NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

While speed gains in Top Fuel’s early days were quick and often, and barriers fell like 10 pins, it’s been a long road to Brittany Force’s barrier-breaking 341.59-mph pass in Friday qualifying at the American Rebel Light NHRA 4-Wide Nationals.

While it took just three years for Joe Amato to go from breaking the 260-mph barrier in 1984 to cracking the 280-mph barrier in 1987, it took 26 years to go from Tony Schumacher’s class-first 330-mph run in Phoenix in 1999 (and 20 years from Schumacher’s 335 in Houston in 2005) to Force’s blast Friday night.

Here's a look at the barrier breakers from 200 mph to 341 mph.