Bob Tasca said he was coming back, but never put a timetable on when that time would be. Until Friday.
Tasca’s plan of returning to the cockpit of a Ford race car got clearer in an exclusive interview with CompetitionPlus.com at the NHRA U.S. Nationals. First comes a world-record attempt in an electric Mustang, followed by testing in Austin Prock’s Funny Car and, when the pieces fall into place, a return to NHRA competition.
For Tasca, it is important because he never described himself as retired. He stepped away from regular competition, but apparently never stopped being a race car driver.
“I’ve been doing some driving,” Tasca said. “I tested it in Norwalk. It was great to get back in the seat. And this past week, I spent three days testing the EV 2200 electric Mustang. And that was an absolute wild ride, which we’re going to try to break the Guinness Book of World Record in Las Vegas at the end of this year.”
The electric Mustang provides Tasca his first major driving assignment since leaving regular NHRA Funny Car competition. It also puts him back in a firesuit before the end of 2026, although not yet behind the wheel of his own nitro Funny Car.
“So the fans out there are going to see Bob Tasca in a fire suit going fast,” Tasca said. “Won’t be in the nitro funny car this year, but we are working on some stuff. We’re working on a whole bunch of stuff.”
What Tasca isn’t willing to do is return merely for the sake of returning.
Tasca has made it clear a full-scale comeback has to make financial sense before a race car rolls out of the shop.
“It is what it is,” Tasca said. “We’re not going to do anything that isn’t funded properly. We got a whole bunch of stuff going on back at the race shop. We’ll be making some big announcements at the end of this year that’s really going to put us even in a stronger position going into next season. But no plans as of right now, nothing finalized anyways.”
There is a difference, however, between nothing finalized and nothing happening. Tasca has already driven Prock’s Funny Car in testing, and he isn’t finished.
He plans another test following the Las Vegas event, keeping himself current in a car capable of running at the front of the NHRA Funny Car field. He also has given himself a new job title along the way.
“I’m officially on the record Austin Prock’s test driver,” Tasca said with a smile
But for him, this is not your average testing scenario.
“So I get the distinct honor of having Jimmy Prock roll me up to the beam,” Tasca said. “I think that was one of the coolest days of racing for me, is just to look out the window and see Jimmy Prock pulling in the side line. I’m going to test it in Vegas on Monday. So I didn’t forget how to drive, nor will I. But yeah, we’re excited to try to put something together.”
Thomas Prock’s emergence on the technical side has created possibilities that didn’t exist when Tasca first stepped away. Jimmy’s younger son has developed from an engineer working largely outside the spotlight into a key player in the family’s racing future.
Thomas has spent years working alongside his father, combining his engineering background with Jimmy’s decades of Funny Car experience. The arrangement also gives the operation something every expanding team needs: another tuner capable of assuming greater responsibility.
Tasca’s Norwalk test and scheduled Las Vegas laps are designed more to keep the reflexes sharp than prove he can still drive one of the most violent race cars in motorsports.
The EV project comes first.
Tasca’s electric Mustang assignment gives him an opportunity to chase a Guinness World Record while continuing his long association with Ford Performance. Three days of testing convinced him the electric car provides plenty of its own challenges, even for a driver accustomed to nitromethane and 340-mph Funny Cars.
Then attention turns toward 2027.
Tasca isn’t promising a full schedule, announcing sponsorship or putting a second Funny Car on an entry list yet. He has been around drag racing and business too long to announce the deal before the money and machinery are in place.
But he also isn’t talking like someone content to remain a test driver indefinitely.
The framework is beginning to show. Tasca intends to drive if a second car happens, Jimmy Prock is very much part of his thinking, and Thomas Prock’s growing role creates an intriguing possibility for how a two-car operation could be divided.
All that remained was to ask Tasca exactly what he had in mind.
“I can tell you this, I’ll go on the record,” Tasca said when asked whether Jimmy Prock would tune the electric Mustang. “When I come back, it’ll be me and Jimmy against Thomas and Austin. You heard it here first.”
