JOLIET, Illinois — John Force picked up an old habit again during Saturday’s final two rounds of qualifying for the JEGS Route 66 NHRA Nationals.
While the 16-time NHRA Funny Car champ was hoping that old habit would be the 149th win of his career, it actually was the exact opposite: in the fourth and final qualifying attempt, Force slapped the wall for a third time in the first nine races of the 2018 campaign.
Yet even with the boom and bang, Force somehow still managed to qualify his PEAK Coolant and Motor Oil Chevrolet Camaro SS No. 6 for Sunday’s final eliminations.
Force was racing against daughter Courtney when his car smoked the tires just past the starting line, then about 200 feet down the 1,000-foot dragstrip suddenly veered to the right, slapped the right lane retaining wall and the car erupted into flames, with Force riding it almost all the way to the finish line.
Force said he was uninjured, but then said later in a TV interview that he was going to have his right shoulder examined because it hit the car’s roll bar twice while the car was bouncing along the retaining wall.
Once it came to a stop, Force exited the heavily damaged car under his own power.
“I gave it a quick pedal and it just shot to the right,” Force said. “I kept trying to get it off the wall but it kept pulling me over.
“I think the body might have been on the front tire and that affected the steering. I got it stopped and got out. I am sore but I won’t let this race car beat me up.
“We are going to pull out the back-up car and get to work.”
Force began the season with three consecutive motor explosions in as many races. He also got tangled in the parachute cords of Jonnie Lindberg and both slammed into the retaining wall head-on.
Force also failed to qualify for the race in Houston, snapping a string of qualifying for 221 consecutive races.
But even with those mishaps, as well as Saturday’s wild ride – and while he came into this weekend ranked 12th in the Funny Car standings (his worst performance since the 2007 season) – Force has been slowly returning to form.
Including this weekend, he has qualified in the top half of the field four times in nine races, as well as earning a runner-up finish in the Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte.
“We had some things figured out and that run wasn’t anything like the start of the season,” Force said. “We are making progress with all three of the Chevrolet Camaros.
“Courtney’s hot rod is flying and I ran good yesterday. We are all trying to run fast. You have to out here against this competition.”
Force’s first round opponent in Sunday’s eliminations will be Tim Wilkerson. Force has a 35-19 all-time round record vs. Wilkerson, from downstate Peoria, Illinois.
Force is a three-time winner at Route 66 Raceway, but hasn’t reached victory circle since 2006. His sixth and last final round appearance there was in 2013.
LE MANS, France — The V8 engine of the NASCAR Chevrolet Camaro has a distinct growl that cannot go unnoticed even among the most elite sports cars in the world at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
When the Hendrick Motorsports crew fired up the car inside Garage 56, NASCAR chairman Jim France broke into a huge grin and gave a thumbs up.
“The only guy who didn’t cover his ears,” laughed seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.
France has been waiting since 1962 – the year his father, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., brought him to his first 24 Hours of Le Mans – to hear the roar of a stock car at the most prestigious endurance race in the world.
A path finally opened when NASCAR developed its Next Gen car, which debuted last year. France worked out a deal to enter a car in a specialized “Innovative Car” class designed to showcase technology and development. The effort would be part of NASCAR’s 75th celebration and it comes as Le Mans marks its 100th.
Once he had the approval, France persuaded Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet and Goodyear – NASCAR’s winningest team, manufacturer and tire supplier – to build a car capable of running the twice-around-the-clock race.
The race doesn’t start until Saturday, but NASCAR’s arrival has already been wildly embraced and France could not be more thrilled.
“Dad’s vision, to be able to follow it, it took awhile to follow it up, and my goal was to outdo what he accomplished,” France told The Associated Press. “I just hope we don’t fall on our ass.”
The car is in a class of its own and not racing anyone else in the 62-car field. But the lineup of 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller, 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button and Johnson has been fast enough; Rockenfeller put down a qualifying lap that was faster than every car in the GTE AM class by a full three seconds.
The Hendrick Motorsports crew won its class in the pit stop competition and finished fifth overall as the only team using a manual jack against teams exclusively using air jacks. Rick Hendrick said he could not be prouder of the showing his organization has made even before race day.
“When we said we’re gonna do it, I said, ‘Look, we can’t do this half-assed. I want to be as sharp as anybody out there,” Hendrick told AP. “I don’t want to be any less than any other team here. And just to see the reaction from the crowd, people are so excited about this car. My granddaughter has been sending me all these TikTok things that fans are making about NASCAR being at Le Mans.”
This isn’t NASCAR’s first attempt to run Le Mans. The late France Sr. brokered a deal in 1976, as America celebrated its bicentennial, to bring two cars to compete in the Grand International class and NASCAR selected the teams. Herschel McGriff and his son, Doug, drove a Wedge-powered, Olympia Beer-sponsored Dodge Charger, and Junie Donlavey piloted a Ford Torino shared by Richard Brooks and Dick Hutcherson.
— Hendrick Motorsports (@TeamHendrick) June 7, 2023
Neither car came close to finishing the race. McGriff, now 95 and inducted into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in January, is in Le Mans as France’s guest, clad head-to-toe in the noticeable Garage 56 uniforms.
“I threw a lot of hints that I would like to come. And I’ve been treated as royalty,” McGriff said. “This is unbelievable to me. I recognize nothing but I’m anxious to see everything. I’ve been watching and seeing pictures and I can certainly see the fans love their NASCAR.”
The goal is to finish the full race Sunday and, just maybe, beat cars from other classes. Should they pull off the feat, the driver trio wants its own podium celebration.
“I think people will talk about this car for a long, long time,” said Rockenfeller, who along with sports car driver Jordan Taylor did much of the development alongside crew chief Chad Knaus and Greg Ives, a former crew chief who stepped into a projects role at Hendrick this year.
— 24 Hours of Le Mans (@24hoursoflemans) June 7, 2023
“When we started with the Cup car, we felt already there was so much potential,” Rockenfeller said. “And then we tweaked it. And we go faster, and faster, at Le Mans on the SIM. But you never know until you hit the real track, and to be actually faster than the SIM. Everybody in the paddock, all the drivers, they come up and they are, ‘Wow, this is so cool,’ and they were impressed by the pit stops. We’ve overachieved, almost, and now of course the goal is to run for 24 hours.”
The car completed a full 24-hour test at Sebring, Florida, earlier this year, Knaus said, and is capable of finishing the race. Button believes NASCAR will leave a lasting impression no matter what happens.
“If you haven’t seen this car live yet, it’s an absolute beast,” Button said. “When you see and hear it go by, it just puts a massive smile on your face.”
For Hendrick, the effort is the first in his newfound embrace of racing outside NASCAR, the stock car series founded long ago in the American South. Aside from the Le Mans project, he will own the Indy car that Kyle Larson drives for Arrow McLaren in next year’s Indianapolis 500 and it will be sponsored by his automotive company.
“If you’d have told me I’d be racing at Le Mans and Indianapolis within the same year, I’d never have believed you,” Hendrick told AP. “But we’re doing both and we’re going to do it right.”
Fans gather around the NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 that is the Garage 56 entry for the 100th 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Circuit de la Sarthe (Chris Graythen/Getty Images).
General Motors is celebrating the achievement with a 2024 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Garage 56 Edition and only 56 will be available to collectors later this year.
“Even though Chevrolet has been racing since its inception in 1911, we’ve never done anything quite like Garage 56,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “A NASCAR stock car running at Le Mans is something fans doubted they would see again.”
The race hasn’t even started yet, but Hendrick has enjoyed it so much that he doesn’t want the project to end.
“It’s like a shame to go through all this and do all this, and then Sunday it’s done,” Hendrick said. “It’s just really special to be here.”
Force began the season with three consecutive motor explosions in as many races. He also got tangled in the parachute cords of Jonnie Lindberg and both slammed into the retaining wall head-on.
