New Fastest Run in NHRA History at Sonoma Qualifying

Speed queen Brittany Force recently broke her own record during Top Fuel qualifying at the Denso Nationals. At Northern California’s Sonoma Raceway, she produced the fastest run in drag-racing history, with a terminal speed of 343.16mph (552km/h).

Two-time series champion Force, who had just reset the national speed record at 341.85mph less than a week ago at Seattle, clocked her seventh pass at 340mph or better. With that, she owns nine of the top 10 fastest Top Fuel speeds in NHRA history.

With the 3.645-second elapsed time (E.T.) on the 1000-foot pass, Force rewrote both ends of the track record. Her E.T. broke Doug Kalitta’s previous mark (3.649 seconds) by four-thousandths of a second.

When asked where that stunning number came from, Dave Grubnic, crew chief for her Monster Energy Dragster, replied: “The engine.” 

He then added: “We’re happy with that. What’s important to us is winning rounds and getting another championship for Brittany. But that’s a little icing on the cake.”

She said the team told her through the in-car radio what she had run but she said, “I thought I must be hearing this wrong.” She said it was “moving around” on her but that she was determined to hang on until it crossed the finish line.

FOX Sport announcer Brian Lohnes’ reaction was “Holy Christmas! Where does it end? How deep is this pool?”

Force’s father, team owner and Funny Car legend John Force, said: “Makes me a little nervous. The girl got it done.”