“The trophy is exactly what I wanted,” said al Balooshi, who beat Billy Torrence, Clay Millican and Englishtown winner Richie Crampton to reach the final. “This is a very special birthday for me. This trophy is the best gift of my life, and [crew chief] Jason McCulloch gave it to me with all my crew guys.”

Langdon, driver of the Al-Anabi Racing dragster, was appearing in his fifth final of the season with his lone win coming at Bristol. The reigning Top Fuel world champ had a solid race day, eliminating Denver winner J.R. Todd, points leader Doug Kalitta and seven-time world champ Tony Schumacher before falling to al Balooshi.

FUNNY CAR

Courtney Force qualified No. 1 and for the third time in her career she won from the top spot. The youngest Force also became the winningest female Funny Car driver picking up her fifth career win passing sister Ashley Force Hood with four Funny Car wins. Courtney, the 2012 NHRA Auto Club Rookie of the Year, outran her teammate and father 4.253 seconds to 4.405 seconds in the 44th all-JFR final round.

“I think about way too many things when I’m against dad. Normally I’m calm and collected and I think whatever is going to happen will happen, but I was so wanting this win that I was thinking don’t screw up on the light, don’t red light, don’t pull in too deep. I wanted to pull in deep, but I didn’t want to light the red light and just ruin it for my team. I was nervous. I just didn’t want to screw up and it was just one of those deals where I just wanted to go and get this car straight down the track and do my job as a driver. I knew everyone would be looking at me so I just didn’t want to screw it up for us,” said Force, a two-time winner in 2014.

Courtney went up against Peter Russo in the opening round for the first time ever and got lucky when Russo’s car had complications on the line and wouldn’t fire. In round two, it was Force up against Ford competitor Bob Tasca III. Tasca had lane choice, but Force quickly pulled away with a 4.276 ET at 197.65 mph. She is now 9-2 against Tasca in eliminations.

In the semifinal round, Force lost lane choice to No. 5 qualifier Matt Hagan. Courtney took the win with a 4.235 ET at 193.86 mph as Hagan had problems down track.

In the final, John was out on Courtney and was on his way to his third win of the season until his Goodyear slicks became unglued from the track at the 660-foot mark. That was all Courtney needed to go around her dad and take the win.

“I was outrunning her at half-track by a car and then it rattled. It drove through that little bit of rattle and then it blew the tires off. I still thought I had her but she went by me right at the finish line. We were fast all day and they were a little slower,” said John Force.

The good news is the reigning NHRA Funny Car clinched his spot in the Countdown to the Championship with his semifinal win over Alexis DeJoria.