{"id":99624,"date":"2025-03-22T16:18:42","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T16:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/all-three-john-force-racing-drivers-excel-in-first-day-qualifying-in-phoenix\/"},"modified":"2025-03-22T16:18:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-22T16:18:42","slug":"all-three-john-force-racing-drivers-excel-in-first-day-qualifying-in-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/all-three-john-force-racing-drivers-excel-in-first-day-qualifying-in-phoenix\/","title":{"rendered":"All Three John Force Racing Drivers Excel in First Day Qualifying in Phoenix"},"content":{"rendered":"

After an uncharacteristic performance in the season opener at Gainesville, Fla., reigning Funny Car World Champion Austin Prock looked more like his old dominant self Friday, coaxing his Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS to one of the three quickest runs in each of the first two qualifying sessions in 40th NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old finished Day 1 in the provisional No. 2 position at 3.883 seconds, just a tick behind Bob Tasca III (3.863) and a tick ahead of John Force Racing teammate Jack Beckman (3.895), who continued to rack up qualifying bonus points in his PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevy.<\/p>\n

Racing without the \u201cmud flaps\u201d that usually are positioned just in front of the rear tires on modern-era Top Fuel dragsters like her Monster Energy Chevrolet, two-time world champion Brittany Force also finished Friday in the provisional No. 2 position. Quickest in the first session, she wound up second behind only Doug Kalitta after negotiating the course in 3.705 seconds at 331.69 mph. Two final qualifying sessions Saturday will set the lineup for Sunday eliminations.<\/p>\n

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All three JFR entries are benefitting this week from the sponsor support of Phoenix-based Powers Affordable Housing and the moral support of John Powers III, one of Force\u2019s former Funny Car rivals, who spent Friday in the JFR compound.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s NHRA Drag racing for you,\u201d Prock said of Friday\u2019s performance. \u201cOne day you\u2019re in the dirt and next day you\u2019re making a nice run down the racetrack. Great start to the weekend here in Phoenix. Sun\u2019s out. Happy to be at a racetrack where it\u2019s warm (and) really proud to have new sponsors on the side of this racecar.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we were looking for a get healthy day after (qualifying only 15th and losing in the first round at) Gainesville,\u201d said the man who last year qualified his Chevy No. 1 a record-setting 15 times in 20 events. \u201cIt\u2019s got a lot more left in it. It kind of chattered the tire early both runs. We\u2019re just getting it back-dialed in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI know this \u2018Prock Rocket\u2019 is going to be flying by the end of the weekend, so I\u2019m excited about that and excited to have some new partners on board with us. Powers Affordable Housing. They use all American-made steel, and they have some really cool products for living in or if you have a hot rod, you need a garage for. And it\u2019s really cool to have Graham Rahal on the side of this thing as well. Graham and I are good buddies, and he has a hell of a facility out there in Zionsville (Indiana). So, excited about that and excited to get in tomorrow and see where we land on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Second quickest on his first run, Beckman was third quickest in the Friday night session and, like his teammate, anxious to see what Saturday brings.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother great qualifying day for the PEAK Chevy SS,\u201d he said. \u201cAt Gainesville, we only got two qualifying runs, but we were No. 1 both sessions. And then we come out here, and first session, we\u2019re No. 2, and second session we\u2019re No. 3. That means we got bonus points every time this car has gone down the track this year in qualifying, and that\u2019s just a testament to the team, and the crew guys on this car.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re doing everything right,\u201d said the three-time Phoenix winner. \u201cThe crew chiefs are making good calls, and that just increases my confidence every time they fire it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Brittany, she was quickest in the first session at 3.768 seconds and was the first to take advantage of the NHRA\u2019s four-race moratorium on \u201cmud flaps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a really good start for our Monster Energy team,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of theories and speculation going around about removing the \u2018mud flaps,\u2019 but we didn\u2019t have them on our car in Gainesville during testing when we went 302.69 mph to the eighth mile (fastest speed ever to that distance), and we didn\u2019t have them on at all today.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re behind Doug after today, but we\u2019re still very satisfied with the performance of the car,\u201d said the 17-time tour winner. \u201cWe\u2019re also excited to be teaming up with Powers Affordable Housing and with Graham Rahal Performance. That one is very special since Graham is my brother-in-law (married to former Funny Car driver Courtney Force). So, to tie together IndyCar and drag racing and have family on our car is very special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding the mud flaps, crew chief David Grubnic said flatly, \u201cOne run doesn\u2019t prove anything. We\u2019ve been given the opportunity to explore (this issue), but we\u2019ve got to look at driveshafts; we\u2019ve got to look at a lot of things. The car pretty much ran its number (Friday), so it doesn\u2019t suggest the mud flaps did anything (but) it\u2019s way too early.\u00a0Let\u2019s just see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published on March 22, 2025. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post All Three John Force Racing Drivers Excel in First Day Qualifying in Phoenix<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After an uncharacteristic performance in the season opener at Gainesville, Fla., reigning Funny Car World Champion Austin Prock looked more like his old dominant self Friday, coaxing his Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS to one of the three quickest runs in each of the first two qualifying sessions in 40th NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99624","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"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99624\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}