Story By: SARA SLAUGHTER / JOHN FORCE RACING – INDIANAPOLIS, IN – John Force and the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SS team are looking for a victory at the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, the final event of the Camping World Drag Racing Series regular season, to be just the performance boost they need heading into Countdown to the Championship.
This will be Force’s 43rd career appearance at the US Nationals. He shares with Ed McCulloch the record for most Funny Car victories at the US Nationals with five coming in 1993, 1996, 1998, 2002, and 2019. He has qualified No. 1 at the U.S. Nationals more often than at any other tour event – at total of 12 times (1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2021). Last year at Indianapolis Raceway Park, after qualifying fourth, he reached the semifinals before losing to Ron Capps.
“Busy weekend for the U.S. Nationals, always is, as it should be. Biggest race of the year, biggest drag race in the world. We have to act like it too,” Force said. “There’s a lot of opportunities to celebrate with the Mission Foods Challenge and the Pep Boys Callout. That’s before we even get to race day. This PEAK Chevy, we’ll be looking to get the job done for all our sponsors. A lot of them in town for our sponsor summit earlier in the week. It’s going to be exciting, a great show for the fans. I’m looking forward to it.”
Force will have a busy weekend on the racetrack as he competes on Saturday in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge where he’ll get a rematch of his semifinal matchup against teammate Robert Hight from the event in Brainerd, Minnesota and on Sunday when he’ll participate in the Pep Boys NRHA Funny Car Callout event featuring the top eight qualifiers.
Competition at the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park kicks off with five rounds of qualifying Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 3:30 and 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 and 5:00 p.m. Eliminations are slated to begin on Memorial Day Monday at 10 a.m. Television coverage of the event begins on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) with qualifying shows Sunday at 11:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. ET. Eliminations coverage will have two shows on Monday, the first at noon ET on FS1 and the second at 2 p.m. ET on FOX Broadcasting Network.