Yahoo Autos NHRA Funny Car Rookie Austin Prock Is Driver to Beat in Countdown Playoffs
The last Funny Car rookie to come into the NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoffs and bring home a title was Cruz Pedregon in 1992.
That year, Pedregon dethroned then-two-time champion Force and interrupted his run of 12 titles in 13 years.
With the NHRA’s reset of the points following the end of the regular season, the top 10 drivers in the Funny Car field are separated by 125 points.
The NHRA Funny Car class can smell what the Prock is cooking.
Prock (who, incidentally, is a trained chef with an ambition to own a restaurant one day), is cranking up the heat on his chief rivals with his sizzling performance this year that’s making easy to forget that he’s a rookie in the class.
The last rookie Funny Car driver to make an equally big impact was Cruz Pedregon in 1992. Driving the iconic McDonald’s entry that John Force refers to as “the hamburger stand from Hell,” Pedregon dethroned then-two-time champion Force and interrupted his run of 12 titles in 13 years.
So Prock has that same opportunity to do something similar to Pedregon’s feat: knock off four-time and reigning Funny Car king Matt Hagan, who’s looking at this weekend’s Pep Boys Nationals at Reading, Pa.’s Maple Grove Raceway as not just the start of the Countdown to the Championship but also the beginning of his so-called “Drive to Five.”
Despite nine victories in 16 finals, 13 No. 1 qualifying positions, a 34-9 ledger in eliminations, and a critical 23 bonus points from the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, Prock isn’t smug about his advantage as the points leader.
Prock is quick to rattle off a list of contenders to watch out for in the final six events.
“I think the biggest threat is my teammate Jack Beckman. In that PEAK Chevrolet. That thing's wicked on Sunday. That car's going to be tough, so I hope it's a battle to finish between the two of us. That'd be really special for John Force Racing. That's definitely exciting to see from a team standpoint, but there's a lot of good race cars out there.
"[No. 2 seed] Bob Tasca, he can rip. You can never count out [three-time champion Ron] Capps. Hagan, I feel like a lot of people have been sleeping on him a little bit this year, and you can't count him out. He’s a four-time champion. He's an excellent driver, and [his crew chief] Dickie Venables is, he's one bad dude.
"So I think everybody's in for a treat this Countdown to the Championship. Conditions are going to cool off, and the air's going to come to everyone. And it just promotes better racing when we get in these conditions where the racetrack's really good and the air's really good, the field just really tightens up. So it's going to be hard to say who's going to be your toughest opponent, but I know these two Chevrolet Camaros at John Force Racing are going to be stout.”
Third-ranked Hagan said, “We have some work to do as a team, and I have some work to do as a driver. Prock is on a different planet right now. The kid is cutting.050 lights (reaction times), and they’re running faster than anyone out here. It’s a tall order to fill, but it’s obtainable. Anything can happen. We will work hard and dig deep and put all we’ve got into these next six races.”
J.R. Todd, fourth in the order, said, “We're already spotting Prock over a full round with all the points that he's racked up.”
With the NHRA’s reset of the points following the end of the regular season, the top 10 drivers in the Funny Car field are separated by 125 points. The 13-driver title-eligible field is spread over just 155 points.
“I don't think we'll race any different,” Prock said of the changing dynamics. “In 2022 [when he competed in Top Fuel], I came in 11th or 12th and we ended up finishing third and just having that hunger and that trying to run up through the ranks. It just almost felt like seamless and easy. And I think I got to have that same mindset, [as if] you're still buried and just fight your way through it—because honestly, the lead that we have really isn't much. So you're going to have to be on kill every single round.”
NHRA Funny Car Standings
Austin Prock, Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS, 2,125
Bob Tasca III, Ford Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang, 2,086
Matt Hagan, TSR Direct Connection Dodge//SRT Hellcat Funny Car, 2,079
J.R. Todd, DHL Toyota GR Supra, 2,071
Ron Capps, NAPA Auto Parts Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, 2,054
*John Force, PEAK Chevrolet Camaro SS, 2,049
Blake Alexander, Head Inc./Pronto Auto Parts Ford Mustang, 2,036
Daniel Wilkerson, Scag Power Equipment Ford Shelby Mustang, 2,023
Chad Green, Bond Coat Ford Mustang, 2,012
Alexis DeJoria, Tequila/ROKIT Toyota GR Supra, 2,000
* Note: Jack Beckman is racing for and earning points for injured John Force during this year's Countdown to the Championship.
