NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Long considered drag racing’s GOAT — Greatest of All Time — John Force has set NHRA records for season championships (16) and event wins (157) that likely will never be broken, but all of this success did not come quickly or easily.

He launched his career in the early 1970s in hand-me-down cars more likely to litter the track with parts than to turn on win lights, and once he did make enough money to buy better parts and better talent, the luck was not there as he recorded a record-breaking nine straight final-round losses from 1979 through the summer of 1987, when he finally achieved his breakthrough victory at the now-defunct Le Grandnational in Quebec.

But Force has always been resilient. Stricken by polio at a young age, he nevertheless became the quarterback for his high school football team, a team that suffered through 27 consecutive losses — three full seasons — without a single win. From that experience, though, Force learned that a team is only as strong as its members.

After years of struggling to forge a Funny Car career, he applied that “team first” lesson when he borrowed enough money to hire respected tuner Austin Coil as his crew chief in 1985, and later adding experienced hands like Bernie Fedderly and John Medlen talented to his “braintrust,” and within a decade, he was hands down the most dominant driver in any class.

He won nine of 10 world championships in the 1990s – missing only in 1992, the year that longtime rival Cruz Pedregon edged him – and even launched a second team with Pedregon’s brother, Tony, at the wheel that brought John Force Racing another championship in 2003.

In 1996, he won a record 13 of 19 races, appeared in a record 16 final rounds, claimed 65 of 76 possible elimination rounds, and was named National Motorsports Driver of the Year, the first drag racer to ever achieve that honor.

Force still holds numerous other NHRA records, including most consecutive world championships (10), most consecutive event victories (five), most victories at a single event (11, in Brainerd), most No. 1 qualifying positions (167), and most consecutive No. 1 qualifying positions (seven).

In 2000, Force broke Bob Glidden’s record of 85 national event victories, winning his 86th at Route 66 Raceway in Chicago, Coil’s hometown. In 2001, he clinched his 11th Winston Funny Car title, surpassing Glidden’s mark of 10 championships – no Funny Car driver has won more than five.

Force’s three daughters — Ashley, Brittany, and Courtney — all followed him to the track with great success. In 2008, Ashley became the first woman to win an NHRA Funny Car event and finished second in points in 2009. Brittany became just the second woman behind Shirley Muldowney to win a Top Fuel championship, of which she’s now won two, and Courtney excelled in Funny Car with a dozen wins.

Force’s own racing career was put on hold in mid-2024 after a devastating crash in Richmond, Va., and ultimately announced his retirement from driving in November 2025, and will go into the books as the most successful driver in drag racing history.