NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

The NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas marks Brittany Force’s 14th shot at the four-wide competition and the two-time world champ and defending event champ has a system worked out to help deal with the chaos that overtakes the starting-line staging procedure.

“You have this anxiety because it's something different,” she admitted.” It's not your normal routine. But I feel like all the chaos helps you focus even more than you normally would because there's just so much going on up there and you really have to find your focus. 

“The anxiety has calmed down a little bit. It's still there because it's different, but I've done it [enough] and you kind of get the hang of it. “

When four-wide racing was first introduced in 2010, three seasons before Force got into Top Fuel, it wasn’t uncommon for drivers to get confused as to which of the dual Christmas Trees they should be looking at and many drivers got timed out for not staging in time because they didn’t realize they were the ones not staged. Force, who has won the four-wides twice with two runner-ups, has a plan for that,

“Honestly, I still think it's so chaotic up there,” she admitted. “There's so much going on that you have to focus and make sure you know what lane you're in, that you're looking at the right Tree and finding that amber. It's tough up there to really calm down and try to focus on everything because every run you go up there, something is a little off, something's a little different, and you’ve got to clear that out of your mind and just stay focused. 

“Every day before we run, I'll stand in every single lane just to get a visual, I'm very big on visualizing what I want to do up there, from where I'm sitting in the car, looking at that Christmas Tree, where my position is, what kind of light I want to cut, getting in the car down the racetrack, and just visually seeing each lane. That helps me. When you’re up there, it’s all about not losing focus, not letting your eyes bounce all over the place, and just staying focused in your lane.”

Entering Saturday, Force, who won both Las Vegas events last year — just the third Top Fuel driver in history to do that — is the No. 1 qualifier, a spot that she has monopolized over the past two seasons, claiming the pole position at more than half the races (22 in 42 events).

No current driver has a better ratio of qualifying success than Force, who, entering the event, had qualified No. 1 an amazing 43 times in 215 races, a 20% success ratio. 

Even the class’ all-time winner, Tony Schumacher, an 88-time No. 1 qualifier, doesn’t have that ratio, as he’s at 16% over 537 races and the majority of his No. 1s came in his 2000s heyday, especially 2005-2008 when he qualified No. 1 an amazing 45 times in 93 events (48%).

Force and crew chief David Grubnic, who own both ends of the national record (3.623 seconds and 338.94 mph), also own both ends of the track record at seven of 17 venues on the tour and hold at least one track record at 15 of the 17 tracks. (Their only misses are Topeka and Brainerd.)

Additionally, the duo also held both ends of the track record in both Houston and Richmond before they exited the schedule this season.

Furthermore, Grubnic was also the tuner of record for Clay Millican in 2017 and ’18 when Millican set the still-standing track e.t. records in Pomona and St. Louis.