Austin Prock continued his red-hot ways Saturday, leading John Force Racing in the final day of qualifying for Sunday’s 4-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Having switched to Funny Car for the first time in his career to start this season, Prock continues to dominate qualifying in the class, earning his third No. 1 qualifier in the first four races of the season.
He’s also moved into the No. 1 position in the Funny Car points standings.
The Lansing, Mich., native then doubled up by winning this week’s edition of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge, a season-long series of races-within-a-race that was worth an extra $10,000 for Prock and his Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car crew.
Prock now hopes to make it two winning weekends in a row, as he won his first-ever NHRA “Wally” Funny Car winner’s trophy in last Sunday’s race in Phoenix.
“It gives you a lot of confidence coming into Sunday morning running like we are,” Prock said. “So I’m chomping at the bit to get into the first round tomorrow and hopefully we can go three more (rounds to win).”
Because it is the 4-Wide Nationals, there are only three rounds of eliminations as opposed to the usual four rounds at traditional two-lane races.
Prock had two outstanding runs Saturday. In the morning session, he moved up from the provisional No. 2 qualifier to No.1 with a run of 3.904 seconds at 321.42 mph.
Then in the final qualifying session of the weekend, Prock recorded a run of 3.915 seconds at 326.95 mph.
“It’s really cool to get the first (#2Fast2Tasty), that’s pretty special,” Prock said. “It’s pretty crazy. I’ve been in a handful of these things and never been able to get it done but we did the job today.
“I just had a new aim, a new focus and it worked with two pretty stellar lights (at the starting line) today and we need to keep that up tomorrow for sure because we’re going to have the best conditions that we’ve seen all weekend. The track’s going to be the most even and you’re going to see a lot of great runs.
“We always love competing and it does help that you kind of get in that zone. Hopefully, I didn’t waste any of it today for tomorrow, so we’ll see.
“This team’s had a lot of success here in the past and they’re showing it again. So I’ve just got to keep being a sponge, keep learning and keep doing the best I can and I know this team’s going to give me an awesome car.”
Prock faces Jeff Diehl, Blake Alexander and Alexis DeJoria in the first round on Sunday.
But Prock’s accomplishments Saturday weren’t all for John Force Racing.
Team owner John Force qualified No. 2 with two stout runs himself. In the morning, the driver of the PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car covered the 1,000-foot drag strip in 3.938 seconds at 328.06 mph.
Then in the afternoon session, Force improved on his previous ET with a run of 3.908 at 326.79 mph.
“Prock ran good and did his job,” Force said. “Brittany qualified up there and I’m up there finishing second for PEAK and Chevy, that’s always important. … No one knows the 4-wide better than me. I won the inaugural one in Charlotte.”
Force’s first-round quad matchup will be with Matt Hagan, Cruz Pedregon and Jason Rupert.
In Top Fuel, Brittany Force will start fifth in Sunday’s eliminations.
In a unique Saturday morning session, Force was one of three female drivers – the others were Krista Baldwin and Jasmine Salinas – that faced each other. Force moved up from the provisional No. 5 to No. 3 with a dominating run of 3.799 seconds at 332.26 mph.
Force came back with an even stronger outing in Saturday afternoon’s final session, piloting her Monster Energy Top Fuel dragster with a run of 3.787 seconds at 333.66 mph. But she still got shuffled back from No. 3 to the No. 5 starting position, where she will start Sunday’s eliminations from.
Force will face Billy Torrence, Jasmine Salinas and Josh Hart in the first round of eliminations.
“I feel good,” Force said. “Looking at our ladder, we’re sitting in a good position, qualified No. 5. We even stepped it up a little bit on that last run which was huge for this team.
“We’re looking for three rounds tomorrow, that’s all we need. Four-wide is a lot to focus on but we know what to do, we’ve won here before and we need to execute tomorrow.”
Speaking of tomorrow (Sunday), the weather conditions are expected to take a dramatic drop. The last two days have been in the mid-80s, but Sunday’s forecast calls for temps barely above 70 and gusty winds.
That could bring about a dramatic change for race setups. But that’s good, as cooler temps make race cars go faster.
“That’ll change things up a little bit, but it should make things a little easier,” Brittany Force said. “We need our car to go down there every single lap. We usually struggle in the heat, so the fact that we did so well and qualified No. 5, it makes me very curious about how things will go down tomorrow.
“We’ll definitely be there, we’re going to step it up and see what we can do in the cooler conditions.”
John Force is happy and excited at how his team is doing overall. They are the hottest organization in the sport right now.
“Taking a world champion, Robert Hight, out of the seat – it was his choice because of personal stuff – but putting Prock in, I was worried sick how it would go, even though I knew the kid could drive.
“He didn’t have much seat time in a Funny Car, but he stepped right up to the plate with his dad, Jimmy (the team’s crew chief), and his brother, Thomas (assistant crew chief). And, boy, they look really good. So I’m excited with that. Brittany’s car’s coming around with a lot of changes made. We’re four races in. Let’s see where this goes.”
This story was originally published on April 14, 2024. 
