Photography: John Force Racing / Gary Nastase / Auto Imagery
BROWNSBURG, Ind. (Aug. 13, 2025) – Reigining NHRA Funny Car Champion Austin Prock heads into this week’s Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway with laser focus on continuing the dominant regular season run that currently finds him atop the 2025 season leaderboard with just two races remaining before the Countdown to the Championship.
The 29-year-old driver of John Force Racing’s Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car is 201 points ahead of his closest rival in the category, Matt Hagen, and 205 points ahead of John Force Racing teammate Jack Beckman. His point lead was built on the strength of the team’s victories at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (April 13), zMax Dragway (April 27), Virginia Motorsports Park (June 22), Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park (June 29), and at Sonoma Raceway (July 27).
Prock had earned four of his 2024 championship-season total of eight wins at this point last season. Brainerd, the site of Race 13 of the 20-race 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing schedule, is one of the facilities where Prock hasn’t yet pulled into winner’s circle, having already earned victories at 10 of the 17 tracks on the schedule in just 32 events in the Funny Car category.
Austin Prock Quotes
You earned the No. 1 qualifier at Brainerd last year and with wins at 10 of the 17 NHRA national event tracks, what would a Brainerd win mean?
“It’d be huge, you know. We had a great race last year there and I made a mistake and cost us from winning in the semifinal so I’m looking to redeem myself. A handful of my crew guys are actually from the Minnesota area and a lot, I think all of them, have never won their home race so it’s always a little added pressure to get the job done for them.
“One of the crew guys on Brittany’s car asked me last weekend what race tracks we haven’t yet won and, with Brainerd, St. Louis and Dallas coming up, those two are obviously high on the priority list to get the job done. But if we could solidify a win this weekend, you know it would pretty much wrap up the regular season points and we definitely want to go into the Countdown in that number one position.”
Coming into Brainerd hot with 3 wins in last four races and the only Funny Car driver locked into the playoffs, what does that mean to you and your Corwell Tools Chevrolet team with the playoffs looming just ahead?
“You need to be in the countdown to go for the championship, but our priority is always going in as the No. 1 seed. That gives you the best opportunity to get the job done if you do falter during that last six-race stretch because that extra 30 points can really bail you out. Drag racing is a very unpredictable sport and you always want to have that extra pad in your pocket.
“Our Cornwell Tools Chevrolet has been running really good all season long. You know, we haven’t quite been as consistent as we were last year, but we do have more wins up to this point than we did last year and, obviously, last year was one of the most dominant funny car seasons in the history of the sport so we want to keep that going. We’re going to have to win probably six more times to end up with the championship and that’s our that’s our main goal, you know, to bring it home for John Force Racing.”
Your dad, Jimmy Prock, tuned the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet, driven by Robert Hight, that set the current NHRA Funny Car national ET record, 3.793 seconds, at Brainerd in 2017. Is that a target going into the weekend?
“It’s a target when all the stars align, you know, the track conditions have to be perfect. The air conditions have to be perfect, and you have to have your setup in a position where you can push like that and get away with it, you know. It’s not very easy to run that quick. In the Funny Car category, you know running a 3.88 (elapsed time) is a fairly average good run across the field but when you start nitpicking that 3.88 run and turning it into an 86 and then an 84 and an 82, it is light years in in the tuning aspect of things. When you start going quick like that, it’s so hard to go just that much quicker. It takes a lot of horsepower and a lot of clutch application so, if we did end up with conditions that would produce an ET like that, I definitely think we could go it. We’re really trying to get our cool track setup dialed in like it was last year. At the beginning of the year, we actually ran quicker than Robert’s national ET record, but it was at a non-points event, so we know the car is capable of doing it. It’s just a matter of the racing God’s giving us the opportunity to do so.”
Austin Prock at Brainerd:
| Year | Qualify | Eliminations |
| 2019* | 8th | Rd. 1 – defeated Scott Palmer; Rd. 2 – defeated Brittany Force; Semis – lost to Leah Pritchett |
| 2020 | DID NOT COMPETE | |
| 2021 | DID NOT COMPETE | |
| 2022* | 8th | Rd. 1 – lost to Billy Torrence |
| 2023* | 8th | Rd. 1 – lost to Mike Salinas |
| 2024 | 1st | Rd. 1 – defeated Jim Campbell; Rd. 2 – lost to J.R. Todd |
*Competed in Top Fuel class
Quickest Time: 3.860 seconds, Aug. 17, 2024
Fastest Speed: 334.07 mph, Aug. 17, 2024
Starts: 4 (3 in Top Fuel; 1 in Funny Car)
No. 1 Qualifier: 1 (2024)
Final Rounds: 0
Victories: 0
Won-Lost Record: 3-4
Track & TV Schedules
Nitro qualifying sessions are scheduled for Friday, Aug. 15, at 4:30 p.m. CT and 6:45 p.m. CT, with Funny Car sessions Saturday, Aug. 16, at 12:35 p.m. CT and 3:05 p.m. CT. Eliminations begin Sunday, Aug. 17, at 10:30 a.m. CT.
Friday’s qualifying show will air Friday, Aug. 15, from 10-11:30 p.m. ET on FS1. Saturday’s qualifying show will air Saturday, Aug. 16, from 7-8:30 p.m. ET on FS1. Sunday’s eliminations rounds will air Sunday, Aug. 17, from 3-6 p.m. ET on FOX.
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