By Jerry Bonkowski


AP It was a classic old school battle as 16-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force held off long-time friend and former teammate Gary Densham to win in Sunday’s final round of the O’Reilly Auto Parts Northwest Nationals in Kent, Wash.
Force earned a record 141st victory of his career, covering the 1,000-foot drag strip at Pacific Raceways in a winning time of 4.173 seconds at 302.48 mph. Densham lost traction early in his run and settled for a 5.808 second effort at 120.44 mph.
It was Force’s third win of the season and his fourth straight final round appearance in the last four races, ultimately winning two of those.
What’s more, John Force Racing wound up taking all three of the races on the sport’s “Western Swing” with Robert Hight winning at Denver, Courtney Force (John’s daughter) winning last week at Sonoma and John Force winning Sunday in suburban Seattle.
“I want to win, that is what it is all about,” Force said. “But we were having so much fun down there in the staging lanes. I know you are supposed to be serious because it is race day but you are racing a friend.
“He (Densham) comes up here on a budget. Look how good he does. Steps up and races with these guys after only being out a few times all year and gets in the finals. I always say ‘If I lose to my teammates I didn’t lose,’ and if I had lost to Gary Densham I would not have lost.”

In Top Fuel, points leader Doug Kalitta (3.844 seconds at 318.84 mph) earned his second win of the season and the 35th of his career, defeating red-hot Antron Brown (3.887, 311.70 mph) in the finals.
With the win, Kalitta is now tied for fifth on the NHRA all-time Top Fuel wins list with the legendary “Big Daddy” Don Garlits.
“The competition out here is tough; it’s really something to even make it to a final,” said Kalitta, who also has six runner-up finishes thus far in 2014. “We’ve been banging on the door trying to get another win.
“Beating Antron for this one was big for us. We’ve just been trying to win rounds but Antron’s been winning a lot, too. He’s got five wins this year, so I’m glad we were able to get another one here today. We’ve got some momentum going into the next few races.”
No. 1 qualifier Tony Schumacher lost to Brown, his teammate, in the semifinals, but still managed to become the fourth Top Fuel driver thus far to clinch a berth in the upcoming NHRA Countdown to the Championship.
In Pro Stock, Jason Line (6.611 seconds at 210.67 mph) edged teammate Greg Anderson (6.608 seconds at 201.54 mph) to earn his third win of 2014.
Even with the loss, Anderson, who missed the first five races of this season recovering from off-season open heart surgery, moved into the top 10 and can still make the Countdown to the Championship between now and the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis later this month.
“It was a very good day for KB Racing,” Line said. “We got both cars to the final and Greg got in the top 10. He’s not going to look back from there. He’s got a great car.
“I was good when I needed to be today. The car wasn’t great, but it was good enough. I guess the racing gods owed me one today. It feels good to get another win. I’ve never won three races in a row though, so we’ll see what happens at Brainerd (Minnesota, Aug. 14-17).”