Always liked the guy...dirty drivers suit, excitable post-race interviews, colorful commentary. Didn’t know he’s already 75!
I met John in person between Rounds years ago at Ennis, TX (Dallas). We had VIP Access via Motorcraft Regional Representative and got to be inside the barricade of the Force Pit and watch the Crew tearing down and refreshing the car for the next Round. It's a coordinated ballet at high speed. Anyway we were watching the Crew when John came from the trailer and walked right over to our group and started talking with us. I concluded at that moment that He's like that All the time and not just for TV interviews.
One of our group was celebrating his birthday and he and one more person were taken down on Track and stood between the lanes behind the Tree for the Final Round. When they got back to our (very jealous) group they had the biggest smile on their faces. They couldn't decide what was making the air in their lungs being emptied due to the lack of air because the engines were sucking up all of the air in the immediate vicinity or the pressure from the 2 engines exhaust was squeezing it out of them !!! The grins on their faces were still there at work on Monday morning.🤪ðŸ¤
Lord have mercy on His Nurses when He (hopefully) gets back to being John Force...