We struggled with the Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford this year - Austin Coil, Bernie Fedderly and myself. In fact, going into the last two races, we hadn't made it to a single final round. I couldn't remember how long it had been, but they said it's been 23 years since we hadn't won a race and 25 years since we hadn't been in at least one final. It's been painful but, at the end of the day, whether we did anything in the last two races or not, it ain't over for John Force. I've been offered jobs in TV I've been told that being just a team owner ain't all that bad, but, no, I'm staying in the seat as long as I can.
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We ended the 2009 Full Throttle drag racing season on a high note. Two of my Next Generation drivers, Robert Hight and Ashley Force Hood, finished 1-2 in the Funny Car points, and Mike Neff got his first win as a driver in the Ford Drive One Mustang at the Auto Club NHRA Finals. It was great to see Neff and John Medlen in the winner's circle at the last event of the season. They both have put so much of themselves into that Mustang from the BOSS 500 motor, to the JFR chassis we just started running to keeping the memory alive of a kid, Eric Medlen, who used to drive that Mustang. It was just emotional. That Mustang was all Ford, and it was great to see us get a win for Ford so we can enjoy that over the off season.
Recently I had the chance to do something I never dreamed I'd do when I started racing over 30 years ago: Bruton Smith built the four-lane highway at his racetrack in Charlotte, and ever since I laid eyes on it, I wanted to drive my ol' hot rod down it, along with my three other Mustangs. I didn't get the chance to race all four of my Mustangs, but I got the next best thing when the Countdown to 1 started in September. The first race was at Bruton's zMax Dragway, and they decided to have an exhibition run on Sunday before the finals of four Funny Cars and four Top Fuel Dragsters. NHRA made the call that the four quickest losers in the first round would get first shot at running down the four-lane highway.
