John Force is the most accomplished Funny Car drag racer in the history of NHRA and is the father of Ashley Force-Hood, who seems on a course to follow in her father's footsteps. On September 23, 2007, John Force's career and life almost ended in a tragic collision with fellow Funny Car racer Kenny Bernstein during the O'Reilly Auto Parts Fall Nationals, breaking both his legs and one of his arms.

Now fully recovered, Force is back to drag racing and is climbing back to the top of the game, along with Robert Hight, Ashley Force-Hood, and Mike Neff, making John Force Racing a Force to be reckoned with.

After all the controversy, allegations of cheating, whispers of years of manipulation, and bruha surrounding the Indy race, it looks like John Force will not walk away inscathed. Force was slapped with a $10,000 fine for the incident that happened at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, presented by Lucas Oil at O’Reilly Raceway, Labor Day Weekend, though its not for what many might think.

After experiencing an unexpected loss to Ashley Force-Hood and watching his brother and teammate Cruz Pedregon get bumped from the points race by what appears to have been a fixed race, Tony Pedregon had a few choice words for John Force. Confrontation ensued after a few choice words were thrown in John’s direction, resulting in a physical separation of the men by NHRA officials.

It was that incident, not any wrongdoing associated with the questionable race that landed John in the hot seat with NHRA. The fine was levied against John for making physical contact with one of the NHRA officials tasked with breaking the feuding Funny Car racers apart, which, unfortunately for John, was extremely well documented by cameramen in the area. As far as the race goes, the NHRA ruling on race day still stands. Force is still not guilty of the crime of cheating, at least as far as they are concerned.

John will have to pony up the dough if he expects to be able to teach those pesky Pedregons a lesson in Charlotte.

The controversy surrounding John Force Racing from the Labor Day 2009 event at Indy casts a shadow over his daughter, Ashley Force's Funny Car win. Accusations are flying regarding whether or no he threw the semi final race between him and his teammate, driver, and son-in-law, Robert Hight in order to get him into the points race, bumping Cruz Pedregon from the number 10 spot.

Tony Pedregon confronted John Force about the situation just seconds after Ashley Force Hood, John's daughter, beat Pedregon in the semi finals. An argument ensued, though no blows were thrown.

In subsequent interviews with both Force and the Pedregons, it is obvious that there is a difference of opinion regarding the reasons behind Force's loss of the race, from the controversial choice of lanes, the slow reaction time and the loss of traction. John says that Robert "had the better car all weekend." While the Pedregons maintain that John Force manipulated the race, as he had done before, in order to get Robert into the points countdown.

Mike Dunn sided with the Pedregons, even after NHRA officials investigated the incident, claiming that Force intentionally lost the race, even though NHRA couldn't prove it. Dunn cited the obvious lack of reaction on the tree and the blatant choice of the inferior lane as proof that John had no intention of winning the semis.

With all that said, the race results will stand. All four Force Racing cars are in the Countdown to One and will continue to seek the Championship amid all the controversy.

Congrats to Ashley for both winning at Indy and claiming her Wally, as well as finally beating Tony Pedregon.

On the heels of an ugly confrontation between John Force and Tony Pedregon and in the wake of the numerous allegations of cheating by John Force Racing, it looks like there may be a call to action brewing in Charlotte. In an article posted on the Lowes Motor Speedway website (www.lowesmotorspeedway.com), Marcus Smith is offering a $20,000 bounty to the winner of a grudge match between Tony and John, the two most successful funny car racers in the history of the sport, in order to settle this thing once and for all. It was the semi final match up at Indy that caused all the drama. Cruz Pedregon boiled the tires at the sixty foot mark in round two against John Force, leaving him vulnerable to losing his number 10 spot in the points race. John Force would be in the semi final round. Robert Hight, who had been having a tough season so far, had yet to secure his place among his teammates in the points race. Indy was his last chance. After a sound victory against Bob Tasca, III, it was a match up made in heaven for Force Racing. Hight would be paired up against Force, and a win here would secure his place in the points race, bumping Cruz from his precarious position. John Force made a controversial move, choosing the right lane over the left, which automatically gave him a disadvantage off the line since that lane had already proven to be tricky. As the lights clicked green, Force left with a .209 reaction time, much slower than his average .08 light. Something began to stink. John Force boiled the tires milliseconds after leaving the line, giving Robert the green light to take the win and secure his place in the countdown. NHRA officials reviewed the tapes and inspected the car, concluding that there was no conclusive evidence to prove than John gave the race to Robert, though the Pedregons and many of the fans believe that’s exactly what happened. Many fans have been calling what John did a sacrifice to the sponsors, allowing his business sense to get in the way of his moral obligation to “do the right thing”, though John Force is firmly denying any allegation of race manipulation or cheating. During subsequent interviews of Force, he gave a predictable response, "He (Pedregon) wants to fight, let's see him fight this old man out on the racetrack.” In all fairness to both John and Tony, this controversy really can’t be resolved by either of them. The real grudge match should be between Robert Hight and Cruz Pedregon. Grudges aside, if a side event could restore the faith of the American public in the honor and integrity of NHRA drag racing, the organization should allow for Robert to race Cruz in a one-on-one, best two of three matchup and allow the winner to take the number ten spot in the points race. Then there could be no disputing that the best racer was in the final Countdown to One. Of course, everyone has long anticipated a grudge match up between the Pedregons and John Force Racing, ever since Tony and Cruz left John Force to go out on their own. Both teams have been very careful to disguise the animosity between them, but racing fans know it’s there and it’s been waiting on a moment like this to erupt into the media storm is has become.

And that is exactly what Marcus Smith wants to see: a good, old fashioned grudge match between the two most successful funny car drivers in history. We all want them to battle it out on the track, and settle this once and for all, to show the fans just who is the baddest drag racer on the circuit today. The race at Charlotte should be an interesting one.

After reading the article on the Lowe’s Motor Speedway website (www.lowesmotorspeedway.com) with regard to Marcus Smith’s offer to pony up $20,000 for a grudge match between John Force and Tony Pedregon, my wheels started turning.

I had watched the Hight/Force match up at Indy, and came away with the same sour taste in my mouth after watching the Funny Car semis that so many others felt. When I saw the ladder, the first thing that came to my mind, was that John was going to “take one for the team” and let Hight win. I don’t think that anyone who follows drag racing would have thought any different, and if you did, I didn’t mean to offend your intelligence…

Anyway, when I watched John pull into the right lane, I nodded my head as if he had just confirmed everything I had thought. Robert was going to get into the points race after all. Wouldn’t that just be a sponsor’s dream? To have all four cars represented in the pints race?

You can imagine what happened next. As the tree clicked green, John Force not only took a nap at the line, he smoked the tires right off the launch pad and even grazed the wall just a touch, for entertainment value, maybe? Cruz and Tony got mad. The icing on the cake was watching Ashley Force-Hood, who, up until this point, had not been able to overcome her demon and win against Tony, gave him a firm spanking. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the fire come out of the eyes of Tony Pedregon as I did during the post race interview. Man, if looks could kill. And then, it got personal. Both Tony and Cruz started crying about how John had been able to get away with this stuff for years, claiming that they had both been the fall guys back in the day that they raced for Force, and now, so many years later, nothing had changed.

Needless to say, those were fighting words for John, and who could blame him. I think that what he did disgusted him almost as it did us fans. His fans mean everything in the world to him, and he let them down. He is under so much pressure to perform out here, and all he really wants is to please his fans, but I digress.

After watching the melee between the two most accomplished racers in Funny Car history, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Why not take it to the track.

Obviously, Marcus Smith had the right idea. He wants to see the best man win. The problem is that his idea is slightly misdirected. The answer to this whole dilemma could be solved easily. The grudge match needs to happen, but it needs to happen between Robert Hight and Cruz Pedregon, not John and Tony. Let Robert and Cruz battle it out in an old school 2 out of 3 race and may the best man join the ranks of the other points racers. This seems like the most amicable and fair way to bring honor back to the track, appease the fans (who really only want to watch some good, old fashioned drag racing without all those politics), and restore faith in the NHRA as the good guys.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I would be all in favor of having the winner of the Hight/Pedregon match up move into the 10th slot on the leader board without hesitation, fully believing that the best racers of the season are being represented.

All those in favor? Say aye and bombard the NHRA forums, and this article, with your desire to see justice done.