A new era of John Force Racing began with the 2026 season. For the first time ever, none of the drivers within the multi-car team are members of the Force family. But as the new-look organization quickly proved, the elements that led to 24 NHRA world championships are still there. With Jack Beckman, Jordan Vandergriff, and Alexis DeJoria in Funny Car and Josh Hart in Top Fuel, JFR came out swinging at PRO’ s preseason test session at Gainesville Raceway and stayed hot at the season-opening NHRA Gatornationals. Though Beckman in the PEAK machine lost an opening-round match with Vandergriff in the championship-winning Cornwell Tools entry, Vandergriff went on to a semifinal finish, DeJoria reached the final round in her Bandero Café Camaro, and Hart drove his Burnyzz / Speedmaster dragster to victory. It was Hart’ s second Gatornationals win, as he won there in his Top Fuel debut in 2021. With new drivers and a restructured lineup of crew chiefs and crew members, JFR got right back to its winning ways, earning the organization this issue’ s PEAK Performer title.

Photographs by NHRA and John Force Racing