TOP FUEL

In the first quad, Brittany Force and Antron Brown moved on. Pat Dakin and Leah Pritchett were out.

Over the course of three rounds of Four-Wide racing Brittany Force had the quickest Top Fuel dragster in all three quads she raced and when it mattered the most the four year pro used her rapidly improving driving skills to post the best reaction time to secure her second win in three races.

The format for the Four-Wide Nationals presented by Lowes Foods confuses the most veteran of drivers and even as drivers are crossing the finish line at nearly 320 mph they don’t know if they will be celebrating or licking their wounds.

“I didn’t see (the win light) and didn’t even know we won until they pulled me in to where all the FS1 cameras were. I asked them to make sure. I said, ‘Did we win?’ So I didn’t even know until I got out of the car and that was very exciting. No one could probably see, but we thrashed to get up here and I didn’t think we were going to make it up to the lanes in time to run here,” said Force, who has raced to three final rounds in the last four races.

“Our belts got pulled back when they put the car back together and we had to unbolt the car and then re-buckle me in and I wasn’t sure we were going to make it. But we did and I guess it’s good because under pressure we all figured it out and got the car down the track.”

The Monster Energy team is hitting its stride to start the season thanks in part to the technical alliance with Torrence Racing and the oversight of Top Fuel tuner Alan Johnson and crew chief Brian Husen.

Force had to run against two-time Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown in every quad Sunday. In the first session Force was the first to the finish line with an event quickest elapsed time of 3.734 seconds. In the second quad she was able to pick her lane again and had to face off with Brown, Richie Crampton and JR Todd. Again Force got to the finish line first with Brown on her heels.

In the final quad Force had her best reaction time of the day, .042, to leave first on Doug Kalitta, Brown and Clay Millican. The winning elapsed time of 3.764 seconds at 319.98 mph was enough to edge out Brown’s runner-up time of 3.779 seconds. Before that run Force’s team had to thrash in the staging lanes and the 2013 NHRA Rookie of the Year was afraid they might not make the call.

“You know, sometimes drivers just do better under pressure and I always wondered what type I was. It wasn’t just me, it was the entire team. I don’t know if everyone could see but I was coming up here there was a problem with the belts. But they unbolted the car and we got it figured out and we got the win,” explained Force.

“We adapt to so many different situations,” Brown said of his team headed by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald. “We were just able to go out there and adapt and get the best out of it. With that being said, we actually dropped a hole early on the last run and we still went 3.77. Our hats are off to the Force team, they are doing a great job over there. It's going to be a lot of fun racing them this year."

Brown is currently in second place in the points, just 63 behind Ms. Force.