Brittany Force, two-time and reigning NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series Top Fuel world champion, has been nominated for the 2023 ESPYS Best Driver Award for her performance in the 2022 season. This is the second time Force has been nominated for the Best Driver Award, she had her first following her 2017 championship season when she became just the second woman to win an NHRA Top Fuel championship and the first in 35 years.
Force, driver of the Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac Chevrolet Top Fuel dragster, finished the 2022 season with five victories and 10 No. 1 qualifying positions en route to the Top Fuel world championship. Force and her team led the points standings for a total of 12 races never dropping below fourth the entire season. Among their accomplishments was bettering their own national record speed to 338.94 mph in the season finale NHRA Finals at her hometown track of Pomona, Calif.
Force has handled her Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac hot rod to 13 track speed records and nine track elapsed time records (ET) and also currently holds the national record for ET at 3.623 seconds a mark she set in the 2019 season.
“I am so excited to be nominated for an ESPY. This is an honor not just for me but for my team, John Force Racing, and NHRA. I’m so proud of the season my team and I had in 2022 to get us this nomination,” Force said. “Out of all the different series and motorsports, to be one of only four drivers nominated is huge. That in itself really elevates the sport of NHRA drag racing.”
Joining Force on the ESPYS Best Driver ballot are NASCAR’s Kyle Larson, IndyCar’s Josef Newgarden, and Formula1’s Max Verstappen.
“It’s also a big honor to be recognized next to the other nominees,” Force said. “They’re all such big names in the sports world, they’ve set records, won championships and it’s pretty crazy to be listed alongside this group of athletes.”
It is the ninth time a John Force Racing driver has been nominated for the award. Her father, John Force, has been nominated for the ESPYS Best Driver Award six times and her sister Ashley Force-Hood was a nominee in 2008.
Past ESPY Best Driver winners include Lewis Hamilton, three-time winner Tony Stewart, four-time winner Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bobby Labonte, Dale Jarrett, Jimmy Vasser, Al Unser Jr., Nigel Mansell, and Michael Schumacher.
The ESPY Awards, an acronym for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly, were created by ESPN in 1993. Sports fans can vote for Force and their other sports heroes in a variety of categories via an online poll at: ESPN.com/ESPYS. Voting is underway and concludes at 8 p.m. (ET) on July 9. Fans can vote once per day. The ESPY Awards will air on July 12 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
Brittany Force Career Highlights
· 2017, 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series Top Fuel World Champion
· Holds NHRA Elapsed Time National Record: 3.623 secs., Sept. 2019, Reading, Pa.
· Holds NHRA National Speed Record: 338.94 mph, Nov. 2022, Pomona, Calif.
· 16 Career Victories
· 45 Career No. 1 Qualifiers
· Made the top 10 fastest runs in NHRA history
· 13 track speed records
· 9 track elapsed time records
Past 10 ESPYS Best Drive Award winners
2022 – Kyle Larson, NASCAR
2021 – Lewis Hamilton, Formula One
2020 – Not Awarded due to COVID-19 pandemic
2019 – Kyle Busch, NASCAR
2018 – Martin Truex Jr., NASCAR
2017- Lewis Hamilton, Formula One
2016 – Kyle Busch, NASCAR
2015 – Kevin Harvick, NASCAR
2014 – Ryan Hunter-Reay, IndyCar
2013 – Ryan Hunter-Reay, IndyCar
JFR PR
