It has been a case of rinse and repeat for NHRA nitro Funny Car driver Austin Prock this season – especially in qualifying.

Prock put himself in position to claim his eighth No. 1 qualifying spot in 11 races by taking the provisional No. 1 position at the Northwest Nationals late Friday night.

Prock, in Cornwell Tools/AAA Chevrolet Camaro SS for John Force Racing, clocked a 3.838-second run at 328.62 mph to rocket to the top of the qualifying board in the first night-time qualifying session in the history of Pacific Raceways.

“That was cool. It was the coolest for the fans. These fans here have never seen nitro cars, header flames under the lights, so I definitely could tell everyone had a great time" Friday night, Prock said. “So yeah, another great day for this Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS. These guys are just animals. I keep saying it, but I mean they have impressed me every weekend, and they were making adjustments up until we fired the race car in the water box. They were just fine tuning this, saying, 'Read the racetrack, read the competition,' and they made some obviously really good calls, but that thing got away from me down there.”

Prock has been the No. 1 qualifier this year in Gainesville, Fla., Phoenix, Las Vegas, Chicago, Epping, N.H., Bristol, Tenn., and Norwalk, Ohio.

“I’m happy with these results today. Hopefully this will hold. I believe it will,” he said. “It's going to be pretty hot (Saturday), so I think we have two runs in the day, so eight out of 11, that's mighty impressive and I'm having a blast. Three weeks off, two weekends sitting out of the race car. I've been going stir crazy. It's been driving me nuts, so I was really happy to get Q1 out of the way. We made a nice clean straight run. We were low in that session there and the thing was making a really nice run again (Friday night), and just got a little loose down there and man, it turned. It definitely gets your attention. I saw a whole lot of white out of that left window.”

Prock, who never raced a Funny Car full time until this season, was thrust into this role when three-time world champion driver Robert Hight was sidelined with a medical condition.

From 2019-2023, Prock drove a Top Fuel dragster for John Force Racing, finishing a career-best third in the points standings in 2022. He collected four national-event wins and three No. 1 qualifiers.

He’s been a quick study in the driver’s seat of a Funny Car.

In addition to his seven No. 1 qualifiers, he also has snared three race wins, including the last two of the last three races. He lost in the semifinals in Norwalk, Ohio, the most-recent event on the circuit.

Prock admitted his latest run got plenty interesting.

“I would say probably 800 feet,” Prock said about when the drama started. “I had just got my hand up [and] tossed the laundry, and I got my hand back on the steering wheel, and then all of a sudden it was turning left. I was definitely glad I had the chutes out early like I normally do. That definitely helps get the thing under control down there, so, yeah, that was good. These Funny Cars are awesome. It definitely gets your adrenaline going and I love that about these cars.”

Prock said there’s been no secret formula to his immense success this season.

“I couldn't even tell you, to be honest,” Prock said. “I just try and stab and steer, and I know it's been going up and down the racetrack a lot lately. A few first rounds we've spun the tire, but it hasn't been doing it often, knock on wood. So, yeah, we'll see. I mean they're just doing a good job. They're reading the racetrack, and our package is working right now, but we got to keep it going for 10 more races. We've had an excellent start to the year, but these last 10 is definitely when it counts.”

Now, Prock is trying to join an elite club that consists of: Tommy Johnson Jr. (1993, Top Fuel, and 2015, Funny Car); Ron Capps (1995, Top Fuel, Funny Car, 2016 and 2018); and Del Worsham (2011, Top Fuel, 1999, Funny Car) of drivers who have won Wallys in Top Fuel and Funny Car at Pacific Raceways.

“I will be four – for (the late) Eric Medlen. How about that?” Prock said.

Former JFR Funny Car driver Medlen passed away in March of 2007 after a crash during a test session in Gainesville, Fla. Medlen won a nitro Funny Car title in Seattle in 2005.

“Yeah, no, that would be really special. That's a pretty elite group there, and I've had some success here and John Force Racing has had a lot of success here, so John told me to hold the fort down for him this weekend -- and if we got a win that would definitely be doing that,” Prock said.

John Force leads all Pro drivers with nine career wins at Pacific Raceways, all in Funny Car: 1991, 1993-94, 1996, 2000, 2003-2004, 2014 and 2019.

Prock last won at the PlayNHRA Virginia Nationals in Richmond, Va., on June 23.

He was waiting at the top-end of the track when his boss and NHRA legend John Force had a fiery, wall-smashing, high-speed crash during the first round of the PlayNHRA Virginia Nationals.

When Force’s car exploded an engine, it sent him into the retaining wall with enough force that he suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury [TBI], with additional injuries to his sternum and wrist.  Force continues to rehab at an Arizona facility specializing in the treatment of the kind of TBI he suffered in the crash. 

This weekend Top Fuel star Brittany Force, a two-time world champion in 2017 and 2022, returned to race in Seattle after sitting out the last race in Norwalk to be with her dad.

“I'm so glad Brittany is back this weekend. We got half of it back, so it was great to see her this weekend,” Prock said. “I hadn't seen her since Richmond, so they made two really nice runs tonight, so it was a great day for John Force Racing as an organization and feels just a little bit normal having her back. And it's really, really nice to see that car starting to show its true potential going up and down the racetrack, and I know they'll be a force to be reckoned with shortly.”