POMONA, Calif. -- Every race, every pass down the drag strip in the NHRA Mello Yello Auto Club Finals was like Game 7 of the World Series for Funny Car drivers John Force and Matt Hagan.
It was for Erica Enders-Stevens as well, who made NHRA history by becoming the first woman to win a Pro Stock championship.
Hagan entered the NHRA drag racing finals in Pomona leading the Funny Car standings by 23 points over Force. Force, at 65-years old, was looking to win his 17th career Funny Car championship.
It was the Yankees vs. the Marlins. The old vs. the new. It was Andy Pettitte vs. Josh Beckett.
The only difference was Force had to win by two. He had to race two more rounds than Hagan to have a shot at winning the title.
Hagan just had to hold serve. If he reached the finals, Hagan would win the Funny Car title.
Maybe it was more like a US Open Tennis final, John McEnroe vs. Pete Sampras. Only Force doesn't say he feels old. He says he is rejuvenated. After barely missing winning another NHRA Funny Car championship, Force said he is ready to add to his already illustrious career.
"I am not quitting and the real truth is this isn't the end of John Force and it will never be the end of John Force Racing," Force said. "My grandkids will be racing. This is only the beginning of me."
Hagan won the NHRA Funny Car championship, narrowly edging Force in the final race. Force was leading the race until the final few feet. Force's engine gave out and Hagan surged past Force for the win. For Hagan, it was his second NHRA Funny Car championship. He won four NHRA Funny Car events in 2014.
"This is a really special championship for me," Hagan said. "We came out and stumbled a little bit on Friday but [crew chief] Dickie Vanables did a good job of recovering and put a new fuel pump on the car, found some mistakes that we made and went out there and ran really strong and kept it two rounds ahead of John."
Hagan and Force matched each other race for race, volley for volley, blow for blow. Hagan and Force won their first-round races. Hagan took out Chad Head. Force knocked out Bob Tasca III. Time and chances were running out for Force.
Both drivers advanced to the semifinals. Force beat Tim Wilkerson in the quarterfinals. Hagan eliminated Ron Capps.
Force faced Alexis DeJoria in the semifinals. She was the top qualifier in Funny Car and had the low elapsed time in qualifying at 3.998 seconds.
"She's a girl. She's tough," Force said after his quarterfinal race. DeJoria had the fastest elapsed time in the quarterfinals at 4.012 seconds. Force was 0.019 seconds slower at 4.031 seconds.
He knew what he was up against in the semifinals. Even if he won, Hagan had to lose.
"I need him to fail," Force said. But he was already looking past the Funny Car final and into the future. "It don't end here. It's just the beginning."
Hagan raced first in the semifinals. He went up against Tommy Johnson Jr. Johnson swerved midway down the track and Hagan took advantage. He won the race and advanced to the final. It was a little risky going first. If Hagan lost, Force had a chance to win the championship. If Hagan won, it would have pretty much wrapped up the title.
"I wasn't really looking at this or that," Hagan said. "I just know that the time was quick, we had to warm up our car, crawl in it and go race it.
"Honestly, with the ladder and the way things work out, you race your lane. Obviously, you can't control what someone else is going to do over there, what their crew chief is going to do, what their crew guys are going to do. You can control what is in front of you. I think that takes a lot of pressure off of yourself. You really simplify everything like that and say this is what I have control over."
Force easily beat DeJoria when she spun her tires on her run. But Force's championship run was over. All that was left for Force was to try to win the Auto Club Finals and at least spoil a little of the celebration for Hagan's team.
That didn't happen either. Force was the runner-up for the ninth time this season and the 96th time in his career. It was only the second time in his career Force was the runner-up in the NHRA Funny Car standings. Not even the Yankees are that good in the World Series.
"I will build a championship team again," Force said. "We only lost this thing by about one round. At the end of the day what you have to look at is you want to go out with a win, but if you can't do that, then be spectacular. I went out with a big ole fire."
Enders-Stevens won the NHRA Pro Stock championship and turned the Auto Club Finals into a historic moment in drag racing, setting the bar for women in the class.
Enders-Stevens has 12 career wins in Pro Stock, the most of any woman in the class. She is third on the NHRA career wins list for women. Shirley Muldowney won three NHRA Top Fuel championships and Angelle Sampey won three NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle championships.
Enders-Stevens also won the final race Sunday over Jason Line. The two drivers swapped the lead in the Pro Stock standings all day before Enders-Stevens finally won the title in the final race.
"I knew when we were on opposite sides [of the eliminations ladder], the story was already written. It's going to be me and him in the finals," Enders-Stevens said. "We just got to execute the best that we can. First and second round I was nervous. I could have puked.
"There was this calm that came over me in the semis and the finals. We were a little bit rushed going into the finals. We were just trying to hurry it up and that was probably a blessing in disguise."
Andrew Hines won the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle championship. He captured the title after his first-round win over Katie Sullivan in eliminations. Hines has won four Pro Stock Motorcycle championships and set a career record with six wins in 2014. He won three Pro Stock Motorcycle championships in a row from 2004-06.
"It was a non-drama day and it was nice to get that win light and get that off my chest and be able to come over here and hold that Mello Yello trophy," Hines said.
Hector Arana Jr. won the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle final. He beat Eddie Krawiec for the ninth win of his NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle career.
Tony Schumacher won the NHRA Top Fuel championship after qualifying on Saturday night. It was the eighth Top Fuel championship of his career and his first since 2009. He has won more Top Fuel championships than any other NHRA driver. His 77 career wins are also the most among Top Fuel drivers.
"It takes losing to enjoy the winning," Schumacher said. "The last four years we have been digging through adversity and really took a lot of heat for sticking with the six-disc clutch. People wanted us to revert to the five-disc clutch but Mike Green stood his ground and made us use that six-disc clutch and we won a championship."
Green, the crew chief for Schumacher's team, won his second Top Fuel championship.
Morgan Lucas won the NHRA Top Fuel final, beating Schumacher. It was Lucas's second win this season and the 11th of his career.