But for Force Hood, it never was about being a woman in a man's sport. It was about being a driver in a sport in which she literally grew up. That's why, even though she comes into this week's 12th annual United Association Route 66 Nationals in third place in Full Throttle points, she knows that there still is work to be done this season.

"It was great to move up to third place (after a runner-up finish last week at Topeka, Kan.)," she said, "but we're not satisfied. We're gonna keep our sights set on that No. 1 spot. I don't think it's out of our reach. We just need to stay focused and keep fighting the fight."

Outside of points leader Ron Capps, who already has won four times, Ashley is the hottest driver in a Funny Car division that at one time was thought to be too physically challenging for a woman to master.

In fact, until Ashley came along, there hadn't been a woman behind the wheel of a Funny Car since Cristen Powell in 2000.

However, the landscape forever changed when the 26-year-old daughter of drag racing icon John Force moved up from the Top Alcohol Dragster class. In her very first year, the former high school cheerleader went to the final round of the ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals, finished 10th in points and was introduced as the winner of the Auto Club's Road to the Future Award as the 2007 Rookie of the Year.

Now, just eight points out of second place, she is poised to make even more history if she can join her father as champion.

While the elder Force and teammates Robert Hight and Mike Neff have struggled this year, sharing one No. 1 start and one final round between them, Ashley has started three of the last four races from the top of the qualifying order and has gone to the finals three times in the last six events.

With her April victory in the O'Reilly Spring Nationals at Houston, Texas, she became just the seventh woman to win multiple pro events, a select list that includes Shirley Muldowney, Angelle Sampey, Lori Johns, Karen Stoffer, Shelly Payne and Melanie Troxel.

For Ashley, the most important thing isn"t that her car has run well in the best of conditions, recording the fastest speed in the history of 1,000 foot racing (312.18 mph at Houston), but that it also has been competitive when things have been less than ideal.

"We're getting into summer," she said, "and we're going to see track temperatures more like Topeka (130 and above) than Vegas. Hopefully we got some good data (in the Topeka heat) that we can share with the other crew chiefs.

"Whether it's hot or cold this week, we'll be ready to race," she said. In Ashley's vocabulary, "race" is the operative word.

Did You Know?
- Ashley's Castrol GTX Ford Mustang was the fastest Funny Car at the 1,000 foot distance in 2008 (310.05 mph) and is also the fastest this year (312.13 mph).
- Ashley was one of only four Funny Car points leaders last year along with teammate Robert Hight, Tim Wilkerson and eventual champion Cruz Pedregon.
- Ashley was the 2008 winner of the Auto Club's Road to the Future Award that designates the NHRA Rookie-of-the-Year.
- Ashley has started 50 races in her brief Funny Car career and has gone to the final round eight times. With six No. 1 starts, she already has more than former champions Bruce Larson (5) and Frank Hawley (4); also more than Del Worsham and Dale Pulde (four each).

Off the Track:
- Asked by NASCAR Illustrated if she had ever considered taking a turn around an oval track like Chicagoland Speedway, Ashley said: "My whole life I've been around drag racing and focused on short bursts of speed. I don't know how they drive those cars for three hours. I couldn't make it without going to the bathroom. Besides, a top speed of 200 mph seems pretty slow to me."
- Ashley appears with brother-in-law Robert Hight in a regional TV ad for the Auto Club of Southern California and is a spokesperson for Castrol, Ford, BrandSource and others.
- Ashley was recognized in 2008 as the Female Athlete of the Year by the Jim Murray Memorial Foundation in Los Angeles.
- Ashley has written a "day at the drag races" children's book for which a publisher presently is being sought.
- Ashley and her cat, Simba, were the subjects of a photo shoot with photographer David Woo for an upcoming coffee table book featuring celebrities and their pets.
- Ashley was one of the stars of the real life series "Driving Force," which aired for two seasons on A&E Network, chronicling her development as a race car driver and her father's effort to re-connect with his family.

http://www.johnforceracing.com
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Courtesy of Dave Densmore