B. Force, Enders, Hagan and Smith take memorable wins in Las Vegas
Image courtesy of NHRA
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NHRA | 20 hours ago
A record-setting weekend for Brittany Force ended with a victory, as she won in Top Fuel on Sunday during the 19th annual Dodge NHRA Nationals Presented by Pennzoil at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It also served as the 151st overall win for females in NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series racing history, coming just moments after Pro Stock’s Erica Enders claimed the 150th female victory on Sunday.
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Matt Hagan (Funny Car), Enders (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) all also won in their respective categories at the fifth of six races in the 2019 NHRA Mello Yello Countdown to the Championship playoffs. The race also serves as the penultimate event of the 24-race 2019 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.
Force, who set the national speed record in the class on Friday with an impressive run of 338.17 mph, broke the track E.T. record in the final round on Sunday, going 3.652-seconds at 334.73 in her Advance Auto Parts dragster to hold off points leader Steve Torrence during an epic final round duel in the 900th Top Fuel race in NHRA history.
Torrence went 3.719 at 330.63, but couldn’t track down Force, who moved within 16 points of Torrence heading into the final race of the season. It gave Force, who beat Pat Dakin, Austin Prock and Billy Torrence earlier in the day, a much-needed second win this season and 10th in her career, setting up a must-see finale in Pomona.
“This weekend has been incredible for this team,” said Force, who earned her first Vegas victory. “I’ve always wanted to win here. We set the MPH record here and we’ve accomplished a lot, but what we’re really going after is a championship together. I felt good coming in and we got the job done. It was pretty cool to (win) 151 and 150 with Erica today. David Grubnic has been awesome to work with and I’m very blessed to have him as my crew chief. I want to go straight to Pomona and I’m going to do everything I can to stay in this thing. I’ll be ready when Pomona gets here. We’ve been there before and we want to do it again with this Advance Auto Parts team.”