Funny Car veterans John Force and J.R. Todd were uninjured in a wild top-end crash Saturday during qualifying for the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Raceway in Pomona, California.
Force was racing in the right lane in Saturday’s second session when his Chevrolet Camaro made a hard move and crossed behind Todd as the pair crossed the 1,000-foot finish stripe. In his bid to avoid running up the back of Todd’s Toyota, Force went to his left and attempted to cross back over, but got pitted by the nose of Todd’s car and was turned hard ac ross the lanes and into the retaining wall. In the process, Force’s parachute got caught up in and around the body on Todd’s car, turning him sideways and causing enough damage to force him into a backup car for the reminder of the weekend.
“It got squirrely up there, but it’s been doing that since the beginning of the season, and we think we know why. Driving right, left, right left, I can do that, I do that all the time, trying to keep it straight,” said Force after his first disqualified run. “When it hit the bump up there, though, it blew the tires off and it made a left turn into the other lane. I thought I just got his header, JR Todd, but I’m glad, I’m glad he’s okay. Then it hit the wall hard. I have to reevaluate it. I watched the video, maybe I have to pull it back more. I’m okay, but more importantly, JR is okay.”
“I’m not doing anything different. This BlueDEF Chevy moved around a little bit and made a left but I thought it would come back on me, but it didn’t come back,” said Force at the end of qualifying. “For some reason, I’m snake-bit right now. But I made it in the show, tomorrow is a new day, and we’ll see what happens.”
Force ended qualifying No. 16 and will race Cruz Pedregon in the opening round.
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