John Force Racing teammates Brittany Force and Austin Prock powered their way into the record books Saturday by securing the No. 1 qualifying positions in drag racing\u2019s two signature categories ahead of Sunday\u2019s 39th annual Texas Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex.<\/p>\n
On the strength of a 3.667 second, 338.19 mile per hour effort in optimum conditions on Friday night, Force will race her HendrickCars.com Chevrolet dragster from No. 1 for the 50th time in her pro career.\u00a0The 38-year-old, a two-time Top Fuel World Champion, is just the 19th pro driver, regardless of category, to reach that milestone.<\/p>\n
Not to be outdone, Prock will start the AAA Chevrolet Camaro SS from the front of the Funny Car pack for the 13th time in 18 races this year, tying the single season record set by boss and mentor John Force 28 years ago (1996) on his way to becoming the first drag racer to earn Driver of the Year recognition for all American motorsports.<\/p>\n
For the record, it\u2019s the 16th time since JFR first campaigned a dragster in 2013 that its drivers have qualified No. 1 in both categories at the same event.\u00a0The last time it occurred was at last month\u2019s Labor Day U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, Ind., a race in which Prock rode his No. 1 start into the winners\u2019 circle.<\/p>\n
As the No. 1 qualifier for the third time in her last five Motorplex appearances (2019, 2021), Brittany will face off against relative newcomer Spencer Hyde in the first round Sunday in her bid to win at the Motorplex for the first time since 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c50 seems like an impossible number,\u201d Brittany said.\u00a0\u201cTo be able to accomplish that in my career is huge and it\u2019s something I\u2019m very proud of.\u00a0When we were creeping up on it, just hearing the number \u201850,\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018wow, we\u2019ve done that.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the cool thing is, it\u2019s a collective thing,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u201cIt wasn\u2019t done with just one team but with so many teams since I first started in 2013 with so many different crew chiefs, but they all taught me things along the way that I still use to this day.\u00a0So I\u2019m thankful to them that they were a part of my career getting to 50 (No. 1s).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll pull from runs where we\u2019re on, you know, similar conditions, similar track conditions, similar weather,\u201d she said of Sunday preparations.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ll pull up just a handful of races that we were running in the heat. So, we\u2019ll look at those runs and see how we set up the car.\u00a0We\u2019ll try to dial it in as best we can using what we have from today. It\u2019ll be the more important run than last night\u2019s run (in totally different conditions).\u201d<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old Prock, whose dad Jimmy is crew chief on the blue-and-white Camaro, will have two opportunities to break Force\u2019s record, the first when the Mission Foods tour moves to Las Vegas, Nev., for the Nevada Nationals Nov. 1-3.<\/p>\n
The Funny Car point leader\u2019s reward for recording the quickest time of the last seven seasons (3.813 seconds) is a meeting with No. 16 starter Terry Haddock in the first round and a potential showdown with Beckman in the final that would have enormous championship implications.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, that\u2019s pretty special,\u201d Prock said of his 13th No. 1.\u00a0\u201cI had no idea that we were even close or even that there was a record until a few weeks ago.\u00a0So, it\u2019s pretty special to be added to that list, and to do it in 18 races is pretty incredible.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt speaks volumes about this team \u2013 my dad, my brother (Thomas), Nate Hildahl, everyone that\u2019s on this AAA car, this Cornwell Tools car.\u00a0I\u2019m really proud of this team and happy to be driving this race car.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just stab and steer,\u201d said the former quarter midget and sprint car driver.\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t have anything to do with (the way the car is set up).\u00a0I just try not to mess it up.\u00a0We have a pretty solid notebook right now.\u00a0We can run down a racetrack that\u2019s 140 degrees or a track that\u2019s 80 degrees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure they had to make some wholesale changes (on Saturday),\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cQ3 today, it spun about 500 feet and just barely popped the tire.\u00a0It was really close and I knew that in Q4, we were probably going to make a solid lap (but) tomorrow is going to be tough.\u00a0You\u2019re going to see track temperatures that we haven\u2019t see all weekend.\u00a0We\u2019re going to have to read that racetrack and do a good job to win tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beckman, driving and earning championship points on Force\u2019s behalf, won the most recent event on the tour (the NHRA Midwest Nationals at St. Louis, Mo.) and will start Sunday\u2019s elimination phase from the No. 2 position in the driver standings, 105 points behind his teammate.\u00a0He\u2019ll start his bid to win the Fall Nationals for the second straight time (he won the last time he raced at the Motorplex in 2020) against No. 14 qualifier Chad Green.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, the interesting thing is that the first and second place cars in Funny Car this year, right now, are both substitute drivers,\u201d Beckman said.\u00a0\u201cAustin\u2019s taken the reins for Robert Hight and I\u2019m taking them for John and a full season in 2025?\u00a0That\u2019s John\u2019s call to make.\u00a0I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen but, I\u2019ll tell you this, if they ask me, the answer is \u2018yes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Although no one came close to challenging Prock\u2019s track record, Ron Capps recorded the quickest time in the Saturday heat at 3.899 seconds, just a tick quicker that the best numbers for Prock (3.901) and Beckman (3.908).<\/p>\n
This story was originally published on October 13, 2024. <\/p>\n
The post B. Force, Prock Reach Milestones as Nitro No. 1 Qualifiers at Dallas<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" John Force Racing teammates Brittany Force and Austin Prock powered their way into the record books Saturday by securing the No. 1 qualifying positions in drag racing\u2019s two signature categories ahead of Sunday\u2019s 39th annual Texas Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex. On the strength of a 3.667 second, 338.19 mile per hour effort in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96445","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=96445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96445\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}