John Force Update: “He Finally Gets to Sleep in his Own Bed”

Exactly one month – to the day – after surviving a massive engine explosion during the first round of eliminations for the PlayNHRA Virginia NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park, 16-time Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series Funny Car titleholder John Force is beginning outpatient care near his Yorba Linda home in the greater Los Angeles area.

Force, who has two victories this season and a total of 157 national event wins, currently holds fifth place in the season-long standings, albeit 351 points behind Austin Prock, driving a Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car for John Force Racing in relief of Robert Hight, who stepped away this season with his own medical concerns.

John Force was transferred from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health Center in the greater Richmond, VA area to Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix last week. He had been airlifted from the track to VCU and subsequently used an AirMed flight to Arizona for this week’s treatment.

The Hall of Fame owner and driver continues to improve incrementally since hitting both walls at Virginia Motorsports Park at more than 300 miles per hour. He was discharged from Barrow’s facility Tuesday and has returned to Southern California.

Family members confirmed the man known as “Brute” Force (the logo has been part of his nameplate on the PEAK Funny Car) continues to work with therapists specializing in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), albeit now on an outpatient basis in Southern California.

“He finally gets to sleep in his own bed,” said daughter Ashley Force Hood who, with sisters Adria, Brittany, Courtney and mother, Laurie, maintained constant presence throughout Force’s Virginia and Arizona hospitalizations. The next phase of Force’s TBI recovery process will be on an outpatient basis, and will focus on Occupational and Physical Therapy (OTPT), addressing the lingering short-term memory loss he’s sustained, as well as cognitive issues.

Daughter Brittany Force, a two-time Top Fuel champion, returned to competition last weekend at Pacific Raceways and will join Prock for this weekend’s 36th DENSO Sonoma NHRA Nationals at Sonoma Raceway. She holds tenth-place points as the NHRA’s national series completes the final three races of its regular season, which concludes at the 70th U.S. Nationals on Labor Day weekend, before the Countdown to the Championship begins September in Reading, PA.