Funny Car driver Austin Prock held on to his provisional No. 1 qualifier spot in Saturday\u2019s final two qualifying sessions, and will be the man to beat in Sunday\u2019s eliminations of the NHRA Route 66 Nationals Presented by PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant at Route 66 Raceway.<\/p>\n
Prock, who continues to lead the Funny Car point standings, laid down his best qualifying attempt during Friday\u2019s two rounds with run of 3.907 seconds at 332.45 mph.<\/p>\n
His first run Saturday in the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car was 4.49 seconds at 196.07 mph, while his second run was 3.976 seconds at 322.88 mph, but Friday\u2019s best run held up to keep Prock at the top of the heap.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just got to keep doing that because you know it definitely adds up,\u201d Prock said. \u201cI\u2019ve been talking about it\u2019s going to be a longshot but we want to try and race our way into that All-Star shootout. That would be pretty spectacular.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prock has now entered final eliminations as No. 1 in four of the first six races. He also has one win (Phoenix) and hopes Chicago can be the scene of his second NHRA Funny Car win.<\/p>\n
Although Prock has been exceptional in qualifying, there has yet to be a repeat winner in the first five races. He hopes to change that Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year has been such a blur to me,\u201d Prock said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t even seem real. But yeah, that\u2019d be great to become the first repeat winner. I definitely think we\u2019re capable of doing it. And I\u2019m looking forward to tomorrow, I have family and friends out here and it would be really cool to celebrate in the Winner\u2019s Circle. Yeah, let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prock will face Jack Wyatt in the first round of Sunday\u2019s eliminations.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, John Force Racing\u2019s other Funny Car driver, 16-time champion and team patriarch John Force, is No. 4 heading into Sunday\u2019s eliminations.<\/p>\n
In Round 1 of Saturday\u2019s race-within-a-race for the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge and the first of two qualifying runs, Force lost to J.R. Todd.<\/p>\n
Force had a good reaction time (.031 seconds to Todd\u2019s .082 start), but started losing traction about halfway down the 1,000-foot drag strip and Todd was able to get past Force, who recorded a run of 4.678 seconds at 181.01 mph.<\/p>\n
In Saturday\u2019s final qualifying session, Force\u2019s effort was more stout: 3.976 seconds at 322.88 mph in topping Paul Lee.<\/p>\n
Force will face Buddy Hull in Sunday\u2019s first round of eliminations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis car has been fast, I just gotta fix myself in the driver\u2019s seat,\u201d Force said. \u201cI made a good run, I was low ET the last session.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Top Fuel, Brittany Force had a frustrating weekend, never able to get her dragster to hook up and not lose traction. The younger Force wound up with a DNQ, only the fifth of her NHRA career and first since 2014, meaning she will not take part in Sunday\u2019s eliminations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in a really tough position right now, and nobody wants to be here,\u201d Brittany Force said. \u201cit\u2019s not easy for any of this team to be in this position. And it doesn\u2019t just affect us, it affects all of John Force Racing. All the guys from other teams came over and patted me on the back, and they said, \u2018Sorry, you\u2019ll be back on top. Don\u2019t worry about it.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we all feel it. We all take our losses as one team. But right now, I always try to find the positive in every negative situation. And we will climb out of this. I think it\u2019s preparing us for something bigger, which will be down the road. And we will look back on this and go remember when we all pulled together and we climbed out and look at us now. And I believe that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Driving for race presenting sponsor PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant, like her father, 16-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force, Brittany was one of six Top Fuel drivers who failed to reach the eliminations.<\/p>\n
In Q3 on Saturday, Brittany recorded a run of 3.911 seconds at 297.16 mph, but it wasn\u2019t enough to get her into the eliminations.<\/p>\n
In her last chance to qualify in Saturday afternoon, the younger Force had a Q4 run of 4.106 seconds at 264.65 mph, again not good enough to make Sunday\u2019s show.<\/p>\n
Added John Force, \u201cWhat was most important to me is my daughter, Brittany. It\u2019s just a part of life. We got snake bit by the track, we were supposed to test, we set up a lot of new stuff, but the rain didn\u2019t allow to test this this week on Tuesday (in Indianapolis).<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, anybody can be great. It\u2019s the ones that are tough and get knocked down and get up and my kid got knocked down today and she\u2019ll get out. She\u2019s a two-time world champ \u2014 and don\u2019t forget that.\u201d<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on May 18, 2024. <\/p>\n
The post Prock No. 1 Funny Car Qualifier Fourth Time in Season\u2019s First Six Races<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Funny Car driver Austin Prock held on to his provisional No. 1 qualifier spot in Saturday\u2019s final two qualifying sessions, and will be the man to beat in Sunday\u2019s eliminations of the NHRA Route 66 Nationals Presented by PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant at Route 66 Raceway. Prock, who continues to lead the Funny Car point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}