Reigning NHRA Funny Car world champion Austin Prock failed to qualify for the first time in his career in his highly anticipated debut behind the wheel of Bob Tasca III’s PPG/Ford Racing Mustang at the season opening NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville, Florida.
Prock, a longtime protege of John Force who the legend often anointed as the future of his race team, stunned the sport in the offseason when he, along with his father and crew chief, Jimmy Prock, and brother and co-crew chief, Thomas Prock, announced their departure from Force’s operation following a second consecutive championship. Veteran Tasca seized on the opportunity to bring on Funny Car’s preeminent battery, leading he and the Prock’s on a winter-long scramble to change over the team’s entire program, from personnel to parts.
After a pre-season test session at Gainesville that began with technical gremlins and ultimately produced a strong 3.87-second best lap, Prock’s machine suffered from traction problems through the first three qualifying sessions at the Gatornationals. He entered Saturday’s final session 15th with a 4.836 at 217.74 mph to his credit. Improvements by John Smith, Dave Richards, Spencer Hyde, and Buddy Hull ahead of him in line all put the Prock’s outside the show and on the ropes, and one final tire-smoker just off the starting line left the 21-time race winner with no chance to pedal his way into Sunday’s program.
Prock’s post-run interview with NHRA on FOX’s Amanda Busick drew some ire from fans after criticism was made of the NHRA’s cleanup efforts in the left lane following a fire and subsequent crash suffered by Hull moments earlier. Prock’s aborted run was followed by three passes in the same lane that would have qualified his entry no lower than 13th.
“It stinks. I’m not surprised though,” he opened. “Things have just been going this way lately. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong, and then you have an oildown on the starting line and NHRA doesn’t clean it up properly, there’s still oil on the starting line. You’ve got to move way inside and the thing doesn’t move. You stand on the gas and it blows [the tires] off. With how things have been going, I’m not shocked.
“It’s a shame of Ford and PPG, they’ve put a lot of money in this deal and they expect us to win, we expect to win, and we will win,” he aded. “My dad went to Jack Beckman’s [team] at DSR, they didn’t qualify for the first race (2015 Winternationals), and then they won the next three. That’s the plan.”
Both Hull and Todd Lesenko also failed to qualify for the first race in the NHRA’s 75th anniversary celebration season.
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