Force Hood steers clear of easy road, excels

She could have marketed it beyond belief, promoting her brand on the whole skimpy bikini and leaning over the race car thing. She could have followed that television reality show with her family by launching a campaign of skin and dragsters to no end.

It would have sold like nobody's business, the type of car that could have been driven to the bank millions of times over.

But it's like this:

What do you want to be remembered for?

How do you want others to identify your career?

After burning 12 gallons of fuel at 315 mph in one pass, who are you under that helmet at the end of a drag strip?

"We definitely could have pushed the whole sex symbol idea more than we did," Ashley Force Hood said. "We had the offers, the opportunities. But in the end, I didn't feel comfortable going down that road, and neither did those around me.

"Look at most of the fans outside the ropes at my races. They're children, little kids. I'm glad we stuck with our gut and not gone down that road. I think there would have been a backlash. A lot of female athletes have chosen to do it. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just not for me."

You sort of knew she was different when in a 2007 online poll, she won the AOL Sports "Hottest Athlete" award by being photographed in a seven-layer fire suit throughout the competition, walloping NFL quarterback Tom Brady in the finals. You got the idea she wanted no part of being drag racing's answer to Anna Kournikova. That never would have happened. She wins too much.

No female has won a Funny Car championship, something Force Hood is in position to do as the NHRA season winds to a close in two weeks. She is 26 and entered qualifying for the Las Vegas Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday in second place, 13 points behind Robert Hight, her brother-in-law and teammate. More on the family connections later.

Her advantages along the way have been obvious, notably the fact her father, John Force, is the greatest drag racer ever to walk the planet. She has had the best of advice, of parts, of crews.

John Force has 14 world titles and arrived here ninth in points, seven spots behind his little girl, who while earning her degree from Cal State Fullerton flirted with the idea of becoming a police officer or teacher. John wasn't around much when his four daughters were growing up. Still, different parts of racing captivated them.

Something about that tree turning green and the sense of five to six Gs of force at launch drew Ashley. She never ran from the idea of a car erupting in flames at the finish and climbing out covered in oil, and yet the last thing you might find her talking about away from the track is racing. She can escape with the best of them.

Maybe this is why not four years into her Funny Car journey, she is this close to standing atop the class her father dominated for so long. She has this balance about her life, married to one of the team's crew members, Danny Hood, devoted to her niece and wildly supportive of her three sisters, two of whom race in a lower NHRA category.

Imagine the upcoming holiday season around the Force dinner table. Hight is as close to a son as John has known, husband to his daughter Adria and father to his 5-year-old granddaughter, Autumn, a racer with the obsessive temperament about the sport only the ol' veteran can appreciate.

John Force still wants to win more than anyone else, but as the final races of this NHRA season approach, he is faced with this dilemma: Which member of the team does he want to win a championship more, his daughter or son-in-law?

"It's like I tell little Autumn, 'They both can't win, so let's hope one of them does,' " John Force said. "I don't know which way to go -- that's the God's truth. I'm right in the middle. I would love to see a woman win the title. Either way, I would be one proud father and boss.

"Ashley has a different style. She's out there driving, and the car will go sideways and blow up or gets on fire, and here steps out the little girl I've known for 26 years with a big smile on her face. Maybe calmer is better. It works for her. I'm excited to watch it come down to the end. I'm excited to watch the fight."

Men still tell her how she broke their hearts by getting married. Women now relate to her on a level beyond racing. Children adore her.

Force Hood could have chosen the easy route. She could have gone all skin and dragsters, a campaign of little substance and big payoffs.

She chose instead simply to race, to be defined by the woman under that helmet at the end of a drag strip.

In this case, a winner.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He also can be heard weeknights from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. on "The Sports Scribes" on KDWN-AM (720) and www.kdwn.com.