Brittany Force delivered a record-breaking performance at the 2025 NHRA Nevada Nationals, lighting up The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with one of the most electrifying runs of the Countdown. Behind the wheel of her Monster Energy/Flav-R-Pac dragster, Force powered to a blistering 3.704-second pass at 337.33 mph, setting a new track elapsed-time record and stunning the Top Fuel field. Her precision off the line, coupled with crew chief David Grubnic’s razor-sharp tune-up, kept her dragster hooked up perfectly under the desert lights.

Force’s final dance

While speaking to the press, when Brittany Force strode into the winner’s circle at the 2025 Dodge NHRA Nevada Nationals at The Strip in Las Vegas, she did more than celebrate a No. 1 run. She marked a milestone in what she’s calling her farewell tour. As she explained, “This one is a special one. Mostly the main focus is looking at my announcement I made in Reading in the beginning of the Countdown that I was going to step out of the seat.”

Her win in Las Vegas carried weight. It was her 19th career Top Fuel victory, breaking the record previously held by legendary driver Shirley Muldowney and making Force the winningest female driver in Top Fuel history. She also set a track record with a 3.697 second pass at 338.85 mph earlier in qualifying.

She then noted, “Our last win was Epping New Hampshire which was beginning of the season and now it’s like okay I want to end strong. It’s been far too long and the one thing I was saying is I mean we won here last year so coming this weekend, I did feel really good about it but we wanted to end strong and a win here is pretty outstanding for this team.”

The pressure of the final round didn’t escape her. She described the mindset succinctly: “On that last round it’s trying to find this place where you’re just in this zone. You’re completely focused. You’re not thinking and I mean there’s this pressure. It’s the final round. I have two races left, and we have a great shot. We’ve had a great car all weekend.” Talking through the run, she added, “I need to do my job as a driver in the seat and we have Shawn Langdon in the lane next to us, one of the best leavers, one of the best competitors here.”

She also shared how the race played out from inside the cockpit: “No, I couldn’t. I couldn’t even see him. I did see my one line at the end but I mean every run today I couldn’t see anybody next to me. I have a canopy on my car so I lose a lot of side vision. I mean I lose so much side vision and it was just again stay in your lane and see if that win light comes on.” Her focus on “staying in her lane” both literally and metaphorically underscored that final push.

Force didn’t shy away from giving credit to her team. She recalled a conversation: “When I sat him down before Reading, we had a team meeting and I told [Grubnic] what my plan was. And then it was we’re looking at this Countdown. At that point, my team, every single one of them, said ‘Okay, we got to get you one more win.’” For a driver stepping away, that kind of unified team mentality matters.

Las Vegas has long felt like home to Force. Reflecting on it, she said, “I’ve said it forever, this has always been one of my favorite racetracks. I raced here in Super Comp and A Fuel, and for so many years, I wanted to get a win here because it was such a familiar track to me. Every time we pulled into this racetrack it just felt ‘Okay, we’re home’ even though we’re not.” The win was her fifth in Las Vegas and set the stage for her final race at Pomona, California, later that season.

With two races remaining in her full-time Top Fuel career, Brittany Force isn’t just chasing wins, she’s chasing closure on her own terms. “I’m not done yet. But again, I’m focused on this weekend, and when I get to Pomona, we’ll start over there. Yes, it definitely does help going into the last one. Because you say you want to finish strong.” For fans and the sport alike, her Las Vegas victory wasn’t just another trophy. It was a powerful statement that her farewell tour still has one more lap to run.

Rockingham replaces zMAX

Ever since zMAX Dragway hosted its inaugural event in September 2008, it has been known as the “Bellagio of Dragstrips,” so it was shocking when it was missing from the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series 2026 Countdown to the Championship segment of the schedule.

Perhaps equally surprising was when it was announced Monday that Rockingham Dragway in Rockingham, North Carolina, was replacing zMAX Dragway in the playoffs. A dragway that hosted the NHRA Winston Invitational all-star event 1992–98 will now enjoy playoff status September 25–27, 2026. Joining Rockingham as new venues on the tour are Maryland International Raceway and South Georgia Motorsports Park.

zMAX Dragway, which has hosted two NHRA events annually since 2009, will still have its four-wide weekend in the spring of 2026 (April 24–26), but that will be the NHRA’s only event in the Charlotte metro area.

For the fall, it will move east to North Carolina’s Sandhills region, across the street from Rockingham Speedway. From the time VanHorn and Gennarelli purchased the dragway, their goal was to acquire a NHRA national event.

VanHorn talked numerous times with Josh Peterson, NHRA vice president of racing administration, as to what was needed from the local community to acquire a NHRA event. Peterson wrote a letter to VanHorn outlining the requirements, and the dragway’s new owner circulated it among the community leaders.