With the NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship looming and nearly a year has passed since John Force rallied his troops for a sponsorship blitz in the wake of Ford’s and Castrol’s announced exits from the sport, fans are wondering what off-track progress the 16-time Funny Car champion and four-car team owner is making for 2015.

He leaked out some information at the Seattle race, saying he had some, but not enough, sponsorship lined up. He said he has a reality-TV deal in the works but cannot finalize it until he has full sponsorship in place.

With the NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship looming and nearly a year has passed since John Force rallied his troops for a sponsorship blitz in the wake of Ford’s and Castrol’s announced exits from the sport, fans are wondering what off-track progress the 16-time Funny Car champion and four-car team owner is making for 2015.

He leaked out some information at the Seattle race, saying he had some, but not enough, sponsorship lined up. He said he has a reality-TV deal in the works but cannot finalize it until he has full sponsorship in place.

Then at Brainerd, he shared a little more with the media and the public. He said he had some marketing-partnership agreements he signed last Saturday while at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway.

"Right now I've got some deals on the table that I want to close, and they’re watching me real close. Nobody wants to buy you [if you can't perform]. I've heard it before: ‘Boy, got this big deal.’ You’ve seen it happen in our business: Guy gets a big deal because of who he is and now he can't hit his butt again. I don’t need to be there.    

"I've got to get this hot rod where it will win," he said, "and build the confidence in myself and all these kids around me and let the competition know that we're –

"We've been good.  All my cars have been good. Not great. But together we've been great. I got two cars I'm still trying to get in the Countdown, Courtney's and Brittany's," Force said.

Force said he wants a long-term agreement.

"I want to continue to race. I don’t want a one-year deal. I want a three- or a five-year deal. If I don’t get a deal over three [years], I ain't goin',” he said. “So we got a lot of deals that we're talking about. A lot of little ones are bunching up. And we signed some today."

Force did fuel some speculation Saturday for those who love to speculate. He mentioned PPG Industries, a company John Force Racing has been involved with since at least 2009, when it began using Envirobase High-Performance Paint. John and Courtney Force have spoken at company gatherings before, and just before the Brainerd event he made a personal appearance for PPG. There he reconnected with a former Funny Car driver, who in Force’s words, “got money from his business 30 years ago and raced up here And he went off into the business world and he’s big in the PPG world.”

He didn’t divulge a name but called his guest for the Brainerd race “a big guy with PPG, very important.” Then Force said, “He’s not actually with PPG” before being steered to another topic.

Rumors abounded several years ago that JFR would announce a sponsorship deal with PPG, but that never happened. And this gentleman’s visit to Brainerd might mean nothing more than he took up Force on his invitation to come out and enjoy the races last Saturday.

One thing was certain Saturday: Force loves his grandchildren and is thinking – even threatening – to put them in race cars.

“They make me happy. They give me the heart when I’m down and beat up and depressed and s--t ain’t going right. I look at them and their little faces, chocolate all over them . . . And Grandpa’s poured so much Coke down ’em they’re running around like they’re crazy and [his daughter] Ashley’s pissed off, like, ‘You’ve got to stop this!’ Why do you think they like this old, fat guy? Because I give ’em Coca-Cola and fudge brownies and stuff.”

Then Fun Grandpa turned into Sassy Grandpa.

He told daughters Brittany and Courtney, “You keep screwin’ with me, I got your replacements right there.”

He said, “Ol’ Courtney’s lookin’ like, ‘Who’s over there?’ Brittany goes, ‘He’s talking about [Ashley’s sons], Jacob and Noah.”

So the Force reality show rolls on, even without cameras and a deal yet it put it on TV.

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