This isn’t how Austin Prock wanted to win his second NHRA nitro Funny Car championship in a row – but Mother Nature had other plans.
Prock had a 101-point lead in the standings over Matt Hagan heading into the season-ending In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals, set for Nov. 13-16 in Pomona, Calif.
And that’s the same gap by which he won the championship when NHRA officials made the decision Sunday to cancel this weekend’s In-N-Out Burger at Pomona, Calif., due to rain and unsafe track conditions. NHRA officials made the decision to determine the champions by the points standings, which gave Prock his second title.
Prock, who competes as part of the John Force Racing stable, won the crown on the strength of nine national-event wins in 12 final-round appearances and seven outings as the No. 1 qualifier.
“It’s surreal. We had a dominant race car all year long, and we definitely wanted to come in here and race it out. The odds were good on us. We just had to go one round, and I was honestly just looking forward to driving this nitro Funny Car one last time for this season,” Prock said. “This is where I’m happy. It’s my happy place. I love being behind the wheel of the Chevrolet, and it’s a shame that we didn’t get to put on a show for the fans, but I respect NHRA’s decision. And to call me a two-time champ is incredible.
“What my family’s done and what this team, this Cornwell Tools team, has done in the last year – two years, excuse me – is something that you can’t write up. Last year a lot of people told me, ‘It’s not going to come as easy next year. The season that you had, it’s not doable over again.’ And we came in there, and we struggled a little bit in the season, and then ended up getting one more win throughout the NHRA schedule [over last year]. I think that that says a lot about this race team. It says a lot about me as a driver, and I’m looking forward to 2026 already.”
Prock made a pivotal move to claim title No. 2 at the 40th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals [Oct. 9-12] near Dallas. He arrived with a slim 20-point lead over Matt Hagan in the standings. Prock’s team needed a clutch performance – and they got one. He clocked a 3.959-second elapsed time at 328.30 in the finals to defeat Ron Capps and pad his edge to 112.
Despite winning a second title, Prock was in the shadows during the weekend with legendary driver and team owner John Force announcing his retirement from driving earlier in the week. The Finals was scheduled to be the final race for Force’s daughter Brittany, a two-time Top Fuel champ who is stepping aside from driving to start a family.
“Well, [the championship] it doesn’t chalk up to either of those announcements,” Prock said. “They put me in the shadows announcing those two things. But for John Force Racing, you announce those things. We’re going to miss Brittany out here, obviously. I knew for a while that John probably wasn’t going to get back in the seat, and he announced that this week, and then we go win our second consecutive world championship. There’s a lot of headliners for John Force Racing.”
Seeing John Force, a 16-time nitro Funny Car champ and winner of 157 national events, officially call it quits tugged at Prock’s heart strings.
“It hurts my heart that he can’t drive this race car again because he’s the greatest of all time. He’s going to go down, not just in NHRA drag racing, as one of the greatest of all time or the greatest of all time in all of sports. All of motorsports, everybody knows who John Force is, and there’s a reason for that,” Prock said. “I wish it could have been where he got to race out his last run down the racetrack and then call it quits. It’s sad, but I think he would agree it’s the best decision. But it’s going to be difficult for this sport not having a Force out here, let alone John Force. Brittany Force is taking a step away for a little while, and not having a Force out here is definitely going to hurt this sport.”
Prock’s two titles came in different ways, but he obviously wasn’t about to complain about the end results.
“Both of these championships have obviously come in two totally different fashions, and being with the guys, that’s where I want to be when I celebrate,” Prock said. “I wish every one of them could be on the top end with me when I get out of the race car, even on a race win. I love driving this race car, but one thing I miss about being a crew member is being on the starting line and watching that scoreboard light up and see your win light and celebrating with your team, because this sport is all about team effort. What we’ve done in the last two years, it’s not me, it’s not just my dad, it’s not just my brother [Thomas], it’s not just Nate Hildahl. It’s every one of us. From the race team to the race shop, everybody’s doing a phenomenal job, and they’re putting in that 110% effort and allowing us to come out.
“So being able to celebrate with my guys [today] was incredible. Me and my brother were the first ones to know, and I was out there signing autographs. And I turned around and just screamed, ‘We’re two-time world champs,’ and everybody looked at me funny because they didn’t know. And I’m like, ‘They canceled the event. We’re the world champ for the second consecutive time in a row,’ and it brought tears to my eyes.”
Prock has gone from a racer with amazing potential to a superstar in the sport.
“Being at the top is not easy, and getting there is not easy, and you’ve got to go through the wringer, and you’ve got to fight through that to get to the top. And all the way back before I even started drag racing, that’s how my career’s always been,” Prock said. “I started driving race cars when I was 10 years old. I was fortunate enough to where my family could supply the race cars, and we could go out there and race at a grassroots level. And once we got past that, my dad, he would give us the race cars, but we didn’t have any money to run it. I had to go out there, and I had to hustle, and however much money I was able to scrounge up was how much racing I was able to do.”
And he had to find a way to stay behind the wheel.
“As every race car driver knows, seat time is everything. The more you’re behind the wheel and the more you’re switched on, the better you’re going to be and the better shot you’re going to have to get to the next level,” Prock said. “I’ve had those seasons all the way throughout my career. One year you get to race five times, one year you get to race 15 races a year, and all the way up through getting my first NHRA ride. In 2019, I got thrown to the wolves out here. I’d made three hits of the throttle in the Top Fuel dragster, and Force drug me here to compete at a national level. I had only competed in an alcohol Funny Car one race at Bowling Green, and that was my only competition runs I had ever made. And you go through there and you try and do a good job, and you feel like you do, and the next year, boom, COVID hits, and you’re out of the seat again.
“You’ve just got to stay focused to get to the top, fight back, and if you believe in yourself and you believe that this is everything you want to do, you have to do everything possible to stay out here. It’s been a wild ride, but to say I’m a two-time world champ now after everything that I’ve fought for my entire life to be a professional race car driver, I wouldn’t say it’s paid off yet. I want plenty more to add to my resume.”
Prock has captured his 21 career Wallys – 17 in Funny Car, and four in Top Fuel.
Prock finished the season with a 45-10 record in eliminations.
“It’s awesome. To win one world championship is one thing, and to win two is another. But to win them back-to-back puts you in a select group,” Prock said. “I think there’s only seven of us who have ever done it. And to add my name to that list, I wish my entire team could be added to that list, because I get all the praise and the glory from the media and from the fans and the TV aspect of it. And it’s not just me. I couldn’t accomplish what I’ve done in the last two years without the people behind me, and I’m really proud to drive their race car. We’re going to celebrate big tonight, but like I said, we didn’t want it to end on this note. It still feels odd because we never even got to fire the race car up this weekend and were crowned world champs, but that’s beside the fact. I don’t care if there’s an asterisk next to this one in the stat book, but I definitely believe we earned it.”
Prock has won 17 of the last 39 national events on the NHRA circuit.
This season, Prock had wins at: the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals on April 13 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway; the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte, N.C., on April 27; Richmond, Va., on June 22; Norwalk, Ohio, on June 29; Sonoma, Calif., on July 27; Brainerd, Minn., on Aug. 17; Indy on Sept. 1; Charlotte again Sept. 21; and Dallas on Oct. 12.
One thing is for sure Austin Prock has no plans of taking his foot off the gas. His passion to compete in drag racing is something that fuels him every day.
“Those trophies, those paychecks, the more you win, obviously you’re putting more in your pocket, and the more you win, the more advertising you are to a sponsor,” he said. “Those are two things that keep the fire under me, and then you add on racing with your family. The last thing I want to do as a race car driver is let down my dad and brother in this whole Cornwell Tools team. I’m always hungry. Even if I do a good job, I can always find something that I did wrong or didn’t do perfectly, and those are the things that keep me going. I’m a competitor at heart on the racetrack. Outside of the race track, not much of a competitor just because I don’t care about it like I do NHRA drag racing or any motorsport. I’ve got a fire underneath me right now, and I don’t see any time soon it’s going out. So, we’re going to try and keep on doing what we’ve been doing.”
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