Brittany Force makes history in 5th NHRA Top Fuel win at LVMS — PHOTOS

NHRA Top Fuel driver Brittany Force has many memories at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Force has watched her father, John, a 16-time Funny Car champion, win many times at the track. She’s won races and set track speed and time records at the track, too.

Now, in her final full-time season racing in Top Fuel, Force added one more memory while continuing to make history.

Force (3.704 seconds, 337.33 mph) defeated Shawn Langdon in the Top Fuel final at the NHRA Nevada Nationals at LVMS on Sunday. It was Force’s 19th career Top Fuel win to become the winningest female in the classification.

“We want to finish strong and our goal was to achieve that today,” Force said. “If we got up there on that final round and it wasn’t our day, it would be a lot of pressure going into Pomona (California, the NHRA season finale Nov. 14-16) to get that done.”

Also Sunday, Matt Hagan (3.877 seconds, 327.03 mph) kept his slim hopes for the Funny Car title alive by defeating points leader Austin Prock. Dallas Glenn (6.602, 206.61) defeated Matt Hartford in Pro Stock Car, and Gaige Herrera (6.809, 198.17) defeated Angie Smith in Pro Stock Motorcycle.

‘Felt confident’

Force is now a five-time winner at LVMS. She defended her race win at last year’s fall LVMS race, where she won with her father making his first appearance back at an NHRA event following a serious accident in June 2024.

On Friday, Force set the pace, posting the fastest qualifying time. That set a LVMS track record for fastest time in Top Fuel (3.697 seconds, 338.85 mph). After “struggling,” as Force put it, on Saturday, she said she had enough information to be prepared for Sunday’s rounds.

“We felt confident going into today,” Force said. “That No. 1 (qualifier) set us up and gave us a great liner. We had a bye in the first round. It was just focusing in on our lane and seeing if we could turn on win lights. Our performance all day was strong.”

Force broke a tie with Shirley Muldowney for the most wins by a female in Top Fuel. A two-time champion, Force couldn’t get a full celebration of her win last year after the final rounds were postponed to Monday following a lengthy track cleanup and weather conditions that were too cold.

If Sunday was Force’s final NHRA win, the orange and pink skies of the setting Las Vegas sun provided the perfect backdrop to the final win of an incredible career.

“This race is now something that is more special than any other race,” Force said. “Lining it up with being the winningest female in Top Fuel makes it more special. When we look back at all the wins, they’re special in their own way, this one will be (more special).”

‘Have to win’

Hagan is 101 points behind Prock for the Funny Car title. There are 150 points on the line for the winner at the season finale in Pomona, and more points up for grabs for the four qualifying rounds.

“It was a have-to-win race,” Hagan, a four-time Funny Car champion, said.

Hagan is now a six-time winner at LVMS. His run in the final over Prock was the lowest elapsed time of the weekend in Funny Car. Prock, whose car stumbled in the final as Hagan pulled away, had won all nine head-to-head matchups against Hagan.

“(I’m) very humbled to still be in the hunt (for the championship),” Hagan said. “(We) made it interesting tonight. Nobody really expected us to win or (Prock) to smoke the tires. I was up on the wheel, got a good light and you have to (facing Prock). Going into Pomona, you just have to race your race.”

In the Top Fuel point standings, Doug Kalitta holds a 144-point lead over Langdon. Langdon defeated Kalitta, his car owner, in a semifinal to get a crack at Force, who is fourth, 192 points out of the championship.

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.