(John Force collected career NHRA win #142!)

After stumbling somewhat during the first 4 NHRA Mello Yello series events of 2015 – John Force Racing had a very strong push back during the SummitRacing.com Nationals held at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

John Force, the winningest driver in NHRA history, raced victory Sunday in his Peak Antifreeze Chevy Camaro when he defeated his teamate Robert Hight in the championship final round.

Force, a 16-time Funny Car world champ, clocked a 4.148-second pass at 312.35 mph to defeat Hight who trailed with a 4.154 at 306.05 in his Auto Club Chevy Camaro. This marks Force’s 142nd career win and fifth career win at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“Robert is my best team,” Force said. “He’s hot on that Christmas tree so I really got to get after him. The win was good but all that we’ve been through, with financial change, my sponsors promised to keep me competitive, win championships and I could build safety. We were lucky today and I’ll take lucky any day because it buys us some time to learn.”

En route to his first final round appearance and win of the season, Force sprinted past Chad Head, defending world champion Matt Hagan and 2014 event winner Alexis DeJoria in earlier rounds. This is the first win by a Chevy Funny Car since Phoenix 2003. Force, who qualified eighth, is No. 6 in the NHRA Mello Yello Series points standing.

Hight, the 2009 Funny Car world champion and runner-up at this event one year ago, beat Ron Capps, Cruz Pedregon and Tommy Johnson Jr. on his way to the final round. The president of John Force racing moved to third in the points standings with the runner-up finish.

Event top qualifier Matt Hagan moved back into the points lead despite losing in the quarterfinals.

Event Essentials:   NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals (Apr. 10-12th, 2015) Las Vegas NV

Points leader Matt Hagan qualified #1 and set both low ET and top speed.