{"id":105405,"date":"2026-04-03T08:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=105405"},"modified":"2026-04-03T08:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T15:04:11","slug":"prock-learning-that-switching-teams-isnt-always-seamless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/prock-learning-that-switching-teams-isnt-always-seamless\/","title":{"rendered":"Prock Learning that Switching Teams isn\u2019t Always Seamless"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Prock battled tire spin in Phoenix\u2019s first round – NHRA photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As NHRA gathers for its third race in a 20-contest Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season, there\u2019s a lot of questions for the current two-time Funny Car champion, Austin Prock. The 29-year-old phenom, who spent a season in Top Fuel and the previous two in Funny Car, all the time competing with John Force Racing, left that squad after earning his second straight Flopper championship and, together with his father Jimmy and brother Thomas – as well as most members of their crew – departed the Chevrolet-based team to work with Ford Motor Co. stalwarts Tasca Racing.<\/p>\n

Bob Tasca III was the first NHRA Funny Car racer to topple the 340-mph barrier. Unfortunately for Tasca, he made that 1,000-foot voyage in the PRO Superstar Shootout at Bradenton Motorsports Park, not at a sanctioned NHRA race. So it wasn\u2019t an official run. The official 340-plus lap came much later in the year, during the season finale on In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip\u2019s racetrack. And it was set by Prock as he enunciated his first championship in 2024. In the first round, as the No. 1 qualifier, Prock hit 341.68 mph at 3.828 seconds against Jason Rupert. He would have loved to do it again in 2025, but that season finale was lost to catastrophic weather.<\/p>\n

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Austin Prock\u2019s 341mph lap came in the first round of 2024\u2019s season finale – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tasca had his typical up and down year in 2025, ending up tenth in the final standings. Sometimes he\u2019s right there in the championship fight; other times he has appeared lost. That the third generation NHRA racer decided to step away from the driver\u2019s seat and bring the whole Prock group from John Force Racing to his team was a surprise. No driver wants to hang it up, especially after nearly earning credit for the quickest and fastest lap in NHRA Funny Car history. But that is what Bob Tasca did, with the consent and approval of Ford and his ancillary partners.<\/p>\n

Some people say that \u201cparts are parts\u201d but when you\u2019ve worked with the same evolving chassis and engine combination through much of your career, a change from one team to another can be difficult. That\u2019s something Jimmy, Thomas and Austin Prock are discovering. The properties of their new chassis and body are very different from what they\u2019ve been using.The engine parts are different. No matter the genius turning knobs, adjustments are necessary when the situation calls for them.<\/p>\n

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Prock didn\u2019t make the field at this year\u2019s Gatornationals – NHRA photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The transition from JFR to Tasca Racing hasn\u2019t been as seamless as the Prock family had hoped. While they tested prior to the season starter at Gainesville Raceway, that central Florida track absolutely mystified the Tasca group. They weren\u2019t in the field come Sunday and, rather than stay on-site so fans could at least say hello to the current titleholder, Tasca Racing packed up and left. That decision left a gaping hole next to the staging lanes at the 57th Amalie Motor Oil Gatornationals. It was a very Bob Tasca-like move.<\/p>\n

Things were a bit better once the team arrived in Phoenix for the 41st FMP Arizona NHRA Nationals. Prock made the field, albeit in the bottom half, ninth, which meant his Ford Mustang would be running against the No.8 qualifier, J.R. Todd, whose Kalitta Motorsports team has had solid results thus far in a two-race season. Prock lost to the 2018 titleholder\u2019s Supra. While he was first out of the gate, by half-track tire-spin relegated the Procks, Tascas and their Mustang to the losing column.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s work to be done to get the car to do what Jimmy, Thomas and Austin need it to do. No doubt they\u2019ve been testing in advance of next week\u2019s Lucas Oil Winternationals at the same track where the family has celebrated its most majestic accomplishments.They\u2019ll come around; winners always do. But the waiting and watching as fans and competitors alike watch this operation gain traction could be one of the more interesting aspects of NHRA\u2019s 75th anniversary season. Will race No. 3 bring the Prock family redemption or is that learning curve still in effect?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Austin Prock and the Prock family are discovering that repeat success with a new team is not a given.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":105408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,5029],"tags":[13206,12961,6606,5624,9631,1438,423,9642,9966,7,5626,11306],"class_list":["post-105405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","tag-41st-fmp-arizona-nhra-nationals","tag-57th-amalie-motor-oil-gatornationals","tag-austin-prock","tag-bob-tasca-iii","tag-in-n-out-burger-pomona-dragstrip","tag-jimmy-prock","tag-john-force-racing","tag-lucas-oil-winternationals","tag-mission-foods-drag-racing-series","tag-nhra","tag-tasca-racing","tag-thomas-prock"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Prock-at-Phoenix-2026.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-rq5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105405"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105417,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105405\/revisions\/105417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}