“Who’s Laughing Now?” Austin Prock Silences Doubters With Win at NHRA Potomac Nationals Presented by JEGS

For two-time defending NHRA funny car champion Austin Prock, the final round of the inaugural NHRA Potomac Nationals presented by JEGS at Maryland International Raceway nearly came apart before he ever fired the engine.

After a routine servicing of the car following the semifinals, things appeared to unravel as the Tasca Racing team rolled their PPG Ford Mustang to the staging lanes for their first final-round appearance in 2026.

“It was chaotic. [The] parachute box falls off the right rear corner of the body. You know, mad panic trying to get that in there,” says Prock. “Last-minute clutch calls…I ended up getting suited up outside the Expedition in the pits, got bolted in the car, and we rolled up there about 65 miles an hour on the tow rope and tossed it into the water box.”

With Jack Beckman’s John Force Racing PEAK Chevrolet Camaro waiting in the other lane, Prock admits his father, crew chief Jimmy Prock, couldn’t even make all his normal final adjustments. With no chalk on the ground to line the car up, Prock’s brother Sam – typically the quiet one, according to Austin – stepped up.

“We fire this thing up, my brother Thomas gets on the radio, he goes, ‘We’re gonna burnout inside and run an outside line,’” Prock recalls. “Then he goes, ‘Scratch that, we’re going back to plan A.’ I’m rolling into the water box and my brother Sam pushes Thomas out of the way and says, ‘No, we’re doing the burnout here, and we’re going to run a way inside line.’ Sam’s hanging his toe out there while we’re backing the race car up. He makes this last-minute moonshot call saying the racetrack’s better way inside. We ended up hitting that line and the thing hauled ass.”

“Sam, he’s not really one to voice his opinion very much,” adds Prock. “He’s very intelligent, but he showed up and stood out when it counted. I really give him a lot of credit for getting that win.”

Despite the chaos, Prock says he was in a really good space mentally going into the final round, confident in his driving ability. The scoreboard told the rest: Prock left first (.063 to .076) and ran a 3.956 at 324.20 mph to outrun Beckman’s 3.971 at 323.50. It was Prock’s 22nd career victory and his first of 2026. It was also an especially meaningful one, as it was his first event win since leaving John Force Racing after back-to-back world championships, and featured a JFR car in the other lane.

“That was probably number one on my win list,” says Prock. “The hard work that we put into that, the struggles that we went through as a team, and then to finally put it all together…and the racing gods lining us up against a Force car and turning on the first win light in the Tasca-Force rivalry, it couldn’t have been any better.”

The trials on Sunday leading up to Prock’s first victory with Tasca Racing is fitting, as the team has faced their fair share of struggles throughout this season up to this point. Prock came into Maryland International Raceway with a 2-5 record in elimination rounds, sat 11th in points, and had a very vocal contingent of the internet enjoying every minute of it.

While Prock knew it would take time to get everything lined out during the process of forming a new team, he admits he was perhaps overly confident in how quickly he believed they could accomplish the task. The team would be starting from scratch, working with all new, different parts than they were used to at JFR.

“It is 10 times more work than I think what anybody else thought or thinks, maybe on the internet,” Prock says. “You really don’t understand what goes into creating one of these race teams that can contend at a championship level.

“Everything that we had at John Force Racing was one-off and built in-house; only our race car had it,” adds Prock. “When that gets taken away from you and you restart…you have a new short block. It’s pretty close to the same, but all the little nuances of it, how do you QC it in, what do the studs need to be torqued to, etc. You compile all of that into each area of the race car, and all of a sudden you have 300 problems. You’d fix one problem in the clutch and it created another problem. You’d fix one problem in the fuel system and it created another problem.”

While the results may not have immediately shown it, Prock insists the team has made steady improvements since day one.

“We had nothing to show for it until Chicago. It took six races to finally see those improvements show up on the E.T. board. It’s been a grind, but all of us are more intelligent because of these struggles.”

Prock knew that maintaining an even keel was paramount to the team’s success. While he knows he might have been too ambitious in his immediate goals, he also knew he had to maintain complete faith in the team that had been put in place. In the midst of all that, Prock made a decision about himself.

“After Gainesville, I was obviously very upset, and rightfully so,” Prock says. “I went to Phoenix and I told myself my number one goal when I’m at the racetrack is to have fun. Because even when you’re winning, this job is way too stressful to not have fun. You just have to maintain that attitude, because if you’re struggling and you don’t have a good attitude going into work every day, you’re going to eat yourself alive. You’re going to fail.”

Prock used that mindset to make sure he came into work each day with a better attitude, which soon spread throughout the rest of the team as well.

“When the guys see me happy, they become happy,” says Prock. “I’ve been really proud of this team and how they’ve handled all of this. All of the hate, the animosity, the work, everything that we’ve been going through. I’m proud of them keeping a positive attitude and just taking the blows with us. We’re in this together. When you go through all those struggles, those wins taste so much sweeter.”

The struggles haven’t only been on the mechanical side of things. Prock’s offseason departure from John Force racing split one of the most passionate fan bases in motorsports, and his “Who’s laughing now?” line he delivered to Amanda Busick on the top end in Maryland went viral within minutes. Prock, however, says there was nothing rehearsed about it.

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t premeditated. She asked the question and it just slipped out,” says Prock. “But it’s true. That’s how we feel. I’ve been very adamant saying that we’re going to get the last laugh. There’s no doubt in my mind. I have some of the best people in my corner. My father is going to go down as one of the greatest to ever do this. It’s not if, it’s when.”

Prock is also adamant that despite all the noise surrounding the newfound Force-Tasca rivalry, Jack Beckman – the man in the other lane in the final round and Prock’s former teammate – has his utmost respect.

“Me and Jack, we’ve been really cool with each other throughout all this. He really is a class act,” says Prock. “I loved racing with Jack, and I love racing against Jack. I wouldn’t say there’s really any rivalry between us. It’s more of a rivalry for the entertainment value. Do I want to beat that car maybe a little bit more than I want to beat some of the other cars? Yeah. But at the end of the day, I want to whoop everyone’s ass. I don’t care who’s in the other lane. A win’s a win.”

As for the vitriol that has plagued social media since Prock’s departure from JFR? He welcomes the passion and buzz the new rivalry has brought to the table. He’s also just as direct, however, about who his real fans are, as opposed to those who turned on him the moment he switched teams.

“I was a little shocked at how big this story ended up being,” Prock admits. “I thought people would be shocked that Force let us get away, honestly. I didn’t think it would turn into this war like it has. John Force has a very passionate fanbase, and to the people that were my ‘fans’ and don’t like me any more…they were never my fans. They were a fan of John Force, and I happened to be driving his race car, and that’s why they liked me.

“A lot of fans have taken his side, and a lot have taken my side,” continues Prock. “The difference is my fans aren’t on the internet running their mouth all day. I go to the racetrack and I feel like everything’s cherry – the shirts are flying off the shelf, the hero cards are running out, the ropes are packed – and then you go home and you get on the internet and it’s like people wouldn’t piss on me if I was on fire.”

Through all of the ups and downs, Prock says team owner Bob Tasca III has never wavered, even as he wrote checks without seeing the desired results. Perhaps most importantly, though, is how Tasca has personally treated everyone with respect throughout the entire experience.

“Working with Bob has really been a breath of fresh air,” says Prock. “I’ve gotten to know Bob Tasca away from the racetrack; Bob Tasca as an owner and as a driving coach, and I have really enjoyed every step of the way. He treats my family outstanding. He treats my team outstanding.

“He’s been our number one supporter through the struggles. He’s the guy shelling out the coin to make all this happen, and when you don’t see any results, it can get frustrating, especially when you’re the owner. He’s stood by our side this entire time. He’s very intelligent. He understood there was going to be a process. I would’ve loved to have been up there on the starting line to see him after we won. The losing was fun racing with him, and I can tell you one thing: the winning’s really, really fun.”

Now the schedule hands Tasca Racing a prime opportunity to cement their place in the funny car hierarchy: this weekend’s New England Nationals in Epping, New Hampsire, is Tasca’s home race, in front of fans who watched Prock’s grandfather race decades ago.

“I’m excited to be in Epping again. Everybody knows Bob Tasca and the Tasca family around here,” Prock says. “I think half the cars on the street come off his lot. These guys have been coming to the races since the seventies, and now they’re still out there cheering me on. I really respect how diehard they are out here. We got a win at one of them, and hopefully we can continue that trend.”

And after getting a taste of victory in Maryland? Prock says he’s ready for more. “I think we’re all definitely hungry now after tasting it again,” says Prock. “I hope we can go run a train on these boys.”

This story was originally published on June 5, 2026. Drag Illustrated