74-year-old John Force races to record 156th NHRA victory and 1st in 2 years
CHANDLER, Ariz. (AP) — John Force raced to his record 156th NHRA victory and first in two years, with the 74-year-old Funny Car great powering past Matt Hagan on Saturday at Firebird Motorsports Park in the completion of the postponed Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals.
Force had a 4.033-second run at 318.24 mph in his Chevrolet Camaro SS for his eighth victory in the event postponed two weeks ago at Pomona in California.
“I’m just facing the truth in life, that, you know, time’s running out, and I’m trying to hang on,” Force said. “This morning, I was talking about, ‘You know, maybe this is it, maybe I should just walk out the gate and go to the casino.’
"And then all of sudden you win and your weight and your personality just changes. Things went right, and I got the win, so I’m excited.”
Justin Ashley won in Top Fuel and Dallas Glenn in Pro Stock in the other divisions from Pomona. In the Arizona event, Steve Torrence (Top Fuel), Austin Prock (Funny Car) and Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Pro Stock) topped qualfying, and Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel), J.R. Todd (Funny Car) and Erica Enders (Pro Stock) won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge specialty races.
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