John Force laid down a pair of 3.80 second qualifying runs Friday at the Texas Motorplex, propelling his PEAK Coolant and Antifreeze Chevy Camaro SS team to the provisional No. 4 position after the first day of the 38th annual NHRA Texas Fall Nationals. Robert Hight and the AAA Texas / Cornwell Tools Chevy Camaro SS team held down the No. 5 spot. In Top Fuel, Brittany Force was fifth in the Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy Chevrolet dragster and Austin Prock 13th in the Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist Chevrolet dragster with two qualifying attempts left.
Force, a seven-time winner at the Motorplex, opened with a 3.887 at a finish line speed of 325.95 mph and followed Friday night with a 3.871-second run at 325.71 mph, earning qualifying bonus points on both runs.
“Daniel Hood and Tim Fabrisi, and the whole team did their job and I did my job,” Force said of the Friday effort. “We just still got some things in the driver’s seat that I’ve gotta get straightened around and I’m working on it, but It was good to get up there to the top, not at the top, but at least pretty close to it. I hope we can stay up there tomorrow because that will give us a good start to get up there and start winning some rounds. The Countdown is here and we gotta see where it goes.”
Hight, bidding this year to become just the fourth Funny Car driver to win as many as four NHRA series championships, directed his white AAA-branded Camaro to a time of 3.878 seconds at 328.37 mph in the opening session but experienced problems on the night run and slowed to 7.123 seconds at only 91.41 mph.
Brittany Force and the Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy team battled back from a bad break in the first qualifying session to record a Friday night run of 3.675 seconds at 333.85 mph that put her back in the hunt for a second win at the Motorplex. In the first session, a broken component led to a loss of traction that slowed her to 9.590 seconds at only 61.68 mph.
Unlike Brittany, Prock and the Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist team started strong with a run of 3.738 seconds at 327.11 mph, but had trouble on the second attempt, slowing to 6.646 seconds at 86.97 mph.
The NHRA Texas Fall Nationals continues at the Texas Motorplex with qualifying sessions Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eliminations will begin Sunday at 12 noon. Television coverage of the event will be consolidated into one five-hour block on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) with qualifying highlights from 1-3 p.m. ET, followed by three hours of elimination coverage from 3-6 p.m. ET.
This story was originally published on October 14, 2023. 
