Funny Car Champ Austin Prock Says Leaving John Force Racing ‘Definitely Wasn’t On My Bingo Card’

• Late-2025 talks with John Force went in unexpected direction, “and all of a sudden, we were shaking hands with Bob Tasca,” the two-time champ says.
• Austin Prock sloughs off any criticism from loyal John Force Racing fans.
• He’s “pinned in the shop seven days a week,” preparing for March season-opening Gatornationals.

NHRA Funny Car star Austin Prock said his entire team’s move from John Force Racing to Tasca Racing immediately after the close of his second-consecutive championship season wasn’t calculated but that the family-forged operation is “ready to rip… putting in the E [effort and hoping that] will turn into Ws [wins].”

Prock, 30, who virtually grew up in the John Force Racing shop with crew chief dad Jimmy and began working there as high-schooler, said, “It definitely wasn’t on my bingo card to get out of there. But life’s crazy, and everything happens for a reason. And we’re excited for the new adventure” which will start in Florida with the March 5-8 Amalie Oil Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.

“We had some talks with John Force, and things didn’t go how we envisioned they would go. And all of a sudden, we were shaking hands with Bob Tasca,” he said. “Life changes sometimes. We made our decision based on wanting to race as a family, and this was the opportunity that we had. Bob Tasca offered to bring the whole family together, and we took the gig. We have my whole team together still. There’s 13 of us that are all still working together, and that makes me excited because it’s the people that you surround yourself with that put in the work. Everybody knows their position to a T. And that’s how we excel in this sport.

“You always have to be learning. And when you get dealt cards, you have to figure out what to do with them to win. And we were able to make that happen,” Prock said. “We got dealt another hand of cards, and we're going to shuffle them up and try and lay down the best hand we can and see if we can turn on some win lights here right off the bat.”

He declined to discuss details of what transpired at JFR, offering only, “So, there’s three sides of the story. There’s my side, his side, and the truth, and I’m not going to get into that.”

He did say the deal “actually came together very quick.” Moreover, it was one he had to keep secret during the final two races of last season—and beyond, until the announcement became public January 15 at Ford Racing’s annual season-preview extravaganza at Detroit.

“It was tough that it had to be a secret. I’m a very open person. I don’t like to tell lies. I don’t like to hide things. I have a lot of friends over there [at JFR], and it was hard to hold that back and then get strapped in the race car and go to work. But you’re paid to be a professional race-car driver. And when you put that helmet on, the best driver is able to block out anything that’s going on in their lives or throughout that day. You just have to shut your brain off and go to work and be a machine in that race car to perform at the level that we have. So it’s just part of the experience, part of growing in the career of motorsports,” Prock said.

Switching to a new organization is challenging enough, but the Procks are changing from the Chevrolet way to a Ford program, leaving JFR’s in-house perks behind.

Prock said, “Man, we got a lot of work ahead of us, but I’ve been pinned in the shop seven days a week. I took three days off to go get engaged. Other than that, I’ve been in the shop every single day, grinding and getting this [car] prepped to win races. Our biggest problem right now is we’re just waiting on equipment to show up… getting parts on time. I would say 95% of everything that was there is being changed, putting our twist on it, and trying to build a championship-level team. We’re doing things the Prock way. But one thing that is staying the same is it’s going to have a Ford Mustang Dark Horse on it, just like it did last year. It’s going to have Weld Wheels and some Goodyears and nitro in the tank. That’s about all that’s staying the same from how we walked into this joint.”

He conceded that changing manufacturers is a task, just like functioning outside of the John Force Racing environment.

“It’s a huge change. When you race at John Force racing, you’re kind of in your own world, your own bubble. And my dad spent about 25 years there. I spent about 15. When you’re there, you have access to all this tooling, all these parts that you can only get in that building. So when you walk outside, I guess, in the ‘real world,’ everything’s a lot different,” Prock said. “We’re having to make relationships with parts manufacturers, because everything is just in your hand over in that other building. So it’s been quite the experience so far, but we’re working hard through it. And we're going to have this Ford Mustang Dark Horse in tip-top shape when it hits the racetrack in Gainesville here in a couple weeks [for testing].”

Some passionately loyal John Force fans have disapproved of the move, but Prock is pragmatic: “The way I look at it, if you’re an Austin Prock fan, you’re an Austin Prock fan. What I’ve realized is a lot of people are John Force fans, and whoever’s in that seat over there, they root for. I love my family and I want to continue to race with them. So all the hard feelings that people have towards me and my family is what it is. I can tell you one thing: they’re really going to be mad when we start winning races. Another thing is Dale Earnhardt—he was one of the most hated drivers in the [NASCAR Cup] series. So it’s not always a bad thing. We’re just going to keep rolling with the punches.

“Nobody wants to be the bad guy, but if I’m the bad guy for the series, someone’s got to be it. The thing that’s going to aggravate them the most is when we start winning. They’re going to be the angry ones, and I’ll be smiling in victory lane with the trophy,” he said. “I always kind of race with a chip on my shoulder. I always got something to prove to myself. This year, I would say we’re going to be a little bit more gritty. We’re going to be scrounging for any round-win that we can get. So I’m grinding right now.”

But that always was on his bingo card.