AUSTIN PROCK LEADS JOHN FORCE RACING INTO LAS VEGAS 4-WIDE NATIONALS FINALS

Austin Prock paced John Force Racing by finishing second in Sunday’s final round of Funny Car competition in the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

With team owner John Force failing to advance in the first round, and teammate Brittany Force being eliminated in the Top Fuel semifinals, it was left to Prock to carry the banner for JFR – and that’s just what he did.

Prock has had an outstanding start to the season, reaching the finals in three of the first four races. He finished runner-up in the season-opening race at Gainesville, won his first career NHRA Funny Car race (in just his third-ever start in the class) last week at Phoenix, and now finished runner-up in Las Vegas.

He also won Saturday’s Las Vegas edition of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty competition, a race-within-a-race that takes place in each of the 20 NHRA national events.

Interestingly, in each of his three final round appearances thus far this season, Prock also was No. 1 qualifier in those respective races, as well, making him the fourth driver in NHRA Funny Car annals in the last 25 years to earn No. 1 qualifier in three of a season’s first four races.

“It was almost a perfect weekend,” Prock said. “We got No. 1 qualifier, won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty deal and runner-upped at this deal.” Prock and his Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car got off to a good start in the final round but couldn’t hold off winner Bob Tasca III.

“We were out front and the engine nosed over, shot a spark plug out downtrack about 650 or 700 feet and the thing just nosed over,” Prock said. “We were still good enough to run second.“Tasca made a great run, great job by that team. We knew they were going to be tough this year but I think everybody in these pits knows we’re going to be tough this year, as well.”

It was the furthest Prock has ever gone in Las Vegas. His previous best was reaching the semifinals in 2022, while driving a Top Fuel dragster for JFR. Prock was the quickest (3.916 seconds at 322.58 mph) of the 16 drivers in the first round.

In the semifinals, he reached back for a little bit extra to capture his quad (3.907 seconds/324.75 mph) and advance to the final round against Tasca, Matt Hagan and Ron Capps.

Prock moved into the Funny Car points lead during Saturday’s qualifying and then increased his edge over second-ranked J.R. Todd to 48 points (Prock has 367 points, Todd has 319 points).