Yahoo Autos NHRA 4-Wide Nationals: Final Qualifying Results, Elmination Pairings From Vegas: Prock Stays Perfect
Austin Prock stayed nearly perfect in qualifying, taking his third Funny Car No. 1 qualifier in four races on Saturday during the 24th annual NHRA 4-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel) and Jerry Tucker (Pro Stock) also qualified No. 1 at the fourth of 20 races during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.
Funny Car
Prock, who also won his first Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge on Saturday, rolled to the top spot in Funny Car on Saturday, going 3.904-seconds at 321.42 mph in his 11,000-horsepower Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS to claim his second straight top spot and third in four races. The team continues to roll, as Prock made three consecutive standout runs to slip past John Force, J.R. Todd and Bob Tasca III to get to the top. He’ll be in an opening-round quad that features Jeff Diehl, Blake Alexander and Alexis DeJoria a week after picking up his first Funny Car victory.
“That Tasca team, they do a great job. We've been duking it out all year, and he made a nice run in front of me today right before that last qualifying session,” Prock said. “I'm like, 'Alright, well, the track's pretty good,' and along with my boss, John Force running [3.]90, it showed there was some potential out there to make a really good run.
“My team has done a great job in these hot conditions. We're really getting a handle on these hot weather conditions, and that was kind of our goal this year, to really dial that in because it's typically really fast when it's cool out. It’s going to cool down tomorrow so it's definitely going to be the quickest runs you'll see all weekend.”
Force took the second spot with a 3.908 at 326.79, while points leader J.R. Todd moved up to third in the final session with a 3.930 at 322.19.
Top Fuel
In Top Fuel, Kalitta improved on his Friday performance, staying in the No. 1 position with stellar pass of 3.738 at 336.82 in his 11,000-horsepower Mac Tools dragster. It’s the first No. 1 spot this year for the defending world champ and the 54th in his career. He’ll open up raceday in a quad that includes teammate and points leader Shawn Langdon and four-time world champion Steve Torrence. It makes for a tough start to Sunday, but Kalitta also knows the importance of an early-season win.
“The team it stepped it up to that 3.73 in that first session, so that was plenty strong for the conditions. I'm feeling really confident with what we got going on,” Kalitta said. “I think on that last run, we were maybe just pushing it a little, much just to see what we could do. But the track seems plenty good in all the lanes and it should be a good day tomorrow. It’s going to be a little cooler, which should play into our hand performance-wise."
Tony Schumacher qualified second with a 3.768 at 325.53 and Clay Millican’s 3.773 at 332.34 has him third.
