Mike Neff and his Ford Drive One Mustang team capped a massively successful weekend for John Force Racing by winning the 45th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway. It was Neff’s first career win as a driver in fifty races behind the wheel and the 191st win for John Force Racing with 185 coming in the Funny Car class. For the former crew chief turned driver the win gave him a whole new appreciation for how a driver can get a win even when their car may not be dominant.
“Things just kind of fell our way today. That is not normally how I would like to do it. I would rather go out there and dominate, be low ET every round but I’ll take it any way we can get it. It was a little hit and miss,” Neff said of his day, “mainly miss. But it just goes to show you that when it’s your day, it’s your day. We ran good when we needed to and we caught some lucky breaks. It turned out to be a pretty exciting final there with Ashley. My car went up in smoke immediately and I saw her out there and just when I thought it was over, I started reeling her back in.”
“I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to win one. We finally did it in the last race of the year and it’s a good one to win because you get to (enjoy) it all winter. I’m from Southern California. Born and raised here (so) this is the place I wanted to get (my first).”
“It’s awesome. The fans our here at Auto Club Raceway were great. Robert winning the championship, Ashley finishing second and me now getting my first win, it was just the perfect ending.”
Neff had to out-pedal Force Hood in the final. The crowd was immediately on its feet when Neff’s Mustang lost traction only to see Force Hood sashay all over her lane in front of him. Neff was able to gather his Mustang under control and blast past her at the finish line. For Force Hood the ride was dramatic but the outcome was very pleasing.
“That was a wild ride. I didn’t see Neff for a long time. I kept trying to see if he was out there. Then I saw him go on down. Then I tagged a few things including the wall. It was exciting. The fans had a great show. I am OK and the Mustang is OK. We’ll just go back and get ready for the start if the season. We’ll be back here in a few months,” said the 13-time finalist
“I wasn’t sure I hit the wall or if it was just me hitting the roll cage padding. It wasn’t too bad. We have so much safety stuff like padding and ear protection. We also have ear plugs that record how hard we hit. I’ll take some Tylenol and I’ll be alright by tomorrow morning. You never want to hit a wall you always want to avoid that. It disqualifies you if you hit it. You also have to get your car down the track which is what I was trying to do.”
“It was great to see Neff win. I couldn’t be any happier. Robert won the championship and we were able to clinch the second spot. I am so proud of them. They did an amazing job. Getting two cars in the final is awesome. No matter what happens one of us will get the winner’s circle. To have it happen at our home track here in Pomona was cool too,” said the 2007 Rookie of the Year.
“Sometimes you are just on a roll and everything goes the right way,” concluded Force Hood. “It is just like magic happening. I think you really feed off of each other. Once Robert clinched it we were so pumped and excited. We are doing well and it sort of built up from there. You see that with teams. It happens when you are that close and you see them do well and it motivates you to do well. If Courtney wins I might just faint. I can’t even believe how great this weekend was. I am just really excited.”
Neff defeated friend Jim Head in the first round, Force in the second and most importantly fellow Ford Mustang driver Tim Wilkerson in the semi-final round. The win locked up Ashley Force Hood’s position as the Full Throttle championship runner-up and the $100,000 payday for the Castrol GTX Mustang team. This was not the first pressure packed round for Neff in the Countdown. In Richmond Hight and Force Hood were eliminated early and Neff defeated Tony Pedregon minimizing any points advantage Pedregon could have picked up on his teammates.
“You want to be able to pull your weight and help your team out. You don’t want to let them down. Everybody is counting on you. It is not like you have to win every race for them but there is a certain amount of pressure in certain situations that you don’t want to let them down. Those are definitely two big wins for us. There was a lot of pressure racing Tim Wilkerson knowing that he was challenging Ashley for that number two spot. We definitely wanted to be able to pull our wait and help them out. Those are the kind of wins where you feel the pressure.”
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