Photography: John Force Racing / Gary Nastase / Auto Imagery
JOLIET, Ill. (May 16, 2025) – Although a challenging track surface and 25 mile per hour cross winds played havoc with performance on the first day of the 25th NHRA Route 66 Nationals, two-time Top Fuel World Champion Brittany Force managed to wrestle her Monster Energy Chevrolet across the finish line at Route 66 Raceway in 3.833 seconds at 327.03 mph, good enough for the provisional No. 3 qualifying position.
One round win away from becoming just the 12th Top Fuel driver in 75 years to win 300 competitive rounds in the NHRA’s Mission Foods Series, Force will have two more chances on Saturday to improve both her performance and her position in advance of Sunday eliminations.
“Good start for our team,” said the 17-time tour winner. “We didn’t get down there on the first run (but) second run we put a 3.83 on the board. We were looking to run a mid-3.80, so that was a killer run for our Monster Energy team.
“It was a hot racetrack, one of the toughest racetracks we’ve been on,” said the 2013 NHRA Rookie-of-the-Year. “So, we feel good going into Saturday. It’s going to be completely different conditions tomorrow. We’re looking for two solid runs, definitely (plan to) step it up and see where we’ll end up qualifying.”
While the conditions were problematic for the Top Fuel dragsters, they were an even bigger issue for the Funny Cars.
Only four Funny Cars broke the 4.00 second barrier Friday and the quickest of them stopped the timers in an almost pedestrian 3.982 seconds, nowhere close to the 3.831 second track record set just two years ago by Robert Hight at the wheel of the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS now driven by Austin Prock.
The reigning series champion, Prock overpowered the track on both attempts Friday, his best of 4.816 good enough for the No. 14 spot on the provisional ladder.
“Rough start to the weekend,” acknowledged the man who’s won 10 times in 25 career Funny Car starts. “Track conditions are quite a bit less than what we were anticipating. (We) just overpowered the racetrack both runs. I got it a little outside of the groove the first run, so had some homework to do on myself for the second run and did better.
“Looking forward to tomorrow,” said the 29-year-old whose Chevy is prepared and maintained by a crew led by his dad Jimmy, brother Thomas and Nate Hildahl. “The air conditions and temperature are going to be much better, so hopefully that applies to the racetrack as well and we’ve got the Mission Foods 2Fast/2Tasty Challenge so we’re going to try and get another win (there).”
Prock’s John Force Racing battery mate, “Fast Jack” Beckman, was a little more successful Friday on a track on which he had not driven since 2019, but he still will have work to do Saturday after directing the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet to times of 4.143 and 4.003 seconds, the latter good enough for the provisional No. 5 spot.
“We got bonus points in Q1, which is great,” said the 36-time Funny Car winner. “That’s what we needed today. We knew the track, because it only gets run on once a year, wasn’t going to be anywhere close to optimal so, getting two good, solid baseline runs was great for us.
“But the big part about today was having that huge PEAK group out here,” gushed the U.S. Air Force veteran. “We’ve got 623 names on the hood and a couple hundred people out at the track today and they took a group photo with us and that was awesome.
“Tomorrow, the temperature is going to be about fifteen to twenty degrees cooler, which always helps tremendously, but what we need on this racetrack is more track prep and cars down the racetrack. I think Sunday is going to be the day where the elapsed times look astounding and so we’re positioned well for tomorrow and cannot wait to get back out here in the morning and warm this PEAK car up again.”
