John Force’s healing update: NHRA icon released from hospital one month after crash at Virginia Nationals.
After sustaining a traumatic brain injury from a 302 mph crash, NHRA drag racing great and 16-time champion John Force was admitted to a neurological treatment clinic in Arizona. He was discharged on Tuesday and moved to outpatient care. The decision comes one month after Force was seriously injured in an accident during the opening round of the NHRA Virginia Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park on June 23. The 75-year-old sustained a traumatic brain injury, as well as a shattered sternum and a right wrist injury.
Force won his first-round Funny Car race when his car blasted beyond the finish line, sending it drifting into the other lane and colliding with a concrete wall at an estimated 302 mph. Force’s automobile twisted and momentarily flew through the air before colliding with another vehicle in his original lane. Force was believed to be aware and conversing with safety workers before being transferred by helicopter to a nearby medical facility.
Force was discharged from Barrow Neurological Institute on Tuesday and will now get outpatient therapy closer to his home in California. Force will get occupational and physical treatment to address persistent short-term memory and cognitive difficulties.
Force is the most successful racer in NHRA history, winning 157 races and 16 Funny Car championships. He was second in the points standings at the time of his accident, having won two of the season’s first eight races.
Force’s career has had a number of major accidents. Force was injured in an accident during the Fall Nationals in Texas in 2007, breaking his ankle and dislocating his wrist, forcing him to miss the rest of the season.
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