Photography: John Force Racing / Gary Nastase / Auto Imagery
BROWNSBURG, Ind. (Oct. 29, 2025) – Austin Prock has a short list favorite dining spots to frequent while in Las Vegas but the place he’s become most familiar with in Sin City is the winner’s circle at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a place he hopes to visit for a third consecutive time at the conclusion of the Oct. 31-Nov. 2 Nevada Nationals.
The reigning NHRA Mission Foods Funny Car Champion has won the last two races at The Strip, beating Paul Lee to win the Nevada Nationals last fall and outlasting Paul Lee, Dave Richards and Matt Hagan to win the Four Wide Nationals this past April. Last fall’s win was the first race team owner and 16-time NHRA Funny Car Champion John Force returned to the track after his major accident in June while competing at the NHRA Virginia Nationals. His John Force Racing Brittany Force made it an event sweep for the 23-time championship organization by taking the Top Fuel title.
Prock has nine wins in 18 races heading into the penultimate round of the 2025 season at The Strip. The Jimmy Prock/Thomas Prock/Nate Hildahl-led Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car team has also finished runner-up at Phoenix and Chicago, for a total of 11 final-round appearances this season. They’ve also captured the No. 1 Qualifier spot six times: Pomona, New Hampshire, Bristol, Seattle, St. Louis, and Dallas.
Prock leads the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Funny Car point standings after 18 of 20 races. The Top 10 are: 1. 2485 Austin Prock (2,485); 2. Matt Hagan (-112); 3. Jack Beckman (-131); 4. Ron Capps (-149); 5. Dan Wilkerson (-189); 6. Paul Lee (-228); 7. Cruz Pedregon (-233); 8. Chad Green (-249); 9. Spencer Hyde (-268); 10. Alexis Dejoria (-290).
Notes
- Prock’s win in the season’s most recent event, the NHRA Fall Nationals in Dallas, was his ninth in 18 races, making him the first NHRA pro driver to win as many as nine races in a single season. The last to do so was six-time Pro Stock Champion Erica Enders in 2015. Prock has won 17 times in 38 starts in the John Force Racing Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car.
- He’s trying to become the seventh different Funny Car driver to win back-to-back championships after John Force, Don Prudhomme, Kenny Bernstein, Raymond Beadle, Frank Hawley and Ron Capps.
Quotes
Do you ever get to a point in the season that you can feel almost unbeatable or is that not a good thing to have?
“I’ve never thought of our team as unbeatable. Maybe the competition has a little bit at this point, but I don’t. I never look at it like that. My whole racing career, even when I’m on top, I always feel like I’m the underdog. I don’t know why that is why I’m bred like that, but I guess because it gives me gives me a reason to push. It gives me a reason to continuously get better and try to prove myself to the category each weekend. I feel if you look at yourself as unbeatable, you’re more vulnerable to get beat because you’re getting a little complacent, cocky. So, when you are thriving like we are, in a sense you’re more prone for people to take shots at you, take risks that they typically wouldn’t take, so I never really look at it that way because I think if you do, you’re more prone to getting picked off. You always have to be sharp and ready to attack even when you have the upper hand.”
Have you stopped yet to think about the fact that this is the first time in 10 years that a pro driver has won nine races, and you still have the chance to win two more?
“No, not really because with the way the series is built, nine wins doesn’t mean anything unless you win the championship. I’ll be excited to eventually celebrate the nine, 10, or 11 wins but right now I’m not. Is it cool? Hell yeah it is but it’s not going to be cool if we don’t finish the job, so our focus is it really on the main goal, which is winning the championship. When we do that, then we can celebrate our success throughout the season.”
Are there any special place, restaurants, shows in Vegas you like to have some fun?
Yeah, my show in Las Vegas is people watching … It never gets old and is always entertaining. On the restaurant side of things, I’ll give you four. One I look forward to every year as a family/friend group, we get together and go to Piero’s Italian Cuisine on Thursday night. It’s like an Italian steakhouse and they’re famous for their snow crab claws, which are outstanding. It’s always a good group of people, longtime friends and family and we always have a great time so I’m looking forward to that. Number Two is Tacos El Gordo. Danny Hood (Jack Beckman’s co-crew chief) and I walk there from our hotel, and it always hits the spot. Number Three is SUSHISAMBA in The Venetian. I believe Brittany Force took me there a couple years ago and I’ve been back every year since. And Number Four is Carbone. I think I went there for the first time last year, or maybe at the beginning of this year. It’s a higher end Italian restaurant that movie stars rave about. The place is awesome. I’d like to go back there this year.
Do you do any gambling while you’re there? If so, what are you playing why?
“You know, I’ve never been a gambler. I didn’t grow up around anybody that had a gambling issue, but I’m pretty loose with my money as it is, and I have a tendency to blow it sometimes and I don’t have room to blow it on something with minimal reward. I’ve been very unlucky in the small amount of gambling I have done. One of the last times I attempted to gamble was in a Super Bowl pool. I bought probably 80% of the board and I still lost so that was that was the final straw. Every now and then, I might walk up to a slot machine and pull the lever or maybe choose red or black on a roulette table, but you won’t catch me in the casino gambling very often.”
Statistics at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
| Austin Prock | Race Result | Qualified | Event Round Record |
| 2019 (TF) | 2nd round | 10th | 1-1 |
| 2020 (TF) | Did Not Compete | Did Not Compete | Did Not Compete |
| 2021 | Did Not Compete | Did Not Compete | Did Not Compete |
| 2022 (TF) | Semi-finals | 2nd | 3-2 |
| 2023 (TF) | 2nd round | 3rd | 4-3 |
| 2024 (FC) | Winner | 1st | 8-3 |
Quickest time: 3.817 seconds, Nov. 2, 2024
Fastest speed: 333.33 mph, Nov. 2, 2024
Number starts: 4
Times No. 1 qualifier: 1 (2024)
Final rounds: 1 (2024)
Victories:1 (2024)
Won-Lost Record: 8-3
Track records – 3.816 seconds by Robert Hight, Nov. 29, 2023; 335.90 mph by Jack Beckman, Nov. 2, 2019
Track & TV Schedules
NHRA Mission Food Drag Racing Series qualifying will feature two rounds Friday, Oct. 31, at 1:30 and 4 p.m. PT, and the final two rounds on Saturday, Nov. 1 at 12 and 2:30 p.m. PT. Final eliminations are scheduled on Sunday, Nov. 2, at 11 a.m. PT.
Television coverage on Sunday, Nov. 2, includes qualifying action on FS1 from 3-5 p.m. PT and then eliminations coverage on FS1 from 5-8 p.m. PT.
###
