Jimmy Prock would like to set the record straight.

The soft-spoken nitro tuner, who now serves as crew chief for Don Schumacher Racing after a storied career at John Force Racing, felt it was time to tell his side of the story regarding his departure from Force and subsequent hiring at DSR.

Prock, is quick to point out he wasn’t “lured” away from anywhere and was very much content to finish out the 2014 season with Force.

Completing the mission, he says, wasn’t an available option.  

Prock said he was up front about his intentions of not returning for the 2015 season, and in the end it led to his dismissal. Regardless of how his tenure might have ended at one of drag racing’s most iconic teams, Prock said he respected Force and said he was well within his rights to end their employment arrangement.

Words spoken of late between his former and present employer have bothered the soft-spoken Prock to the point he’s really no longer interested in speaking soft.

“I don’t think anyone here is trying to ruin John Force and I don’t know why he feels that way,” said Prock. “We don’t look at it like that here. John let me go last year. I told John I didn’t plan on being with him in 2015. I wanted to finish the year. He had previously told us how it was going to be. That was his decision and that’s fine.

“I came over here [DSR] because I wanted a change. It didn’t have anything to do with money or anything like that. It had everything to do with what went on [at JFR] last year. [Being lured away] isn’t why I am here, and I know a lot of people perceive that to be the reason.”

“The way I look at it, if [John] thinks people are trying to ruin him, he ought to look in the mirror. We want to win but how does that make us any different than anyone else?”

Prock admits he was taken aback by his dismissal at Force Racing, but in no way does it change his opinion of the team owner who employed him for 14 years. What bothers Prock is the belief Force considers his move over to rival DSR was done in a bid to ruin him.

While Force has since said his words were misconstrued regarding comments made to the Boston Herald in a June 12, 2015 article, Prock found disagreement in the words.

“It bothered me maybe a little,” Prock said of his October 22 dismissal. “It is what it is. Life goes on, he’s going to be fine and I will be too. I don’t wish him ill. John Force is the greatest Funny Car driver ever. We need him out here but we want to beat him too.

“I want him out here racing for as long as he can race. He is good for the sport. He needs to have sponsors and be out here. I am not against that. We are no different than anyone else. We want to beat him when we race him. I looked at this as I wanted to do something different because I needed a change. Nothing other than that. I don’t wish him ill-will. Do I like the way some things were handled? No. But then again, it’s not always a bed of roses everywhere you go regardless of what you deal with.”

The record will show Prock was a free agent when he signed with DSR, but he could have been elsewhere easily much sooner. Prock had many offers over the years and they weren’t all from Schumacher.

“I was offered jobs when I worked for [Force] by somebody,” said Prock. “Maybe not every year, but there were people offering jobs. There were no real contracts over there [at Force]. We had them but then got rid of them. There was nothing there to say we had to be there at the end of the season.”

Prock said it was Force himself who caused the unfortunate situation.

“Last year he told us all if we wanted to go work somewhere else he was fine with it and didn’t care,” Prock said. “It was basically what he told us whether he wants to admit it or not. He painted a bleak picture for us all there. Some of us decided to leave.”

Prock said an October team meeting, essentially telling the crews they could seek employment elsewhere with no hard feelings as the impetus. He believed those words to include him. Prock added they were told everyone would be allowed to finish out the season.

Those words, he said, clearly did not include him, a lesson he learned after the fact.

“That’s what he said,” Prock said adamantly. “Everyone believed this situation was all preconceived. It wasn’t done because of money as some made it out to be. Not that way at all. I just needed a change from the way things were handled. I didn’t want to really leave but it all wore me down.”

“I understand John’s situation. To me it was presented worse than it needed to be. You got the impression he wanted you to leave to cut his money back. I worked there 14 years, and I needed to go in a different direction.”

Prock, in not so many words, described a no good deed goes unpunished scenario.  

‘I could have been a d***, and kept to myself, not said a word and then dropped it at the end. I could have run right to the end and then said, ‘see ya, I’m outta here.”

“I did exactly what he asked. John came to me, and asked my plans and I said, ‘give me two days.”

“He wouldn’t give it a rest. He kept pressing for an answer. Finally I said, “Don’t want to deal with it, I am done.”

Prock said Force flew in the next day and fired him and John Medlen. He pointed out Force then rehired Medlen, and then fired the crew. Then, he said, Force rehired the crew.

Prock said he also admitted to Force he had spoken to Schumacher but added there was no plan in place at the time to move over to his present employer. Even days after his dismissal, Prock admits, there was nothing set in stone.

Prock believed his future, before he was dismissed, was on shaky ground at best because of Force’s situation. He had just talked to Schumacher, and this was all it took for the situation to go sour.

“I had talked to him but I hadn’t made any decisions of what to do. Yeah I talked to Schumacher,” Prock confirmed. “But only because we were told he didn’t know what was going to happen. What was I supposed to do? What did I do that was wrong by doing that? I was upfront and told him I was done for next year. I hadn’t told anyone what I planned to do the next year.”

Prock shakes his head at the assumption he wouldn’t have given his all to win races in those final events. He’s never minced words about his dedication to winning regardless of the situation.

“It wouldn’t have changed the way I race because I race to win,” Prock said adamantly.

Prock believes the blame for his departure doesn’t fall on Schumacher’s shoulders but the one who caused the situation in the first place – Force.

“I left because I wanted to leave, how is that luring me away?” Prock asked. “John Force created this situation – no one else.”