Austin Prock picked a good time to have a good (elapsed time).

Prock driving for John Force Racing clocked a 3.682-second elapsed time at 334.57 mph Friday night to grab the provisional No. 1 position at the Texas NHRA FallNationals.

The time netted a $15,000 bonus for Prock given out by Billy Meyer, Texas Motorplex owner for having the quickest ET in Top Fuel’s Friday night session.

If Prock keeps the No. 1 spot it will be the first of his career. He arrived in Texas 10th in the points standings – 144 behind leader Justin Ashley.

“I've dreamt of getting a No. 1 qualifier, so I really do hope it sticks,” Prock said. “This car's been coming along since before Indy when we went and did that test. It hasn't really showed the last two weekends, but everything's still there. We just got to make the right adjustments, and then you get a performance like this. So, we seem to be peaking at the right time, every time we do something good to get this 15 grand on top of it. Thank you to the (Texas) Motor Speedway for putting this money up, and hopefully, well, actually, I do get to keep it. I just might not get to keep No. 1.”

Some drivers know exactly when they go to the top of the qualifying ladder – not Prock.

“You know, I don't even have a radio in my car,” Prock said. “They don't want to listen to me, and I don't want to listen to them when I'm getting in the zone. But the DJ helped. I listened to a couple jams. I poked my guys a couple times and I'm like, ‘Hey, go up there and play some Nate Dogg,’ but never got that out of them, but that would've been the icing on the cake. But definitely worth the wait. It's painful sitting in these race cars. But like I said, it all paid off.”

Prock acknowledged a run like Friday night was just what his team needed.

“Yeah, we got that fire under us again, you know? So, like I said, everything's been there, but when it all comes together like this, there's a lot of satisfaction in it,” Prock said. “Hopefully, we made a decent run the first Q1 today. We went, I think, six quick, and then we go low this second session, and this is kind of how Reading shaped up for us. If we keep going up and down the track, you don't want to race Joe Barlam and Rahn Tobler on Sunday.”

Prock won the Reading, Pa., race and then lost in the first round in Charlotte, N.C., and St. Louis.

“Four qualifying these last three races is going to help us tremendously, because our notebook isn't that big,” Prock said. “We haven't really made that many. We've been to all the races this year, but haven't made that many runs, and especially great runs. So, we got a handful of them now, and we just got to keep picking away at them, and like I said, make the right adjustments when it counts, and it'll put up the number if it goes.

“We went and made a nice, clean 3.80, didn't hurt anything. That'll be money when it's 90 degrees outside and the track's 140 (Saturday). So, we got that under our belt, and then we went out and pushed in run 68 and ended up getting a 15K. So, I feel like overall, it was just about perfect to kind of balance out the weekend.”

After struggling throughout most of the season, Prock is thrilled his team is seeing its hard work pay off.

“It's been huge,” Prock said. “You want to end out the season on a strong note so you can roll into the next season with a little confidence and not have to think about it all three months off. We're just peaking at the right time. This playoff system has played into our favor quite a bit, because I mean, we were stinking it up a majority of the season, so to get it turned around and just... Everybody on this team works so hard. You watch these crew guys, and I've worked on these cars firsthand too. When you ain't going rounds, it really isn't any fun. Drag racing is either a blast or miserable, there's not much in between. So, we're on the high end of the stick right now.”

Clay Millican seemed to have the provisional No. 1 spot with a 3.685-second lap before Prock snatched it away and the money.

“I love Clay,” Prock said. “He gave me the opportunity to fill in for him last year, so we have a great relationship, but it's awesome to see his race car run as well as it has the past few races too. They've been ripping off 69s and 68s like that quite frequently, so glad to see that for him. But I'm definitely not upset I took the check away from him.”

Prock made his electric run against his teammate Brittany Force.

“It's awesome. Like Rahn Tobler told me when we were walking out of the pit, the announcers and everybody and their brother up there was talking about Brittany Force this and (David) Grubnic this and how they're going to go low and this and that. And he said even when the ET boards lit up, they were like, ‘Oh, and Brittany Force goes 3.68,’ and they stumbled, because we beat her this time. So definitely cool. That's the best car in the business right now, quickest, and fastest, like we talked about earlier with the top 10 speed records, and to outdo her one night like this is very cool.”