John Force, likely the greatest drag racer in history and certainly the most gargantuan personality ever to grace the National Hot Rod Association, never raced in NASCAR.
But he has dabbled enough to make us wonder what the sport would have looked like if he had.
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A frequent and curious presence at Cup races over the years (“the only time I turn left is when my car’s on fire,” he quipped before the 2010 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway), the legendary Force has mused about sponsor pitches to add a NASCAR team to his burgeoning racing empire. He playfully battled Cup stars in exhibition match races (often at crossover corporate events that were a byproduct of Force’s business portfolio that bursts with personal and team endorsements).
He even attended Buck Baker’s driving school in 1993 at Rockingham Speedway, quickly acclimating to the vastly different skillset.
“(Baker) said I ran quick enough to qualify at Daytona,” Force once recalled before pausing a beat in his trademark self-deprecating humor. “He probably just told me that.”
It was Force who was playing nice. He attended the school partly as amends for an infamous vow during a NASCAR-NHRA celebrity softball game.
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“I tell them I wouldn’t drive a tin can if they gave me one, and that’s a fact,” Force said.
It sure feels as if he should have, though — and not just because of the respect he gained for stock cars as the Southern California native mingled with his counterparts from the South.
Force might have been the most prototypical NASCAR driver who somehow never turned a lap in NASCAR.
Rick Hendrick and John Force poses for a photo
If you took the archetype from every iconic champion in Cup Series history and melded them into a singularly transcendent superstar with boundless charm and blue-collar appeal, you’d have John Force.
His larger-than-life persona was like rolling several NASCAR Hall of Famers into a one-in-a-trillion talent.
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The record-breaking success and crowd-pleasing sway of Richard Petty? Force might rank second only to “The King” in signing autographs, and the 16-time Funny Car champion more than doubled Petty’s title total (with 157 victories to boot).
The plainspoken swagger of Dale Earnhardt? His goofy style might have been slightly different from “The Intimidator,” but Force made a habit of boldly working over his rivals with brash mind games.
The colorful and controversial trash-talking of Darrell Waltrip? Force made a career of derailing interviews with bizarrely hilarious segues into cultural observations, current events and politics that left sportswriters in stitches and his PR handlers in piles of flop sweat from trying to manage the ramblings of a locomotive.
In his raspy staccato, Force paints the world in the same way he drives — careening on the edge at 300 mph.
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One of NASCAR’s greatest showmen was so impressed by Force’s flair and gumption, Bruton Smith christened the largest spectator viewing area of his palatial zMax Dragway after him. “Bruton put my name on the grandstands and never paid me,” Force deadpanned in response.
The late Smith just laughed and rolled with it during a 2011 event at his Concord, North Carolina, track. Amid a litany of NASCAR luminaries, Force was the captivating star of the show who won over a crowd that included Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth.
“John’s one of us now,” Smith said, later adding there was “no way” that the NASCAR establishment could resist Force’s infectiously energetic evangelism for racing.
There’s been much rumination lately about the legacy of Force, who announced his retirement last week in a typically off-the-cuff manner. (He dropped the bombshell during a media event without warning much of his team.)
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His racing career will end at 76 years old, and nearly 18 months after a traumatic brain injury sustained in a crash at Virginia Motorsports Park that left him hospitalized for weeks.
John Force
Last weekend’s NHRA season finale was canceled because of monsoon conditions, but the pits in Pomona, California, still roared with nonstop devotionals to a classic old-school character whose everyman traits were a touchstone. Just like Harry Gant won four consecutive Cup races on Sundays after once making a living out of roofing houses on weekdays, Force was believable as the superstar who just as easily could have been driving long-haul 18-wheelers.
Funny Car champion Ron Capps marveled at the natural connection to NHRA fans.
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“They sat back with a beer on TV, watched John Force, and his interviews made them feel like they could just go hang out with him,” Capps told FoxSports.com. “He was just an old truck driver, right?”
Yet Force also is irrepressibly unique.
“He’s always the life of the party,” Kenseth once said. “I don’t know if there’s another John Force in the universe.”
NASCAR never got the one-of-a-kind John Force … but with any luck, maybe it’ll get someone who knows how to marry beguiling starpower with sublime ability.
This season’s deliberations over a potential new championship format have spurred discussions about how to build interest in the next wave of young winners.
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Perhaps it’s important to remember some words of wisdom from Force.
“Some say I’m the voice of NHRA,” he once said. “Some say I’m a big mouth.
“Maybe I am, but that’s how we preach the gospel.”
Amen — for any auto racing series.
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