On a tricky track Friday night in Q2 at the at the Denso NHRA Sonoma (Calif.) Nationals, Top Fuel driver Austin Prock shined.

Prock, piloting his John Force Racing dragster, clocked a 3.704-second time at 331.36 mph to grab the provisional No. 1 spot.

If Prock holds his position after Saturday's two rounds of action, it would be his first No. 1 qualifier of the season in his Montana Brand/Rocky Mountain Twist Top Fuel dragster and the second of his career. He captured the lone No. 1 spot of his career last year in Dallas.

“We just overcame the conditions,” Prock said. “We struggled the first one. We've really been struggling trying to keep this thing on eight cylinders and we did that tonight. It put up a great number. That feels really promising. I'm really happy to work with this team. (Crew chiefs) Chris (Cunningham) and Joe (Barlam) do a great job, and I love working with my Montana brand boys. There were a lot of high fives going on in the pits when we heard that last pair go down and we stayed No. 1.”

Prock just edged out Steve Torrence, the winner in Seattle last weekend, for the top honors as Torrence came in at 3.706 seconds.

“With this 13-car ladder, it would've been almost nice to qualify second and we just missed it by two thousandths (of a second). Before we got here, I was joking with Cunningham and saying if we make a nice run Q1, I'm going to roll it in a hun[dredth] Q2 just to try and ensure we get that P2 position. I'm really happy to have No. 1. If this holds up, it'll be my second career, and that'd be really special to do it here.”

Prock arrived in Sonoma fifth in the points standings on the strength of a win in Charlotte, N.C., and a runner-up finish in Pomona, Calif. However, he has struggled the last two races, with losses in the first round in Denver and Seattle.

“It would definitely be a great feeling,” said Prock when asked if his team could bounce back in Sonoma. “We would forget about those two first-round losses. I've not had much success on the Western Swing in my three years of racing. We got the one win in Seattle (in 2019), but I think almost every other race we've gone out first round. Maybe we'll keep that tradition rolling and get one win with two first-round losses.”

Despite the tricky track conditions in Q2, Prock wasn’t overthinking things.

“I'm just focused on my job,” he said. “I believe in my team, and I knew we were going to go up there and make a nice rip, especially once we got past the tree. The thing didn't even quiver. It was on a good run, and I hadn't been that quick in a while. I had left the hacksaw in the cockpit. I was sawing on the wheel down there a little bit, but it stuck, and I ended up No. 1, all good.”

Prock believes his late-night performance Friday will roll over into Saturday.

“It definitely gives us confidence,” Prock said. “Drag racing is very much a mental game. The conditions are going to be totally different (Saturday) and you're not going to see conditions like this again this weekend, but really proud of what we did. You can't take anything bad away from going No. 1. We'll just roll in (Saturday) and have a little bit more confidence than we did today.

"After we dropped a cylinder the first run Q1, I was fairly upset. None of us like losing or doing poorly and we rebounded nicely. That's all you can ask for. I just have to do the same job (Saturday). I have to worry about hitting the Christmas tree because I've done a pretty sh*t job of that lately. I'm going to worry about that and let the crew chiefs and crew do their job.”

Prock also knows with the Countdown to the Championship looming in the final six races of the season, it's imperative that his team gets things turned around.

“You definitely want to have a hot Western Swing,” he said. “You want to have your race car running good. We had a great race car last weekend and got picked off (losing in the first round to his teammate Brittany Force). We would've beat every other car first round, I think, except Brittany. That was definitely hard to swallow. I feel like looking at how the weekend or race day went, we could have been right there in that final round. That's just how drag racing goes sometimes. You just got to keep your head up and keep keeping on and get hot when it counts.”