John Force Racing: Next stop, 300 FC wins

There have been a lot of great multicar Funny Car teams over the ages from Don Schumacher to Barry Setzer to “Jungle Jim” Liberman, but when it comes to sheer numbers of success in event wins and championships, it’s all about John Force Racing, which stands on the precipice of yet another milestone entering the 2025 season.

When Austin Prock or Jack Beckman next reaches the winner’s circle, it will mark the 300th Funny Car win for the organization launched by its namesake way back in the early 1970s. Ten drivers have contributed to the 299 wins to date, with Force’s record 157 leading the way followed by Hight (65), Tony Pedregon (27), Courtney Force (12), Mike Neff (10), Prock (eight), Gary Densham (eight), Eric Medlen (six), Ashley Force Hood (four), and Beckman (two). Force collected 16 of the team’s 21 Funny Car championships, while Hight added three and Pedregon and Austin Prock each collected one. Their wins and championships total far outstrip Don Schumacher Racing’s Funny Car haul of 177 event wins and seven championships

Force got the team to 50 wins at the 1996 NHRA Gatornationals and win No. 100 came just four years and 104 races later when Pedregon scored at the fall Houston event in 2000. As the competition got stiffer in the new millennium, the wins got tougher to come back and No. 200 didn’t happen until Topeka 2011, yet that was just a span of 262 races, so JFR was still winning at a pretty good clip (one win every 2.6 races). Win No. 250 was by Robert in Seattle 2017.

Here’s a quick look at each team member.

JOHN FORCE: 157 WINS

Of course, as we all know, it took Force more than a decade and nine runner-ups from his 1977 debut to get his first win, at Le Grandnational outside of Montreal on June 28, 1987, but he quickly wasted no time adding to that, winning three times in 1988, and by 1990, he was a world champ. He won the championship every year of the decade except 1992 when Cruz Pedregon was the champ.

Force had actually reached the final round in Montreal the year before but was runner-up to Kenny Bernstein, who had beaten Force in the final round for four of his nine pre-win runner-ups, including the last three before the Montreal win (1986 Montreal, 1986 Englishtown, and 1987 Atlanta).

Force alone scored JFR’s first 51 wins (No. 50 coming in Gainesville in 1996) before Pedregon got his first win in Atlanta in 1996. His victory in Chicago in 2000 was his 86th, passing Pro Stock icon Bob Glidden as the winningest driver in the sport’s history, a mantle he still holds and most likely will always hold.

Force scored career win No. 100 at the 2002 NHRA Winternationals and No.150 in Seattle in 2019. He was also the first to reach 1,000 round-wins, which he collected in St. Louis in 2008. He collected his 1,460th and most recent  (and perhaps last) round-win last year in Richmond on the run that ended his season in a huge crash after turning on the win light in his 861st start.

While it’s still unknown whether he’ll win another event or even race again, Force is sure to remain the GOAT. Force’s total of 157 victories is 37 more wins than the combined total of his two closest rivals, Ron Capps (75) and Hight (65).

ROBERT HIGHT: 65 WINS

Hight was the fifth driver to saddle up for John Force Racing when he switched from wrenching on team cars to driving in 2005 and became the team’s most dominant driver of the 2000s. Hight won twice in his rookie season — his first coming in Houston — and was named NHRA Rookie of the Year.

He scored his first of three championships in wild fashion, coming from the 10th seed in the relatively new Countdown to the Championship in 2009. He remains the only driver to win from that deep in the playoff rankings. He won the championship for a second time in 2017.

Hight collected his 50th win in Sonoma in 2019, the same year that he won his third championship with a dominating 50-18 win-loss record.

Hight finished second in both 2022 and 2023 then sat out the 2024 season to deal with medical issues, which promoted Prock into his ride for what was ultimately another JFR championship. Like Force, Hight’s driving future remains unknown as he also chose to sit out the 2025 campaign.

TONY PEDREGON: 27 WINS

When Force hired the second-generation racer to drive his second Castrol GTX entry in 1996, he quipped, “I hired my own assassin,” and, sure enough, Pedregon was deadly. Pedregon, who began his career with about a dozen races in Top Fuel in 1992 before driving in Funny Car for Larry Minor at a dozen events in 1995, scored his first win in Atlanta in 1996 and finished second in points behind Force, and was named the inaugural winner of the Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award, which identified the sport’s budding stars, a title similar to NHRA Rookie of the Year honors.

Pedregon’s first championship, in 2003, ended Force’s streak of championships at 10 and also ended Pedregon’s employ at JFR, as he struck out on his own as a team owner. He’d go on to win the championship again in 2007 and ultimately collect 43 career wins before transitioning to color commentator for NHRA’s television shows.

COURTNEY FORCE: 12 WINS

In 2012, Courtney became Force’s second daughter to follow him into Funny Car, five years after older sister Ashley Force, whose spot she took on the roster when Ashley retired from racing. She scored her first win that season, in Seattle, in just her 15th start, and was named 2012 NHRA Rookie of the Year.

Her 2014 victory in Topeka was the milestone 100th by a female racer in NHRA Pro competition, and she won her sponsor’s specialty event, the Traxxas Shootout, in 2016, notched her career-high finish (third) in 2017, and in 2018 was leading the points entering the Countdown until a disastrous playoff string dropped her to sixth place in what was her final season before retiring from driving to raise a family with husband Graham Rahal of IndyCar fame.

She finished her Funny Car career with 12 wins, 17 runner-ups, and 28 No. 1 qualifying efforts.

MIKE NEFF: 10 WINS

Neff, known to his fans and fellow racers as “Zippy,” came to John Force racing in 2007, two years after he tuned Gary Scelzi to the 2005 Funny Car championship that ended JFR’s 12-year reign (1993-2004). He joined the Force team on the promise that he’d get to drive and did so starting in 2008, where he became yet another JFR driver to be named the season’s top rookie.

Neff scored his first win at the 2009 NHRA Finals then sat out the 2010 season after JFR scaled back to just three cars and tuned Force to his 15th world championship. Neff returned to driving for the team in 2011 and ‘12 and, incredibly, won the NHRA U.S. Nationals both years and scored his 10th and final win at the Reading event in 2012. After leaving JFR, he rejoined Don Schumacher Racing, where he had scored the championship with Scelzi, and has gone on to successfully tune for a number since then.

AUSTIN PROCK: EIGHT WINS

Prock was already a past national event winner in Top Fuel — he recorded his first win in the class at the same 2019 event in Seattle where Force won his 150th — when he took over the seat of the team’s Cornwell Quality Tools Camaro after Hight elected to sit out the 2024 season.

Prock rose to the challenge in his first year in Funny Car by scoring eight wins and four runner-ups en route to his first career championship. Prock had a record-breaking car beneath him and blistered track records, set national records, and capped the season in Pomona by making the fastest run in NHRA history in the process at 341 mph.

Prock’s eight wins tied him with Hight and Capps for the most in a single season in Funny Car since 2000, and he set a single-season record for most No. 1 qualifying positions with 15, topping the long-standing mark of 13 established by his team owner in 1996.

GARY DENSHAM: EIGHT WINS

Densham had been racing Funny Cars on his own since 1971 and was an early mentor to Force after they raced together in Australia in 1974. More than a quarter-century later, Force repaid the world’s fastest auto-shop teacher with a four-year stint in a JFR Funny Car.

Few people remember that world-famous tuner Jimmy Prock was Densham’s first tuner in what was Prock’s first assignment for JFR. As Densham tells it, Force had hired Prock, who had enjoyed great success wrenching for Top Fuel greats Cory McClenathan and Joe Amato, and wanted to add a Top Fuel car to his team but couldn’t get a chassis quick enough. He did have a spare Funny Car and, like Densham, an association with the Auto Club.

From 2001 to 2004, Densham scored eight wins and six No. 1 qualifying efforts, set the national speed record, finished fourth twice (2002 and 2004), and twice led the points. He became just the third driver to win for John Force Racing (its 112th win, at the 2001 Memphis, Tenn., event).

Densham’s biggest victory was a coup at the U.S. Nationals in 2004, where the team won both the Skoal Showdown on Sunday and the Big Go on Monday. He and Prock were also named Car Craft Magazine’s Persons of the Year.

After his ride with Force ended, Densham continued racing his own car and recently enjoyed his 500th start in the class but today tunes for his son, Steven, who drives the car more often.

ERIC MEDLEN: SIX WINS

The son of longtime Force crew chief John Medlen replaced Tony Pedregon as the team’s second driver in 2004 and seemed destined for greatness. He was runner-up in his ninth start and won for the first time in his 16th (Brainerd 2004) in the team’s Castrol Syntec Mustang, becoming just the fourth driver to win for JFR. He finished fifth in his rookie season and fourth in both 2005 and 2006 with five more wins, the last in Richmond.

His promising career was cut short by an accident during testing in early 2007 in Gainesville, and he passed away March 23 from injuries sustained in the incident.

ASHLEY FORCE HOOD: FOUR WINS

Ashley was the first of Force’s daughters to climb into a nitro Funny Car after previous success in Top Alcohol Dragster, where she won five times, including the U.S. Nationals in 2004 and the World Finals later that year, where she shared the victory stage with her father, who had won in Funny Car.

In 2007, in her debut season, she became the first female driver to advance to a final round in Funny Car at the fall Las Vegas event. It was her 21st race in the class, and she’d been to a trio of semifinals already that year before reaching the final in Las Vegas, where she lost on a 4.87 to 4.82 holeshot to former John Force Racing driver Pedregon.

Less than a year later, she became the first female driver to win in Funny Car at the 2008 NHRA Southern Nationals in Atlanta, beating her father, John Force, in the final round of eliminations. She finished her career with back-to-back wins at the U.S. Nationals in 2009 and 2010. In 2009, she finished in second place in points — the best finish ever by a female in the class — ending up just 66 points behind teammate Hight’s first championship.

JACK BECKMAN: TWO WINS

Beckman was a 33-time national event-winning Funny Car driver and winner of the 2012 world championship before he lost his ride at Don Schumacher Racing at the end of the 2020 season after his sponsor departed.

“Fast Jack” returned to repairing elevators until last summer, when he was called in to replace injured John Force after his accident in Virginia. In an NHRA first, Beckman was allowed to keep earning points for Force as his replacement driver and impressively scored two wins in his eight starts and carried Force to second place in the title battle behind teammate Austin Prock.

With the team owner still sidelined, Beckman will again saddle up for Team Force in 2025 and either he or Prock will get that milestone 300th win. My bet is that it happens sooner rather than later, and possibly as early as the first race of the season in Gainesville.