom reached the finish line under power. Nevertheless, both will start Sunday from the advantageous positions they secured on Friday, Prock from No. 2 against No. 15 qualifier Dale Creasy Jr. and Beckman from No. 4 against No. 13 Chad Green.
Prock was the quickest of the two on Saturday at 4.130 seconds in the Cornwell Tools Chevy SS, but his finish line speed of 244.83 mph was almost 100 mph off the NHRA national record he set last November at Pomona, Calif.
“We had a great Friday (and) gathered five qualifying bonus points,” Prock said, “but we stumbled a little bit today. We had some misfortunes in Q3 this morning blowing the burst panels out and the parachutes deploying (prematurely), but we did turn on a win light in the (first round of the) Mission 2Fast/2Tasty Challenge.
“The next run, conditions got really tricky,” said the reigning series champion and current point leader. “We ended up spinning the tires just past the 330-foot mark in the Mission Challenge final, but we gathered some good data going into tomorrow. We just have to back this ‘Prock Rocket’ off and hopefully we can do some damage on race day.”
Beckman’s Saturday best was 4.355 seconds in the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevy SS, and it followed a 4.500 effort that took him out of the Mission Foods 2Fast/2Tasty Challenge against eventual winner Daniel Wilkerson, whose final round 4.151 covered Prock’s 5.015.
“Our PEAK Chevy SS ended up fourth,” said a disappointed Beckman. “We had a great Friday; two solid laps down the track (but) today was hot, muggy and the sun was out. It was really tough out there. I do believe we learned a lot about the racetrack that ought to help us on Sunday. Looking forward to four round wins tomorrow.”
