"The 76-year-old Force's announcement came 17 months after he sustained a traumatic brain injury in a fiery wreck at Virginia Motorsports Park. A catastrophic engine failure sent him crashing into a concrete wall at roughly 300 mph. The rebound sent him careening across the center line and into another wall. He suffered a fractured sternum among other injuries, but it was the TBI that forced him out of the car for good after an NHRA-record 157 wins."
"'I don't want to go on forever, but I am officially done with driving,' Force said in a video posted to social media. 'I hate to say that word. I said in media so many times, 'Until this race car kills me, they're gonna have to drag me out of the seat.' But the truth is, I was dragged out of the seat at Richmond, and they thought it killed me then. So I'm lucky that I'm back walking, still under doctor's orders.'"
John Force, a 16-time Funny Car champion with an NHRA-record 157 wins, formally retired from driving at age 76. Seventeen months earlier he suffered a traumatic brain injury in a fiery crash at Virginia Motorsports Park when a catastrophic engine failure sent his car into concrete walls at roughly 300 mph. He sustained a fractured sternum and other injuries, and the TBI ended his driving career despite months of outpatient therapy in California. Force will continue overseeing John Force Racing. His daughters Brittany and Courtney have stepped away from competition to start families, and several grandchildren are involved in racing.
Read at ESPN.com
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