[6] He graduated from Bell Gardens High School and briefly attended Cerritos Junior College to play football.

Neff, who was once the crew chief for rival driver Gary Scelzi, raced in a 4th Funny Car for JFR from October 26, 2007, following the death of Eric Medlen, until the end of the 2009 season.

Dana now attends some of the NHRA events as she is a part-time Intern-Journalist with "The Motorsports Report" based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and resides an hour south in Kingman, AZ.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW-6Jk_gTgk Between 1987 and 1996, Force won sixty-seven of 203 NHRA national events, four of nine Big Bud Shootouts, and six World Championships.

[13] In 1996, with Austin Coil tuning, Force went to the final round in sixteen of nineteen national events, taking thirteen wins, one of the best records ever in Funny Car history.

[14] His domination would continue, with ten NHRA FC World Championship wins from 1993 to 2002, including six straight 1997-2002; his success was so amazing, he was accused of cheating (and was willing to strip off his firesuit to prove he was not).

[16] In 1992, the honor of putting Force on the trailer would go to Cruz Pedregon, driving the Larry Minor McDonald's-sponsored Olds to the championship.

He then had fellow driver and arch-rival Cruz Pedregon's younger brother, Tony, come aboard to drive John's 2nd car.

This nickname hearkens back to his early days on the track, when he drove his own unsponsored car, named "Brute Force".

He rebounded, winning the O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tennessee, then proceeded on to three more final rounds, winning another race in Sonoma, California, putting him fourth in points and allowing him to make the first cut in NHRA's new point system, the Countdown to the Championship aka the "Countdown to Eight".

On September 23, 2007, Force was injured in a crash at the O'Reilly Auto Parts Fall Nationals in Ennis, Texas as he crossed the finish line against Kenny Bernstein.

Initially, it was thought that the block ruptured Force's left rear tire, causing it to come apart, violently shaking the chassis until it broke apart.

[18] Injuries sustained were a broken ankle, abrasion of his right knee, a dislocated left wrist, and badly mangled fingers and toes, and Force had to be airlifted to Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.

This change happened because when the 2008 season began, Force's right arm was still in a cast, due to broken fingers, and he needed a different way of using the brakes on the car, rather than the traditional handbrake that needed to be brought back toward the driver; also, in the 2007 accident in Texas, Force had lost some grip in his right hand, and had some problems putting enough pressure on the handbrake to unlock it from position to apply the brakes.

This led to the development of the forward application handbrake, which has given several drivers in the Funny Car class quicker access to the brakes.

On February 14, Force won the season opener at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in the 50th Winternationals in California defeating Ron Capps.

After 13 events, Force had 4 wins, and lead the Funny Car points standings with 933, 58 ahead of teammate Robert Hight.

Going into the Auto Club of Southern California Finals in Pomona, CA on November 14, 2010, Force needed some help to win the championship.

Ashley Force Hood announced that she was expecting her 1st child, and would sit out the 2011 Full Throttle Drag Racing Season.

2012 saw John welcome a fourth driver to his stable, former Top Alcohol Dragster champion, and daughter Courtney, who was in the running for the Auto Club Rookie of the Year Award, she will be driving the Traxxas Ford Mustang in her rookie season, and she has done something that only sister Ashley has done, beat her father in the first meeting between the two, taking John out of the Arizona Nationals in Phoenix in just the first round.

During the start of the 2013 season, Ashley announced her retirement from full-time competition, this left the Force team short a driver.

He won at the season opener in Pomona California as well wins in Norwalk Ohio & Seattle Washington as he would finish 2nd points.

[23] John expressed extreme relief after winning, his first words to the camera being obscenities (which NHRA had to censor, as the broadcast was on network television).

The race was originally part of the Lucas Oil Winternationals in Pomona, CA that was abandoned after the semifinals, resulting in a double finals situation at Firebird Motorsports Park.

Force then doubled at New England Dragway in the first New England Nationals since 2022 (the 2023 race was rescheduled to Bristol the following week) by winning the Mission Foods Challenge for semifinalists at the previous round (Joliet) in defeating Blake Alexander on a holeshot that counts towards bonus points in the Countdown, then defeating Prock in the main elimination tournament's final round for his 157th victory.

In June 2024, Force suffered a traumatic brain injury in a fiery crash at Virginia Motorsports Park after his engine exploded at the end of a run.

[28] John was featured on A&E's reality show Driving Force with his wife (Laurie) and three of his daughters (Ashley, Courtney, and Brittany).