Making Top Fuel history wasn’t enough for Brittany Force in Sunday’s eliminations at the Auto Club NHRA Finals at Pomona, Calif.

In the second round of eliminations, she became the first female to win a Top Fuel title since Shirley Muldowney in 1982, all the more remarkable because Force, 31, wasn’t born until 1986.

It was an achievement that struck dad John Force, the 16-time Funny Car champion, with such emotion that he dropped to his knees at the starting line and wept.

It gave John Force Racing its first-ever double-up championship, for Robert Hight had earned his second Funny Car championship and first since 2009 in the opening round.

And it gave tuning consultant Alan Johnson his 12th Top Fuel title with six different racers, including Shawn Langdon, her final-round opponent.

It capped a weekend in which her No. 1 qualifying elapsed time – 3.667 seconds – was best of the meet.

But Brittany Force wanted more. She wanted to put an exclamation point on her weekend – if for no other reason than to wipe from anyone’s memory, from her own memory, that red-light foul in the final at Las Vegas against Terry McMillen.  (“I’ve been losing my mind since Vegas. Since that red light, I have been all over the place, trying to make sure when I climb in my race car that I have my focus in the right place. But it’s been tough. I’ve been carrying a gut ache for two weeks,” she said, “and I’ve been wanting to get here today because I just thought, ‘Just get me to Sunday. Get me in my race car, and let’s see what our team can do.”)

She and her Monster Energy Dragster left Langdon in his own tire smoke, speeding off to a 3.668-second, 330.07-mph event-winning performance on the Auto Club Raceway 1,000-foot course that added another $50,000 to John Force Racing’s $1 million jackpot for the day.

“We’ve had an incredible day. I still haven’t wrapped my head around everything that’s happened. This just seems like a dream. And just to lock everything up the way we did, it’s pretty incredible. I never knew we could ever get here. And the reason we are here is because of that Monster team and all the support that I have,” she said. “We struggled. We had our ups and downs. But we pulled it together when it mattered most.

“I have to give all this up to my crew chiefs, Alan Johnson and Brian Husen. They are the ones that made this possible,” Force said. “They never gave up on me. They always had my back, and they kept pushing for more. And I can’t believe we’re here. This is just unbelievable. I have to thank my Dad and my family. They always had my back, no matter what. This is a very proud moment.”

She said her emotional father “was just like Courtney . . . tears in both their eyes. He just hugged me and congratulated me. I really I owe it all to him. He’s the one that gave me this opportunity and taught me everything I know about driving.

“Pretty incredible. Pretty incredible to say that this Monster team, we’re champs, 2017 Champs. That’s huge. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over that,” Brittany Force said after registering her fourth victory of the year and seventh overall. “We’ve accomplished so much this year, but this is something I will never forget. This is something I’ll carry with me forever. It’s something I’m so proud of.”

Points leader Steve Torrence entered this race with a 20-point cushion over No. 2 -ranked Force. By race-day morning, she had sliced his lead to nine points. Her No. 1 qualifying position, coupled with his brake-rotor problem on the starting line that prevented him from making a final qualifying pass, heightened the drama.   

Torrence took a respectable No. 5 spot in the line-up (four places behind chief rival Force). However, he lost his last chance to improve and gain some more bonus points. He had trouble with his brakes, and in a terse but scorching reaction, he criticized his brakes supplier by name. That might have felt satisfying, but on the eve of perhaps his first Top Fuel championship, he had to assume his Capco Contractors Dragster team would do Sunday what it did in winning eight times this year.

He eliminated Troy Buff in the first round but lost a close quarterfinal match-up with close friend and intense competitor Antron Brown, the outgoing champion.

Force said she didn’t allow herself to watch the action in front of her.

“I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on on the line next to me. If you look at me in that car, I’m looking down. I’m not looking out there at what Steve’s doing, because for me I can’t focus on all that going on,” she said. “I have to focus on our car, my driving, and our team. And so I put it out of my head and it didn’t matter to me. It mattered what our team could do. I know my team, and our crew chiefs, and that Monster team, I know that they bring everything to the line. And then it’s my job to finish it. And we did that all day long.”

Force dismissed Brown in the semifinals to set up her showdown with Langdon.

Torrence said, “It’s very disheartening. You win nine races (including the Traxxas Nitro Shootout bonus race) and can’t close the deal. I’m not a real big fan of NHRA’s welfare points system, but it is what it is. I want to congratulate Brittany, A.J. [Alan Johnson], John Force and that whole Monster team. They just played the Countdown game better than the rest of us.”

Force advanced to the final round five times in the six playoff races.

“I feel bad for all my guys, everybody on this Capco team,” Torrence said. “They worked their butts off all year, and to come this close to winning it all, well, that kind of sucks, to be honest.”

He finished second, 81 points off Force’s pace.

Both Force and Langdon are from the area, she from Yorba Linda and he from Mira Loma. So they each wanted to shine at their home track.

“I’ve always wanted to win here. It’s my home track, and we had the championship. I mean all of it, it still doesn’t seem real,” she said. “And the only reason it is real is because of all the support I have around me. I mean, it’s huge. Today is huge. We made history with Alan Johnson and Monster Energy and I’m so proud of everyone, I’m proud of my entire team.”

After the final round, Langdon said, “I’m disappointed only for the fact that I really wanted that win for these Global Electronic Toyota guys.” He finished with a 9.818-second elapsed time at 89.10 mph and a No. 7 ranking in the standings.

He’ll make the transition to a Funny Car next season, carrying the same brand. “All in all, it’s a great way to end the season. We got to the final round. We just didn’t have it in the final. We lost to a good car. We lost to the champ.

“It was nice to end, for now, my dragster career, on a good note. I love Pomona and I love coming out here. At Pomona, I give everything I’ve got, and I think my reaction times showed it today,” he said. “I’m heading to Funny Car, and it will be a new chapter in my career. It will be a new challenge, a new learning curve, I’m excited about it, and I’m ready for the challenge.”

Brittany Force’s first public remarks Sunday morning were, “Get me my race car. I’m ready to get this thing going.”

With the way the day unfolded, she hardly wanted it all to stop.