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The Ford Performance NHRA Nationals is always a pivotal event in the schedule, and even though it’s the 19th race of the year, we’re still learning things. Here’s our five big takeaways from the race.

THE FORCE IS STRONG

We can’t overstate how great it was to see the GOAT, John Force, back at the track for the first time since his devastating wreck in Richmond in June. He drew wild applause every time the announcers noted his presence on the starting line, cheering on his three drivers. And the inspiration it gave all three teams was palpable and evident, and the fact that Brittany Force and Austin Prock swept nitro honors for the first time this season and that Brittany got back into the winner’s circle for the first time in two years speaks volumes, as did Brittany’s sentiments in the media center.

"Having my dad here for the first time since his crash, it wasn't pressure, it was more heart behind every single person on the team. We always want to come out here and win, but with him being here this weekend, after everything he's been through, there was definitely more heart behind it. We wanted to get him in that winner's circle."

No matter what happens with John Force in the future, if he never turns another tire on the dragstrip, he’ll always be everyone’s hero.

DRAG RACERS HAVE GOOD POKER FACES

This being Vegas, where keeping your emotions at the gambling tables is paramount, we got a taste of that.

Austin Prock and his crew chief father Jimmy are just four points away from clinching the Funny Car championship, meaning that all they need to do at the In-N-Out Burger 91���� Finals is stage the car for the first qualifying session to collect the 15 “show-up” points awarded to all entrants.

Still, as if speaking from one mind, when asked about it, both father and son refused to show any joy about their impending coronation.

Jimmy was asked about it seconds after his son raced to victory and said, “The job’s not over,” a sentiment that Austin echoed a half-hour later in the media center.

It’s hard to think they’re saying it just to be humble because they surely have every reason not to be humble, or that they’re afraid that their opponents will use as a bulletin board inspiration, because, unless teammate Jack Beckman lures Austin into an elevator and somehow disables it, this one is over.

"The job's not finished until the [championship] trophy is in our hands, and when it gets to my hands, it's going straight to my dad's hands, but we're getting really close,” declared Austin. “We still haven't won the championship, and that's our main goal this year. When I got in the race car at the beginning of the year, my dad said he wanted to win a world championship, and this team has just been lights out this year, outstanding job by each and every one of them."

Gaige Herrera was only slightly more forward-looking about his final showdown with Matt Smith in Pomona, but when I pressed him harder to just imagine how he might feel if he won the championship, he brightened a bit.

"If I'm able to win the second championship — and anything can still happen — this one would mean a lot more than the first,” he said. “I had to earn it a lot more this season. We kind of ran away with it last year, but this year, it was definitely a lot tighter racing, and there wasn't much room for error, so it's gonna mean a lot more for sure, just showing that last year wasn't a fluke or a one-time thing, and that's pretty amazing."

PRESSURE? WHAT PRESSURE?

Speaking of Prock, whose eight-win season matches those of Ron Capps and the man that Prock is subbing for this year, Robert Hight, for most wins in a season since John Force won 10 in 2000, the season result has to be a bit of a relief.

After all, he was jumping into a car and team that had won three world championships with one of the sport’s greatest tuners — who just happens to be his dad. It’s almost a no-win situation, right? He’s in a car that’s expected to win, and if it doesn’t, he’s the only real change.

If they struggled, all fingers would point to him, and if he’s successful, well, of course, why wouldn’t he be? He’s got the best car.

“It was a lot of pressure, big shoes to fill,” he allowed. “I mean, Robert Hight’s one of the greatest Funny Car drivers to ever live, and I’m getting into arguably the best car in the last decade. So, yeah, definitely, a lot of pressure. But, you know, I want to drive race cars for a living, and the only way to drive race cars for a living is to do an outstanding job. I wouldn't say I've done an outstanding job, but I've done a good enough job to hit these wins. I want to be better each and every run, and that's what it's going to take to fill shoes like Robert Hight. I’m not saying I'm there yet, but I hope I have a long career in this sport, and we're off to a good start.”

GOOD JOB X2, SHAWN

It’s tough to have a microphone in your face at the height of one of the worst moments of your racing career, but Shawn Langdon’s cool was as much admired as his crazy-good job of keeping the Kalitta Air dragster off the wall after blowing the left rear tire at 330 mph after he devastatingly crossed the centerline en route to what looked like an easy semifinal win over broken teammate Doug Kalitta, a win that would have put him right on the heels of points leader Justin Ashley with one race to go, with the chance to be just five points back if he could have won the final.

Langdon is known for extreme candor on the microphone – anyone who heard him go off after the weirdly long Christmas Tree in round one in Dallas will know that – but he kept his cool in the face of the devastating turn of events and delivered one of the season’s great interviews.

“The car was making a good run, and I could feel it pulling me left,” said Langdon. “I tried to cheat it a bit right and run the ragged edge and bring it back in, but it kept pulling me left. I kept putting input into it, and it just was not coming back. The next thing I know, there's a block and the tire blows, and I’m just trying to save what I can. That’s the first time I’ve ever hit anything in my career. I feel bad for my guys; they’ve worked their asses off. We have a championship team.”

If Langdon does go on to win the championship, everyone will be quick to note that Kalitta also won his championship last year after a similar tire-blowing moment in Reading from which he not only bounced back but excelled. (Pro tip for future wannabe world champs.)

BUSTING THEIR REAR ENDS

It was a long and trying weekend for everyone, and racing in the sometimes harsh climes of the Nevada desert has its own challenge – cold or hot weather, high winds, and dust storms chief among them – but the Simpson NHRA Safety Safari got a real workout after Billy Torrence on Saturday and Doug Kalitta on Sunday destroyed rear ends in what has become a bit of a mini epidemic in the nitro ranks.

Cleaning up motor oil is one thing – those guys and gals do it all the time – but rear-end lubricant is a whole ‘nother challenge.

After Billy-Billy shelled one in Q4, it took 80 minutes to have the left lane raceable, and what happened? Clay Millican goes 3.70 and Steve Torrence and Brittany Force both go 3.67 down that lane. You can’t say enough good things about that team.

And while Kalitta’s late-Sunday slime job was so immense and the weather so cool that we had to call it a day and come back Monday, the performance in the left lane was good again as Paul Lee in the Funny Car semi’s and Austin Prock in the final both went 3.83.
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