Prock takes dominant first Funny Car title in qualifying for Pomona

Funny Car’s Austin Prock earned his first career NHRA world championship on Saturday at the In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, securing the world title for John Force Racing in qualifying for the 59th annual In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals.

Prock finished as the No. 1 qualifier with a track record of 3.804 seconds at 334.57 mph and closed the day in his AAA Chevrolet Camaro SS, making the fastest run in Funny Car since 2017 and the fourth fastest in class history. It’s another magical moment in what has been an incredible and dominant first year in Funny Car for the young standout.

He has put together one of the most impressive Funny Car seasons in history, winning eight races to date and earning his 15th No. 1 qualifier, the most in a single season in Funny Car history. Prock was just as amazing during the Countdown to the Championship, culminating in his first world title and a magical moment in his young career.

“I’ve been working towards this for 19 years,” Prock said. “I started driving racing cars when I was 10 years old and all I could think about was somehow becoming a professional racing driver and winning the world championship, and we did that this year. The main work is finally done, but we want nine wins before we finish this 2024 season, and we certainly have the hot rod to do that now.

“This thing was on edge this weekend, and in recent years this race car hasn’t performed all that well here at Pomona, but all the stars are aligned now. We made three very, very fast runs and I’m doing a good job of keeping him right in the groove here.

Prock, who had previously raced in Top Fuel, won four times and was named Rookie of the Year in 2019, had the opportunity to join his father, multi-championship crew chief Jimmy Prock, and his brother Thomas on the John Force Racing Cornwell Tools Funny Car team after its regular driver, former world champion Robert Hight, was sidelined for medical reasons before the season started.

A. Prock made his presence known almost immediately, scoring a second-place finish at Gainesville and earning his first Funny Car win at Phoenix.

He led on points for most of the season and took the lead for good after finishing second to Force at Epping. Prock was the near-perfect driver who could rival a fast hot rod. He ranked second in his class in reaction times, completing nearly 80 percent of all runs under power.

Prock enjoyed success in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge and ran well in virtually all weather conditions, taking wins at Bristol, Richmond and Seattle in the regular season. He also won the prestigious NHRA US Nationals this year for the first time in his career, followed by playoff victories in Reading and Charlotte.

He made it fourteen straight wins at that point in the season and took a commanding lead in the countdown to the championship play-offs. Prock followed with a victory in Las Vegas – part of a JFR doubles match with Brittany Force – and completed the job during qualifying in Pomona.

Now Prock has a chance to cement his year as perhaps the best in recent memory. Only five drivers in NHRA history have won eight or more events before this season, and Prock still has a chance to win a ninth national event, a feat not accomplished since Force did it in 2000 with eleven .

“I was nervous coming into this weekend, but everything is working just fine, just like it does all year long,” Prock said. “We are looking forward to tomorrow. We’re going to have a little party tonight, but we’ll all be ready to go tomorrow morning and try to go for that ninth Wally.

Eliminations for the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals begin Sunday at 11 a.m. PT at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.

The story originally appeared on Racer