John Force Racing – Syndication Server

NHRA domination wasn’t Prock’s plan for 2024…until it was

There is only one acceptable ending to the NHRA Funny Car season for Austin Prock – hoisting the championship trophy. “If they hadn’t reset the points, we’d pretty much have it locked up by now,” Prock told RACER ahead of the NHRA Carolina Nationals …

There is only one acceptable ending to the NHRA Funny Car season for Austin Prock — hoisting the championship trophy.

“If they hadn’t reset the points, we’d pretty much have it locked up by now,” Prock told RACER ahead of the NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway. “I think we needed to do well, maybe one more weekend and it’d be locked up. We had a 348-point lead that got put down to 39 points; 348 points equates to 18 rounds of competition, so yeah, we want to win the championship.”

Prock tore through the Funny Car class in his John Force Racing Chevrolet Camaro. The 29-year-old quickly took to the machine Robert Hight had been driving when Hight was sidelined this year to address his health. In his debut at Gainesville, Prock went to the final round and lost to J.R. Todd.

It took three races before Prock had his first Wally. Since then, he’s racked up five more wins, 11 No. 1 qualifiers and a win-loss record of 38-9 through 15 races.

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“My dad said at the beginning of the year when they asked him what the expectations were and he said, ‘I want to win the championship,’” Prock said. “I’ve never heard my dad talk like that before. He’s quiet and humble and when he said that, I was like, ‘Whoa, he means business.’ It’s definitely shown this year.”

The younger Prock is the driver, with his father, Jimmy Prock, the crew chief. Also working on the team is Thomas Prock, Austin’s brother — the assistant crew chief. The family affair has not only been one of the most talked about highlights of the drag racing season but one that means just as much to the Prock family. Being able to race together was a dream for Austin.

John Force Racing has always been a family operation, but the Procks have taken it to a whole new level. NHRA photo

Domination, however, is something that’s taken everyone by surprise. Prock had never competed in a Funny Car before this season. A victory in the opener of the Countdown at Maple Grove Raceway (Sept. 15) pushed his advantage back to 86 points ahead of the competition.

“I’ve always said my whole drag racing career, ‘It’s the same for everyone,’” Prock said of the points reset. “That’s always how I’ve looked at the Countdown. I was always on the outside looking in, and now, when [it’s you], it’s not the same for everyone. Plain and simple, it’s just not. You [go] from an 18-round lead to less than two rounds.

“We knew that coming in it all gets reset. You just have to have the same goal and the same mindset of taking it one round at a time and see how the cards fall.”

A championship would be Prock’s first in NHRA competition. Top Fuel had been his focus the last few years, but his career, although filled with promise, has been anything but steady.

He won a race in 2019, his first season, and then only ran three races between 2020 and 2021. He returned in 2022 to a two-win season and a career-best third place in the championship. Last year, Prock won his fourth career race in the Top Fuel class.

John Force Racing announced Prock would drive the Funny Car in mid-January.

“It’s been an outstanding year,” Prock said. “I said last week, I’ve had more success in this one single season than I have in my whole career. This sport can be tough when you’re not doing well. I like to say that drag racing is either a lot of fun or no fun at all because there is one winner and the rest are losers.

“You’ve just got to enjoy the moments when you’re running well because it can all change just like that. [The team has] done a great job all season keeping it up, and it’s been a blast working with my family and everyone on this team.”

Through struggles, Force never loses focus on NHRA title chase

Brittany Force, two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion, is facing another potential winless season. It’s a harsh situation for a driver and team accustomed to success and a win column that doesn’t consist of goose eggs. After she won five races in 2022 en route to winning the title, she and her John Force Racing team have been at battle ever since to regain the same form.

“It definitely gets tougher and tougher,” Force told RACER. “Last weekend, we got beat first round (at Maple Grove). I was so upset. We came out of a strong weekend in Indy where we qualified well, went to the semifinals, and I felt like we finally had this momentum moving forward into right when it matters.

“We go into the Countdown, into the first race, and then went out first round. It’s really defeating.”

The team to rallied around each other. Force revealed they gathered at the end of the weekend at Maple Grove to spread motivation and reminders about staying focused and pumped up for the next race.

NHRA’s Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway is the second of six races in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs, coming just a week after the first, and it’s a welcome sight for Force.

“I love the back-to-back races, especially in this crunch for the Countdown,” Force said. “I wish we would do three, have a weekend off and do the last three. That would be how I like to do it because I don’t like going home and sitting and thinking about whether you had a great weekend and [are] moving forward or having a bad weekend that you want to come back from. I like back-to-back races because you get right back into it, and your mindset is still right in that same zone.”

Force hasn’t made a final-round appearance this season, her win/loss record sitting at 11-13, but she’s made four semifinal appearances with three No. 1 qualifying awards. It’s been a season of good and then bad. She failed to qualify for the event in Chicago and then sat out the event in Norwalk following the season-ending crash in Virginia that hospitalized her father, John Force.

It may be an up-and-down season, but Force went on a roll over the first two days in Charlotte, going No. 1 Friday and holding it through Saturday for her third top qualifier of the year. NHRA photo

When asked what she’s learned about herself — how much this season has tested her — Force talked of the struggles in 2023 that have carried into ’24. She described ’23 as “one of my toughest seasons,” and now it’s going on two years without a victory.

“It really taught me a lot about this team that I’m with and how we’ve all been very patient,” she said. “We still push forward and stay motivated when it almost feels impossible to stay motivated. Somehow, we find a way. We come out every weekend and we believe that we will win the event, qualify top five, and go rounds. We’ve never lost that faith or lost confidence that we aren’t going to do well.”

A back-against-the-wall type season resulted in Force not clinching her Countdown spot until the second round of eliminations at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, the final race of the regular season. She had a strong race day, as needed, and was helped by Josh Hart’s early exit. In previous years, Force attended every race and didn’t have to worry about the requirement of being inside the top 10 in points to be championship-eligible.

Indianapolis was the “most stressful weekend ever,” having to earn her spot the hard way. The silver lining, she admitted, is that even though the team didn’t want to have to do it that way, it might have been a valuable experience.

“I think it was good for our team,” she said. “It was a pressure situation, and we came out on top.”

Now that she’s in the Countdown, Force and her JFR team aren’t losing the mindset of being capable of winning the championship, even though she’s sitting in ninth position, 133 points behind, going into Sunday.

“100 percent,” she said of always having that championship thought process.

Force isn’t retiring, but preparing for Prock to be JFR’s future

John Force sent the drag racing world into a tizzy this week after publicly acknowledging that he’s putting together a succession plan at John Force Racing. The comments came during one of the more emotional interviews Force has given in recent …

John Force sent the drag racing world into a tizzy this week after publicly acknowledging that he’s putting together a succession plan at John Force Racing.

The comments came during one of the more emotional interviews Force has given in recent years after winning the New England Nationals at Epping. Force beat teammate Austin Prock in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Funny Car final. It was his 157th career win.

Force ended his television winner’s interview by saying that Prock would replace him. He then handed the Wally to Prock, walked toward his tow vehicle and took his hat off. A few minutes later, in an interview at the starting line, Force told the crowd his time was “pretty much up,” and he’s begun the process of what will come next.

“I’m 100 years old; I’ve got to leave here sometime,” Force clarified at Bristol Dragway. “All I was saying is, ‘Here’s the future of John Force Racing. This kid right here.’”

Force’s bluntness and the undeniable reality that he is moving closer to the end of his career resulted in fans calling to inquire whether he would be in Bristol for the Super Grip Thunder Valley Nationals. Friday, Force was not only suited up and ready for another race weekend but sat alongside Prock for a media session where the 16-time champion continued to sing the young driver’s praises.

Prock may be a rookie in Funny Car, but he’s already been on quite a tear. Jerry Foss/NHRA

Prock had been one of the Force dragster drivers but moved into the Funny Car class this season when Robert Hight needed to step away for health reasons. He’s made the transition look easy with four final-round appearances, one victory and five No. 1 qualifiers. After seven races, Prock is atop the championship point standings.

“The fans [can] really react funny, and a driver maybe takes my seat and makes some of them mad,” Force said. “So I’m just telling them early, ‘Don’t waste your time; he’s coming.’ Because we want to keep winning, and he’s the guy that will be able to do that for me.”

In typical Force fashion, the humor then took over. Force turned to Prock and said, “If I quit in the next 25 years, [or the] next 25 days.”

The patriarch of the family team then realized he was going to start another round of speculation. He quickly caught himself and cracked, “Nope, [I] did it again!”

With Prock certainly staying with JFR into the future, it just remains to be seen whether that will be in the Cornwell Tools Funny Car or a second Top Fuel dragster again. NHRA

Brittany Force drives the only Top Fuel dragster out of the John Force Racing stable. Prock’s dragster was sidelined when the team’s sponsor, Flav-R-Pack, had internal changes, and he was needed for Hight’s car. Part of what Force is working on for the future is bringing back the second dragster — he revealed one conversation has been with Jordan Vandergriff.

Hight also plans to return to his seat when capable. Prock, however, would not be the odd guy out, and that’s what Force wanted to make clear when looking toward the next chapter, whenever that might be, since Force knows it’s coming but isn’t quite ready to put it into motion.

“I’m not going anywhere; I love it,” Force said. “I was very emotional getting around this kid [last weekend] because he’s so good on the tree. … In the end, I got the win; it was a good weekend [with] luck being a big part of it. It was just an emotional moment.

“I’m not telling people what I’m doing, but I got a plan. I don’t have it figured out yet because the real truth [is] I’m nobody without the sponsors. I’ve got some money but not enough to pay the bills on these hotrods, and I need to get that organized.”