Denied a Friday victory in the final round of the relocated Right Trailers All-Star Callout, Brittany Force still managed to drive her Monster Energy Top Fuel dragster to the provisional No. 1 qualifying position for Sunday’s 65th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.
In the Funny Car division, reigning World Champion Austin Prock was second after the first two of four qualifying sessions in his Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS, one position ahead of teammate Jack Beckman, who ran his streak to eight consecutive qualifying sessions with at least one bonus point at the wheel of the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevy.
“It was a nice run,” Prock said of his 3.837-second effort at 333.28 miles per hour. “This Cornwell Tools / Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet SS is heading in the right direction. We’ve been struggling a little bit with these cooler track conditions (but) made some progress today.”
Prock, who is seeking his first No. 1 start of the season after qualifying No. 1 in 15 of 20 races a year ago, believes the best is yet to come.
“It still has a bunch more left in it,” he said. “And the conditions are going to be similar all weekend long, so we’ll just keep picking away at it but (this was) definitely a good way to end the day.”
Brittany Force raced to times of 3.646 and 3.641 seconds in the first two rounds of the callout and officially became the third member of the 300-mile-per-hour to the eighth mile club Friday in Pomona. In doing so, she set the fastest speed at that distance at 301.67 miles per hour during round one but was eventually beaten in the final round by 2023 World Champion Doug Kalitta. She and Kalitta left the starting line in unison with matching .053 reaction times before her potent Monster slowed to 3.764 seconds at only 293.47 mph in the final.
“This is my home track, and we want to do well here,” said the 17-time tour winner, who now is within reach of her 53rd career No. 1 start. “But, you know, we go right into this All-Star Callout. There’s a lot on the line, and we wanted to win this thing, but it’s tough because those are qualifying runs.
“Unfortunately, we got beat in the (callout) final,” she said. “We put two 3.64s on the board, but, in the final, I thought it had cylinders out. It moved around a little, and just before the 1,000 foot, it started smoking, and it jolted me forward in the car. So, I thought (crew chief David) Grubnic shut me off, which he didn’t. I’m guessing pan pressure automatically shut me off, so I had no power.”
It was the two-time world champion’s third runner-up finish in the last four years in the Top Fuel bonus race, which was moved to Pomona from Gainesville, Fla., because of weather.
The second round of the callout, in which Force recorded her quickest time while also running 300 miles per hour to the eighth mile once again, did not count toward Winternationals qualifying, which continues Saturday with two final sessions that will set the starting fields in Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock.
As for Beckman, who has won his last three starts at his home track, it was more of the consistency his PEAK Chevy has shown all season long with times of 3.868 and 3.855.
“Another great Friday for the PEAK Chevy,” he said. “Every single qualifying run this year; we’ve been a top three car. Anybody that says they don’t count points, they’re either lying or they’re bad at math. We’re always counting points. It’s too early in the season for it to really matter, but we’re trying to get everyone we can.
“Case and point: we came into this race two points out of the lead. We are now the Funny Car points leader with the three bonus points that we earned, and those are the ones that might decide a position or a championship at the end of the year,” said the two-time world champion and 35-time Mission Foods tour winner.
“And we’re going to be even faster tomorrow,” he predicted. “On Q1, we actually backed it down a little bit to make sure we got down the track. On Q2, we were just too slow early (in the run). We can fix that for tomorrow in my first Mission Food 2Fast2Tasty challenge race within a race. I got my teammate, Austin. It’s going to be for bragging rights both on the win light and on the time slips, and I’m looking forward to another great Saturday.”
This story was originally published on March 29, 2025. 
