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Brainerd, Minn. • Brittany Force raced to her third Top Fuel victory of the season Sunday in the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway.
The daughter of Funny Car great John Force, Force beat defending season champion Antron Brown with a 4.169-second pass at 180.21 mph. Brown had a 6.566 at 103.47.
Brown's car rattled and lost traction early while Force's dragster backfired and released the parachutes just a little farther down track than Brown, allowing her to coast to the finish line in front.
Force raced to her first career victory in Gainesville, Florida, in March, and also won the Four-Wide Nationals in April in Concord, North Carolina.
"It's awesome to be able to win here," said Force, fourth in the season standings. "I felt good coming in this weekend because we had some success last year and I'm pretty sure we did well the year before. We are exactly where we want to be as we go into the Countdown and our biggest race of the season in Indy. It feels so good to bring home another win."
Del Worsham won in Funny Car, Drew Skillman in Pro Stock, and Andrew Hines in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
Worsham pushed his Toyota Camry to a 3.908 at 327.27 to outrun Matt Hagan's 8.095 at 71.33 after smoking the tires in his Dodge Charger R/T. Worsham, the season champion last year without a regular-season win, won for the first time this season, 39th overall and 31st in Funny Car.
Drew Skillman raced to his first Pro Stock victory of the year and second of his career, topping Jason with a 6.648 at 208.97 in a Chevrolet Camaro. Line has seven victories this year.
Andrew Hines had a perfect 0.000-second reaction time to beat Jerry Savoie in Pro Stock Motorcycle. Hines' 6.866 at 194.94 on a Harley-Davidson was enough to beat Savoie's 6.863 at 194.88 on a Suzuki for a holeshot win. Hines has four victories this season and 46 overall.