Which driver holds the record for most NHRA Funny Car championships?

John Force holds the record for the most NHRA Funny Car championships.

Force has won 16 NHRA Funny Car world championships, more than any other driver in the class. His titles came in 1990, 1991, 1993–2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, and 2013. The ten consecutive championships from 1993 through 2002 form one of the most dominant stretches in professional drag racing.

His breakthrough followed years of persistence. Force began competing in Funny Car in 1977 and earned his first national-event victory at Montreal in 1987, after nine career runner-up finishes. He then became champion for the first time in 1990, launching the title-winning era associated with crew chief Austin Coil and the Castrol GTX-backed team.

Force is also the winningest driver in NHRA history, with 157 career national-event victories. That broader record can cause confusion because championship totals and race-win totals measure different achievements.

Kenny Bernstein, Don Prudhomme, and Cruz Pedregon are major Funny Car champions, but none approaches Force’s championship total. Force retired from competition in 2025.