Photography: John Force Racing / Gary Nastase / Auto Imagery
MOHNTON, PA. (Sept. 12, 2025) – John Force Racing’s Top Fuel and Funny Car teams took different paths to posting their best runs of the first day of qualifying for the NHRA Mission Foods NHRA Nationals presented by Nitro Fish at Maple Grove Raceway.
Monster Energy Top Fuel Dragster driver Brittany Force posted a speed of 3.816 seconds at 334.32 mph in the day’s first qualifying session that put the team fifth on the leaderboard. In the cooler evening session, however, the car lost traction near half-track and slowed to a lap of 4.795 seconds at 152.93 mph. Force and team will go into Saturday’s final two rounds of qualifying sitting 10th.
Prock and Beckman lined up side by side in Q1 but both cars lost traction after a few hundred feet and terminated their runs, Prock slowing to 5.194 seconds at 186.90 mph Beckman running 5.867 seconds at 147.37 mph.
Their second qualifying runs were much more successful. Prock jumped the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car team up to second with a lap of 3.882 seconds at 333.74 mph while Beckman drove the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet SS Funny Car to a lap of 3.901 seconds at 330.72 mph, moving up to fourth in the standings.
Saturday’s qualifying sessions are scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m.
Quote from Brittany Force, Monster Energy Tools Top Fuel Dragster:
“It was a big day for our Monster Energy team. We made the announcement about next season and what my future holds., about my future. After that was all done, it was all business, and I was ready to get back of my team and get in my race car. Our first lap was a pretty solid run at 3.81 seconds that put us fifth in the field. Unfortunately, in Q2, we didn’t get the car down the track and we dropped to 10th. But we have two runs tomorrow to get this Monster Energy car figured out and safely qualified in the show.”
Quote from Austin Prock, Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car:
“The Cornwell Tools Chevy was on a better run in Q2 than the ET board showed. We had some malfunctions with the race car that slowed it down. It was still a great run, ended up second, and earned some valuable points. It was definitely a good recovery after the first run. The track just seemed to be a little odd shaped for the first session, and you saw that out of the success rate of the race cars. So, to come back to second run obviously puts us in a lot better shape. It made a nice clean pass but my hands full. The car moved inside early, got it back from the centerline, and then it made a hard move toward the wall. So, there’s a little bit of shaping up to do on my driving tomorrow but I’m looking forward to it.”
Quotes from Jack Beckman, PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet SS Funny Car:
“On our first run, we waited a long time with the electronic issues on the track, and the entire time the track kept getting cooler. If they’d told us we had a 35-minute delay, we’d have made three or four different significant changes. We didn’t know that. It was an eight-minute delay, then a pair ran, then a 10-minute delay, then a pair ran. So, we’re sitting there twiddling our thumbs like, okay, what do we do now? Our last-minute adjustment was to try to free the rear tires up some, and it just wasn’t enough. And so, consequently, we had to run real early the second session, and that is the home run session. That’s the one that likely will set the field for Sunday’s eliminations unless Saturday gives us cool cloud cover conditions. Because we were now going to be second pair to run instead of the back of the pack, not only were we running on a warmer racetrack, but we also didn’t have the benefit of watching more cars in front of us. So, to run a 3.90, which ultimately put us in the fourth position is pretty damned impressive. In fact, we even had to change short blocks after the first run. I don’t know what we hurt but we saw something in the data that was questionable. We aired on the side of caution, threw a new engine in the PEAK SQUAD Chevy, and went out and ran 3.90.”
Track & TV Schedules (All Times Eastern)
Final eliminations are scheduled for 11 a.m. ET on Sunday, Sept. 14.
Television coverage includes qualifying action on FS1 at 12 p.m. ET on Sunday on FS1, and eliminations at 2 p.m. Sunday on FS1.
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