Ashley Force, driver of the Castrol GTX Ford Mustang, became the first woman in series history to win a Funny Car event this past

weekend at Atlanta Dragway. In the final, she defeated her father – John Force, who has more wins, 125, and championships, 14, than any other driver in drag racing history. Ashley Force, who continues to lead the Funny Car standings, participated in a national teleconference on Tuesday and discussed her historic victory.

 

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS, NOT ONLY ON GETTING YOUR FIRST CAREER WIN, BUT HAVING IT COME AGAINST YOUR FATHER?

“Well, it’s been a long road. I started in ’07 in Funny Car and we had so many ups and downs and struggles with the car and having a new team and driver and everything brand new. But we were able to kind of build on that and the same group of guys joined me this year in the ’08 season. It was exciting to kind of step-up, go to the next level, be going rounds, going to finals. We knew if we kept getting to finals, eventually we’d get a win. So, we just had to be patient and keep doing what we were doing. But it was a great night for us. My team is still texting me, some of them texted me last night, ‘Can you believe it? It’s not a dream! We’re reading it in the newspapers.’ We’re just so excited that our day finally came.”

 

YOU’VE GONE BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK IN THE FINAL ROUNDS. YOU MENTIONED BEFORE, YOU’RE FOCUSED ON WINNING RACES AND NOT NECESSARILY THE POINTS STANDINGS, MAKING IT TO THE FINAL ROUND THAT MANY TIMES HAS GOT TO HELP YOUR CHANCES LOOKING INTO THE COUNTDOWN TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP.

 

“Absolutely. Our car is very consistent and that’s the key in drag racing. If you can have consistency, it’s going to pay off. We’re just trying to stay focused, not get caught up in everything. It’s so easy to want to be looking at the points every round and seeing where you’re at and it changes so quickly, that we’re really trying to not get into that. It would only distract us from what our main goal is and that is to win rounds, because you can’t win races without doing that. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement of it all, especially my whole life watching my dad win championships and now with my team to be at the top of the pack, we’re very motivated and excited. We just want to stay ahead of the rest of the guys and gals.”

 

WHEN YOU MADE IT TO THE TWO FINAL ROUNDS TWICE BEFORE ATLANTA, WHAT KIND OF ADVICE DID YOUR DAD GIVE YOU?

“He actually came in and said, ‘you know, you don’t need any of my advice. Just keep doing what you’re doing because you’re going rounds.’ He didn’t want to change our routine. We have our own way of doing things in our camp. He taught me when I started and now he’s kind of letting me find my own way, learn from my own mistakes. But the biggest thing that he talked to me about was in the past month was just to stay focused [and] not let the mental side of things get into our minds. The ‘oh, we can’t get past this final round’ because going to the finals is a good thing. We’re happy to be there and we knew if we could just not get it in our minds that we can’t get past the final, then we’d be all right. He did just kind of talk to me about staying focused in all the craziness, not changing our routine, doing what we always do and it’s been paying off for us.”

 

DANICA PATRICK JUST WON HER FIRST INDYCAR RACE. THE INDY RACING LEAGUE SAID SHE WAS THE FIRST FEMALE DRIVER TO WIN A MAJOR AUTOMOBILE RACE, WHICH WE KNOW ISN’T TRUE BECAUSE SHIRLEY MULDOWNEY WAS WINNING RACES BACK IN THE 70S. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?

“It’s frustrating for those in drag racing. We’ve had such a history of females doing great in drag racing, but you don’t want to take anything away from Danica. She did a great job. That’s a tough motorsport to be in. I don’t know really anything about that type of racing. But, I do know that growing up in racing, I’ve watched Shirley Muldowney, Shelly Anderson, Angelle [Sampey], so many women just win race after race, win championships. The gals in NHRA drag racing, they know what they’re doing. We’re lucky to be in a sport that is open to having us there. They promote us. They’re excited. Our competitors are happy to have us there. We know the truth that we have a lot of gals that have done great things, but it’s great for Danica as well. I would never take anything away from her. You just want to bring the knowledge to everyone that there’s a lot of different motorsports out there and around here and there’s a lot of women in all different kinds and all different levels. We have some great ones in drag racing. Those are the ones I’ve looked up to and followed. I’m excited to now be in that line-up of winners.”

 

ARE YOU EVER GOING TO LET YOUR YOUNGER SISTERS COME TO A RACE AGAIN?

“My younger sisters, they’ll be out in Topeka, I think is the next race that they’re going to take the A-Fuel dragster out to. They were so mad watching, they were actually listening online. We always joke that of course it would happen when none of my family is there. Fortunately, my mom was there and of course, my dad was there. They know next time. They’re going to be at the next race. They’ll be in St. Louis and I told them we’ll just have to do it again when they’re there.”

 

AFTER YOU LEFT THE PRESS ROOM IN ATLANTA, MIKE EDWARDS, THE PRO STOCK WINNER, WAS SAYING THAT HE WAS REALLY ROOTING FOR YOU BECAUSE IF NHRA IS GOING TO MOVE CLOSER TO NASCAR, YOU’RE THE ONE LEADING THE WAY. IS THAT A ROLE YOU’RE COMFORTABLE WITH? IF SO, HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT DOING THAT WITHOUT LETTING YOUR FOCUS BE DISTRACTED AWAY FROM YOUR RACING PROGRAM?

“First, that was such a nice thing for him to say that I read it in an article actually this morning that someone had sent me. Just a very nice man, I never really talked with him before and we were both riding up to the winner’s circle together. It was just a really fun night to be with those guys. They’re such nice guys that won in all the categories. It made it very exciting for me. As far as taking drag racing to the next level, that’s what we’re all trying to do, not just John Force Racing, but all the teams out here. That’s why we love what we do. We get to do something exciting. The fans love it. And that’s the best way to promote our sport. You really just show what it is. It’s an exciting sport and once you watch it, you’re addicted to it. You know you can’t stop watching it and I’m excited to be a part of that. If I can bring more fans, more female fans, more kids, that’s what I want to do, because I was a kid growing up in drag racing and I just loved it. It’s been a great part of my life. I’ve learned a lot from it, things you wouldn’t even think that you’d learn. I did college and I did schooling, but in drag racing you really learn about teamwork and you learn about staying focused and going after your goals no matter what the case is. I think it’s a great sport. It’s a family sport and I’m happy to be a part of it.”

 

HAVE YOU GOTTEN ANY RESPONSE, EMAILS OR CALLS FROM ANYBODY FROM YOUR PAST LIKE THAT SINCE YOU WON THIS WEEKEND?

“Well, I’m still going through text messages. I got off the plane and probably had over 20 text messages and 15 phone messages, they were all just from my family and friends and relatives. I did have an email from one of my professors at Cal State Fullerton and I saved it because I wanted to answer back to him. So I haven’t written back to him. But, yeah, it’s neat that people still keep up, friends I had long ago when I was in high school text me and send me some messages that they’d watched and they’d seen it on TV and they were real excited. It’s just neat. It shows that even years later people that I don’t see very often, they still follow the sport and they were excited to see us do so well.”

 

THIS LAST WEEKEND AT ROCKFORD, ILL., MORE GIRLS THAN BOYS COMPETED IN THE JUNIOR DRAGSTER DIVISION FOR THE FIRST TIME. IS THERE ANY PARTICULAR REASON YOU THINK THAT GIRLS ARE BEING ATTRACTED TO DRAG RACING NOW?

“I think that’s great! I think there’s a lot of women kind of out in the media right now that are racing. But there’s been a lot of women involved for years. It’s just maybe being brought more to the forefront. I think you’re going to keep on seeing young girls getting into junior drag racing and young boys because it’s an opportunity that maybe isn’t so in other types of motorsports, that you’re able at age seven or eight to climb into a race car and race at same tracks that the professional drivers race at. It’s what I love about drag racing and I get asked a lot why there’s maybe more women in drag racing than other types and I think it’s because NHRA offers so many different categories that you can jump into. You don’t just have to jump into a 330 mile and hour race car. You can bring your street cars to the track, there’s all the sportsman categories in the junior racing and that’s where a lot of families will bring out their children, boys and girls, and they’re the ones that get the racing bug and it gets in them and they want to keep doing it. I’m sure you’ll continue to see more and I think that’s just great.”

 

YOUR DAD WAS REALLY SUBDUED AFTER YOUR VICTORY. DID HE WANT YOU TO HAVE THE SPOTLIGHT, OR WAS HE FRUSTRATED BECAUSE THAT WAS THE CLOSEST HE’S BEEN TO A VICTORY SINCE HIS CRASH LAST FALL? WAS THIS ALL CONFUSING FOR HIM? ALSO, IN IHRA, LAURIE CANNISTER WON HER SECOND RACE THIS YEAR, AND NOBODY ASKED HER ABOUT BEING A WOMAN. ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THE DAY WHEN YOU’RE REFERRED TO AS JUST ASHLEY FORCE, DRIVER?

“Yeah, I think every female driver, you know, that deep down we really want to be recognized as how we are as a driver. Really, the girl-guy thing is exciting for the fans and for the media, but as drivers, when we work and we train with our teams, we want to be recognized just for whether we’re doing well or not, but as drivers. And sometimes it’s hard because I get all the attention for being a gal in the seat, but yet I have a group of 10 guys that work on my team that work 24/7 on that race car, and give me a safe, good race car, and I feel that they need to get more credit. They’re the ones. If they were an all-female team then, well, that’ll be cool. Someday, that would be pretty awesome. But for now, I have a great group of guys, and I wouldn’t be in the driver’s seat and I wouldn’t be winning races without them, and I always want to remind people of that. Though I am a gal and I like being a girl in racing, I do love my team and they are a great group of guys. For the first question, the question about Dad, he was very quiet. I think he was trying to give me my space and let me do my thing. And I didn’t mind. I would’ve loved to have him up there around me. He always worries that he’s stepping in my turf, and that’s not how I feel at all. It was exciting to race him, I’ve learned everything from him, that’s why I chose the Funny Car class, so I could race with him. But I also think it was just a long day for everyone – the fans and the teams, and with the rain on and off. It was a strange day and we finally ended it, it was nighttime, and I think everyone was just so excited, but exhausted that we made it through the day, that we had two of our teams in the final round. You couldn’t ask for anything more than that when you have team cars, so we were real happy, he was real happy for our team, and just happy that we got the race to happen that day. We weren’t sure in morning. When I got up I didn’t think we’d be racing that day. But it turned out to be a great day for us, and Dad was very proud.”

 

YOU’VE BEEN TO THE FINALS THREE STRAIGHT RACES. DO YOU THINK YOUR CONSISTENCY HAS BEEN OVERLOOKED?

“No, I think that we kept going to the finals and we knew that if we just stuck to it, we were going rounds, we were able to take the points lead. It’s so tough, you get frustrated, because in drag racing we want everything in less than five seconds and it’s so easy for us to be like, ‘Oh, we haven’t won a race. We want to win a race,’ but in the big scheme of things, I’m racing people, some with over 30 years experience, some with championships under their belts, including my dad and Scelzi. There’s just so many great drivers out there that we have to take a step back and go, ‘Let’s look at this the right way. We’re happy to go rounds, we’re happy to get finals, and if we can get that win, that would be great. But, we also know that how tough this category is, and it’s not just going to be something easy that happens. It’s going to take a lot of work and effort, and we just can’t give up.’ That’s how we looked at things.”

 

ARE YOU GLAD THAT IT HAPPENED THE WAY IT DID, WITH YOUR DAD IN THE OTHER LANE, OR WOULD YOU RATHER THAT YOUR OPPONENT WOULD’VE BEEN SOMEONE ELSE AND YOUR DAD COULD’VE BEEN ON THE STARTING LINE CHEERING YOU ON?

“Well, I had mixed emotions. It really doesn’t matter; it is what it is. You never want to race your teammate, but, yet, you really want to have two teams in the finals, so it was a strange night. It was such a late night. It was odd, the whole thing. It was fun to get to race against him, and to have to beat some of the best of the best to get to that final. It was a tough weekend. Each of our rounds were tough competitors, so it makes us proud that were able to get through all those great teams and great drivers, and we ended up standing at the end of it all. It was fun racing, we were making all kinds of jokes on the radio before we got up to run. I was actually joking with his crew chief, Austin Coil, because I was the flower girl in his wedding when I was five, and I got on the radio and said, ‘Do you really want to beat your flower girl?’ And he gets on and just very calmly says, ‘Yes,’ and you can hear all the crew guys laughing. But, it was fun for us, it was fun to race some of my closest buddies in life, they work on Dad’s team, but it was just a fun night for us. Then you always think, ‘Man, I had to beat my dad to do it,’ but if that’s what it takes, that’s what we’re going to do.”

 

YOU HAD SAID THAT YOU HAD PLANNED WHAT YOU WERE GOING TO SAY IF YOU EVER WON. OBVIOUSLY, YOU’VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT IT FOR A WHILE. NOW THAT YOU’VE WON, DID IT FEEL LIKE YOU THOUGHT IT WOULD?

“It was a real mix of emotions, and it really wasn’t until today that I could really, fully enjoy it. I think it was such an exhausting day with the weather changes and the emotions of it all – I’d never realized before I climbed in a Funny Car how mentally taxing it can be. And when you go up and you’re geared up to run, and they started our cars for the final and then it started sprinkling, and they shut ’em down and it was like a mad rush to get the tools to get the car back to where it needed to be, get it re-fueled or whatever they had to do, and you’re sitting there watching all this chaos and you’re trying to keep yourself calm – that wasn’t how I wanted to go into that round. I was distracted, I didn’t feel like I normally felt going into a run, I didn’t know what the car was going to do because we’d never had that situation where we started up and then shut down before. So, I wasn’t as excited as I thought I would be. When I won the semis, and Dad won, I was so pumped, ‘Let’s go up and let’s run together,’ and then when it came down to it, it was just some kind of craziness that went on. But, we got to the end, we won the race. I didn’t know what had happened to Dad, but then it was just a whirlwind of running here and there and interviews. The one thing I was really hoping was to get back to my team. After we got everything done, I finally was able to get back with them in the Winner’s Circle, and that’s when I started to enjoy myself, to realize what had just happened. But it took a whole day and a half, really, for it to kick in. Yesterday, we flew home. I got home, I did my call-ins, I was in bed by 8:30. I was just exhausted, was getting sick. I think when your body takes all that in – kind of like the kid at Christmas that opens all of his Christmas presents, eats all his candy and is so excited and then he just gets sick at the end of it all, just a little too much, that’s kind of how I felt when I got home yesterday. I was overwhelmed by the phone calls. It was all great things. It was just a lot to take in, and I never expected that. But when I woke this morning, I had a full night’s rest. I had kind of gotten home, got unpacked, and I was just really happy this morning when I woke up. I was able to look back and go, ‘I did it.’ It was a lot of craziness and it was tough, but we made it through. It was such a special day – I’ve got flowers today. It was just a fun experience, but it was stressful, though. Stressful would be the best word to describe it, but in drag racing that’s part of it, stress. I’ve just got to learn with it a little better.”

 

When you have success like you have recently, do you RE-adjust your long-term goals, or do you keep going week-to-week? “I think every team is different. We’re taking it week-by-week. We know in drag racing you can go from hero to zero easily. And so we really want to keep focus. We left Atlanta with a win, but we want to go into St. Louis and, first thing’s first, we want to get qualified. That’s all that’s important to us. And then from there, we want to go rounds, and, hopefully, win again. But, you can’t win until you do all the steps before that. We’re trying to keep calm and focused and not let one win take us away from our main focus, which is our race car and doing well.”

 

You mentioned that one of the things you need to work on is dealing with stress. This victory, unquestionably, will only increase your popularity, which, in turn, will bring more attention to you. Have you given that some thought? And, is it important to you personally to have your own place in history, separate from your father? “for the first question, yes. Each event that we go to, I learn new ways to manage my schedule, manage my time, and to be able to do everything I need to do in a weekend, there’s no point in doing a bunch of interviews or signing a bunch of autographs if you can’t say want you want to say and be the person that you want to be. And, there’s sometimes when it just gets so crazy that you feel like you’re not doing anything right. You feel like you weren’t how you wanted to be with the fans or you said the wrong thing in your interview, and that’s the biggest thing that I’m trying to work on, is that when I’m in my car I need to be focused and drive the car as best as I can. When I’m doing an interview, I need to be focused there and do the interview. And that’s just something that will take time and I will learn to do. I think the more I do it, the easier it’ll get, but it’s part of it. And that’s a part of winning. Focus is a huge part of it. It’s not just the car or the sponsors or the driver, it’s can you put all those things together under pressure and still perform? And that just depends on the team. So, we’re working on that. We won Atlanta, but now our goal is to win the next race. So, we’ll start again on Thursday and we’ll try to do that again. And for the second question, being a part of history, I’m just excited to be in NHRA drag racing. It’s such a fun sport. They really make it fun for everyone. There’s so many great things that it offers. I invite friends all the time, ‘Come out. You’re not going to believe all the different stuff that you can see when you come out to a race, other than racing.’ And it’s neat, now, to be a part of that history. And I hope to make more memories in it. And I hope to someday have a final against Melanie [Troxel]. I think a female and a female in the final, that would be pretty neat. Maybe we’ll make that happen – and maybe in St. Louis.”