John Force Retires...Now What?

I can remember the first time that I ever met John Force. It was 2009 I believe at Joliet for the NHRA event. It was the first NHRA I attended in person, along with my mom who is a huge John Force fan. Now that both John and Brittany have retired, what comes next?

This is a topic that I had touched on briefly earlier this year, but now it has happened. To no one’s surprise, John announced his official retirement as a driver last week. Add that to the fact that his daughter Brittany has announced her retirement to start working on a family and we are now left with a 2026 season that will have no Force behind the wheel in nitro for the first time in more than 40 years.

As a child, I wasn’t exposed to drag racing like many of you many have been. It wasn’t until I was almost a teenager that drag racing came into my life. It was the late 80’s and early 90’s that drag racing became a thing for me and the one man that I followed more than anyone was John Force. Even being a “Ford Guy” didn’t sway me from being a John Force fan.

Throughout John’s career he was exactly what an extreme sport like drag racing needed. He was outspoken, loud, boisterous, and unapologetic in what he did and how he carried himself. He was exactly what I wanted to be when I got older. Add that personality with unparalleled driving accomplishments and you have unarguably the greatest drag racer in the history of our sport. You are free to argue that point with me, but you’d be wrong.

The first time that I met John was at NHRA Joliet. I had taken my mom and then wife to the event. It was our first in person NHRA event. Even though I had been around drag racing since the early 90’s and competed in drag racing, this was the first time that we had gone to the big show. To say that meeting John was an awesome experience for us would be understating it a great deal. He and Ashley both took time to greet my mom, take photos, and give autographs.

Fast forward 6 years later, E3xtreme was a small and new media company within drag racing. While Ellen had plenty of experience within the NHRA ranks, I had absolutely none. I was certainly an outsider. For those that don’t know, media in NHRA, at least ten years ago, was very clicky and full of older guys that had been around forever with very few exceptions. It wasn’t exactly a welcoming atmosphere for someone coming in from the pro mod, small tire, and outlaw world.

I knew there were going to be drivers at the NHRA level who were great with the media and photographers, as well as drivers who were not so welcoming. John was one of those that has always been welcoming though. Whether I saw him at a restaurant, at the track, at PRI, etc. he would always say hello and always smile to me. Obviously I don’t have the clout in NHRA as a Richard Shute, Mark Rebilas, or a Jerry Foss, and yet John has always been great to me. Never once did John treat me like some nobody!

Now, closing in on the end of 2025 I sit here and realize that we are closing the driving chapter on one of the greatest families to ever race motorsports. That realization has me wondering what comes next for drag racing and for NHRA. John really has been the face of NHRA for more than 30 years. There are certain drivers that even a non-fan knows their name, and John has been that driver for decades. With that said, does this mean that NHRA is at a crossroads?

I love the crop of drivers that are currently competing in Nitro and I think that there are plenty that can pick up a torch and carry it into the next half of the 2020’s, but who’s going to do it? Will it be Ron Capps? Will it be Austin Prock? Who is going to go the extra mile to be the one that we as fans associate NHRA nitro racing with? I think that Matt Hagen would be another good one. Let’s not forget about the younger generation like Maddi Gordon in Top Fuel as well.

Drag racing needs generational talent. People that can appeal to the 8 year and the 80 year old. Someone that boys and girls can look up to and strive to be if they want a career in drag racing. I never strived to be a nitro driver, I strived to be someone like John Force. Someone would was respected for his craft, but also not afraid to tell you exactly what he thought or how it was.

Here’s to hoping that we see drivers embrace the opportunity to carry on the torch and continue to grow drag racing, especially NHRA, well into the future. And here is to John, Brittany, and the entire Force family on amazing careers and a joyous retirement!! I don’t think it can be overstated how much we in the drag racing community will miss having a Force behind the wheel!!