The PRO Superstar Shootout at Bradenton, Fla., was Force’s longest outing since his June 23 accident last season at the Virginia Nationals that left him with a traumatic brain injury.

 

Ron Capps might have spoiled Austin Prock’s otherwise-perfect week Saturday, defeating the current NHRA Funny Car champion in the final round of second annual PRO Superstar Shootout at Florida’s Bradenton Motorsports Park.

But Prock’s boss, John Force, was giddy—not for Capps’ victory but for his energized cross-country trip from California. It was Force’s longest outing since his June 23 accident last season at the Virginia Nationals near Richmond has left him sidelined with what was diagnosed as a traumatic brain injury.

But he was on hand for the preseason exhibition to watch Prock top predecessor Robert Hight’s official, NHRA-recognized class-best elapsed time by two-thousandths of a second, at 3.791 seconds during qualifying. He was there to cheer on his own substitute, Jack Beckman, who last February was the live-stream analyst at the inaugural PRO Superstar Shootout.

And he watched daughter Brittany make what she called “some killer and consistent passes” in testing her Top Fuel dragster, qualify No. 3, and take out Doug Kalitta to declare that her team is “way ahead of ourselves from where we were last season.”

It all made John Force declare, “To tell you the truth, this is the first time since Richmond I really felt alive again. We didn’t win, but I was excited just to be where I need to be, running my teams and supporting Cornwell, PEAK, Monster, HendrickCars.com and all our other partners. I can’t wait to get to Gainesville [for the March 7-9 season-starting Gatornationals].

“My wife, Laurie, told me I needed to get back in the game,” the 157-time winner and 16-time champion said. “And being here in Bradenton was just good for my heart. Watching everybody work, watching the cars and the teams, and seeing old friends like Capps, it was just special.”