Last Friday, March 23 marked the fifth anniversary of the death of one of the sports rising stars and most likable drivers in the pits, Eric Medlen. He couldn’t recover from the injuries sustained in a severe accident during testing at Gainesville Raceway in Gainesville, Florida and left the team, family and sport with a large void that may never be filled.

Medlen, who was in his fourth year as a driver for John Force Racing, was a rising star in the National Hot Rod Association and was considered family to team owner John Force. “Eric was the son I never had,” said Force, who has four daughters. “He was the leader of my next generation of drivers. This loss is a huge blow, not only to the Medlen family, but to drag racing and to John Force Racing.”

During his rookie season in 2004 in his Castrol Syntec Ford Mustang Fuel Funny Car, Medlen was a finalist for the Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award and claimed his first professional victory at Brainerd International Raceway over Gary Scelzi. He continued to impress in 2005 with three wins (Seattle, Brainerd, and Memphis) in a four race stretch around the mid-season mark and finished a career high fourth in the NHRA POWERade Funny Car standings. In 2006, Medlen increased his career win total to six – with victories at Sonoma and Richmond and again finished fourth in the standings.

The accident that ultimately proved fatal for Medlen occurred on March 19, 2007 when during a post-race testing session, his Funny Car developed severe tire shake. The side-to-side force of the tire shake caused Medlen’s head to come in contact with the roll bars that surrounded him, causing massive head injuries. The force of the blows knocked him unconscious, causing the vehicle to lose control and strike the concrete retaining wall. After being cut from the car he was transported to a local hospital with what was described as a severe closed head injury. He survived a delicate, craniotomy procedure on March 20th but was removed from life support three days later.

Due to the unfortunate death of Medlen, the NHRA made it a requirement for roll bars to be padded in the Funny Car class. Additionally, John Force Racing started the Eric Medlen Project which was created to research and build a better and safer funny car chassis.