NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Brittany Force knows a lot about finish lines, having competed in more than 550 rounds in a 12-year Pro career in Top Fuel that has yielded 18 national event wins and two world championships.

She knows how to hold her dragster steady approaching the finish line at 340 mph, a mark she has eclipsed more than a dozen times already this season, but the finish line looming in the next two weeks is one she’s still reckoning with as her time behind the wheel dwindles down to the final two events before she takes a break to start a family with her new husband Bobby.

On a call-in radio interview this morning in Las Vegas, the daughter of drag racing's most successful driber described her decision as bittersweet, eager to follow in the footsteps of her racing siblings Ashley and Courtney, who also excelled in their time behind the wheel before motherhood came calling, and torn about leaving the cockpit where she finds so much enjoyment and solace in a sport that she truly loves.

She likely won’t end her tenure with a third world championship, but the 2025 season has put her back in the headlines as the first Top Fuel driver to crack the 340-mph barrier and a race win in Epping. She, of course, would love to close out her time with wins in Las Vegas — her “home away from home” — and, of course, at her true hometown race at the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals.

“We want to end strong, and the Pomona finals are closing in on us quickly,” she said last night in the media center at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after qualifying No. 1 on Friday. “It’s weird to think about it ending. Honestly, I'm trying to focus just on this weekend, really being in the moment, being in the moment with my team, enjoying it all, because sometimes you get so caught up in it, there's so much pressure. You forget about driving from the heart, as my dad always said, and having fun, so I’m trying to remember to be in the moment.

“Once I get to Pomona, I'll handle that there. Pomona is a different day.”

As she begins to reflect on her racing career, which began as a teenager in Super Comp and then in an A/Fuel Dragster before turning to Top Fuel in 2013, Force Is hoping her time in the sport has helped others.

“I hope I’ve inspired people by doing what I do, doing what I love to do, and making a career out of it. I hope I can inspire anybody, whether it's to chase down their own personal dream, whether it's to get involved in NHRA Drag Racing, or whatever it is. If I can inspire someone, motivate someone, push someone to push past their comfort zone and chase down what they really want to do, that's huge for me.”

“When I look at my career, and I go back to 2013 when I climbed into the seat in my rookie season and debuted in Pomona, I never imagined two championships and the wins and the records. It just seems so surreal.

“But the reason I was able to do all that is because of my parents, because of my whole family, and everybody at John Force Racing, through all of our sponsors who've been so supportive through all the ups and downs, through all the transitional phases, like in 2020 when we made big decisions [to sit out the season because of COVID], with my dad stepping out when he wrecked, putting Jack [Beckman] in, and now my decision to step out at the end of the season. We're lucky that we have such support around us, and not just from internally John Force Racing, but here, in this racing community, from the fans and everyone.”

In a perfect world, Force has just 14 more runs in her Top Fueler — two in qualifying here, four on raceday, four more qualifying runs in Pomona, and, hopefully, four runs on Sunday — but potentially as few as seven or eight if things go sideways, which is very unlikely.

As she reflects on this season, obviously her biggest headline is being the first to eclipse 340 mph in Charlotte this spring and repeated trips into that zone the rest of the year, including her jaw-dropping 343.51-mph run at the Cornwell Quality Tires NHRA U.S. Nationals.

“People keep asking me about that run in Indy, and even when I say it, 343 mph, it sounds wrong. It’s like I'm saying something wrong. It's just crazy. We're really proud to have done that, to have been able to do that at different race tracks across the country and put on a show for the fans who keep coming up asking me, ‘Are you going to go beyond that? Are you going to go 344 or is 343 is good enough?’

“I’ll tell you, 343 is fast enough. I'm hanging on for dear life, just trying to get it down there, and they feel fast. You can definitely tell the difference.

In Indy, I was on my radio talking to my guys, ‘What did we run? What was the e.t.? What was the mile per hour?’ because I just knew it. I could feel it. When they told me 343 over the radio, I had to make sure that what they said was right, because there's no way we ran 343, and I’m so very proud to do that with all of them. If we could put another together, that would be outstanding. I just want to finish really strongly with a season that I can be proud of, and so far, I'm very proud of every single one of my guys.”