Photography: John Force Racing / Gary Nastase / Auto Imagery
NORWALK, Ohio (June 29, 2025) – A gritty Austin Prock used his starting line skills to narrowly defeat three-time World Champion Ron Capps in the semifinals, then relied on his dad’s tuning expertise to secure a final round victory over four-time World Champ Matt Hagan that sent the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS back to the winners’ circle Sunday following the 18th NHRA Norwalk Nationals at Summit Motorsport Park.
It was the second win in as many weeks for the 29-year-old point leader and a crew led by his dad Jimmy, his brother Thomas and Nate Hildahl, and it was an especially rewarding one since it came on the track Cornwell Tools calls home.
“It feels amazing,” Prock said. “To win back-to-back in this category is so tough. I’m just so proud of my family and this whole Cornwell Tools team. All the dealers out there busting their tails to let us come out here and play. I mean this is amazing.
“The ole ‘Prock Rocket,’ it got me out of a hole again,” said the man who developed his car controls skills driving quarter midgets and sprint cars. “It left and it went sideways like a sprint car, and I just had to wrangle her in there and glad to see that win light down there. Another amazing run by this team.”
It was the fourth win of the year for the reigning series champion, the 12th since he first slid into the seat of the Cornwell Chevy to start the 2024 season. But it was no cakewalk. Racing on a 130-degree track, Prock did not have access to the power that propelled the black-and-blue Chevy to an NHRA national record speed of 341.68 miles per hour last November and to a jaw-dropping, best in history 3.791 during testing last February.
At SMP, the best the fourth-generation racer could manage was 3.900 at 331.28 mph and that was in the hero qualifying session on Friday night, the session that almost always offers up the best conditions of the weekend. Sunday, he had to make do with times of 3.980, 4.025, 4.091 and 4.064.
The 4.091 would have been a loser to Capps’ quicker 4.089 if not for Prock’s .040 of a second starting line advantage (.055 to .095). That edge got him to the finish .038 of a second ahead of the Toyota driver.
“Finally, I did something right,” Prock gushed. “I’ve been struggling the last few weekends as a driver. I knew I had to be on my game there. Proud to drive this thing for Cornwell Tools with HendrickCars.com. I love working with all the dealers and all our partners at john Force Racing. They’re amazing.”
In the final, the crew gave the 2019 NHRA Rookie-Of-The-Year just enough to allow him to keep his career record perfect against Hagan, whom he has beaten seven times, twice in final rounds.
In winning for the first time at Norwalk, a track on which he was a Top Fuel semifinalist in 2021 (while subbing for a medically unavailable Clay Millican) and 2023, Prock increased his lead over John Force Racing teammate Jack Beckman to 127 points with just four races remaining before the NHRA adjusts the points in advance of the Countdown to the Championship.
Beckman, who celebrated his 59th birthday Saturday, was one of Hagan’s victims on Sunday in a dead-heat race in which one could not have determined the winner with the naked eye. Hagan’s .071 reaction time gave him a .002 of a second cushion and he needed every bit of it at the finish, winning by .0016 of a second with a 4.088 to Beckman’s 4.087 in the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevy SS.
“Frustrating day for the PEAK Chevy,” Beckman said. “Losing second round, there’s only one thing worse, and that’s losing first round. I just think that we’ve been performing at such a high level that we expect to win races and anything short of that is a disappointment.
“Coming off a runner-up last week in Richmond, I really thought we would punch into the winners’ circle this weekend,” said the 2012 Funny Car World Champion, “but we came up just a thousandth (of a second) short in the second round. We made a decent lap; we just didn’t run strong enough and, as a driver, I needed to step it up a little bit and get more of an advantage on the starting line.
“We’ll take a deep breath, look at the data, I can work on the things I need to work on as a driver and come back out swinging at the next race – and that’s what we’re going to do,” said the 37-time pro tour winner and former Super Comp World Champ. “We’ve already got a car that’s been in the winners’ circle twice and won two of the Mission Foods 2Fast/2Tasty Challenges this year. We don’t need to regroup; we just need to unload at the next race (the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Seattle, July 19-21).”
Like Beckman, two-time Top Fuel World Champ Brittany Force was stopped in round two. The No. 4 qualifier after raising the track speed record to 334.65 mph, the second youngest of John Force’s drag racing daughters took out veteran Lex Joon in round one before running afoul of Shawn Langdon, whose 3.900 was just good enough to cover her 3.953 in the Chevrolet Accessories dragster.
“Proud of my Chevrolet Accessories team this weekend,” said the only woman to have won as many as 300 elimination rounds in the sport’s premier category. “We didn’t get the win, but we continue to show progress on hot racetracks. First round our car drove into smoke and after a steady pedal, I got it to hook up and drove to the finish line against Lex Joon.
“Unfortunately, in round two, we got outrun by Shawn Langdon in a good side by side drag race,” she said. “This team will pack up, regroup and get ready to get back after it in Seattle in a few weeks.”
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NORWALK, Ohio (June 29, 2025) – A gritty Austin Prock used his starting line skills to narrowly defeat three-time World Champion Ron Capps in the semifinals, then relied on his dad’s tuning expertise to secure a final round victory over four-time World Champ Matt Hagan that sent the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS back to the winners’ circle Sunday following the 18th NHRA Norwalk Nationals at Summit Motorsport Park.
It was the second win in as many weeks for the 29-year-old point leader and a crew led by his dad Jimmy, his brother Thomas and Nate Hildahl, and it was an especially rewarding one since it came on the track Cornwell Tools calls home.
“It feels amazing,” Prock said. “To win back-to-back in this category is so tough. I’m just so proud of my family and this whole Cornwell Tools team. All the dealers out there busting their tails to let us come out here and play. I mean this is amazing.
“The ole ‘Prock Rocket,’ it got me out of a hole again,” said the man who developed his car controls skills driving quarter midgets and sprint cars. “It left and it went sideways like a sprint car, and I just had to wrangle her in there and glad to see that win light down there. Another amazing run by this team.”
It was the fourth win of the year for the reigning series champion, the 12th since he first slid into the seat of the Cornwell Chevy to start the 2024 season. But it was no cakewalk. Racing on a 130-degree track, Prock did not have access to the power that propelled the black-and-blue Chevy to an NHRA national record speed of 341.68 miles per hour last November and to a jaw-dropping, best in history 3.791 during testing last February.
At SMP, the best the fourth-generation racer could manage was 3.900 at 331.28 mph and that was in the hero qualifying session on Friday night, the session that almost always offers up the best conditions of the weekend. Sunday, he had to make do with times of 3.980, 4.025, 4.091 and 4.064.
The 4.091 would have been a loser to Capps’ quicker 4.089 if not for Prock’s .040 of a second starting line advantage (.055 to .095). That edge got him to the finish .038 of a second ahead of the Toyota driver.
“Finally, I did something right,” Prock gushed. “I’ve been struggling the last few weekends as a driver. I knew I had to be on my game there. Proud to drive this thing for Cornwell Tools with HendrickCars.com. I love working with all the dealers and all our partners at john Force Racing. They’re amazing.”
In the final, the crew gave the 2019 NHRA Rookie-Of-The-Year just enough to allow him to keep his career record perfect against Hagan, whom he has beaten seven times, twice in final rounds.
In winning for the first time at Norwalk, a track on which he was a Top Fuel semifinalist in 2021 (while subbing for a medically unavailable Clay Millican) and 2023, Prock increased his lead over John Force Racing teammate Jack Beckman to 127 points with just four races remaining before the NHRA adjusts the points in advance of the Countdown to the Championship.
Beckman, who celebrated his 59th birthday Saturday, was one of Hagan’s victims on Sunday in a dead-heat race in which one could not have determined the winner with the naked eye. Hagan’s .071 reaction time gave him a .002 of a second cushion and he needed every bit of it at the finish, winning by .0016 of a second with a 4.088 to Beckman’s 4.087 in the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevy SS.
“Frustrating day for the PEAK Chevy,” Beckman said. “Losing second round, there’s only one thing worse, and that’s losing first round. I just think that we’ve been performing at such a high level that we expect to win races and anything short of that is a disappointment.
“Coming off a runner-up last week in Richmond, I really thought we would punch into the winners’ circle this weekend,” said the 2012 Funny Car World Champion, “but we came up just a thousandth (of a second) short in the second round. We made a decent lap; we just didn’t run strong enough and, as a driver, I needed to step it up a little bit and get more of an advantage on the starting line.
“We’ll take a deep breath, look at the data, I can work on the things I need to work on as a driver and come back out swinging at the next race – and that’s what we’re going to do,” said the 37-time pro tour winner and former Super Comp World Champ. “We’ve already got a car that’s been in the winners’ circle twice and won two of the Mission Foods 2Fast/2Tasty Challenges this year. We don’t need to regroup; we just need to unload at the next race (the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Seattle, July 19-21).”
Like Beckman, two-time Top Fuel World Champ Brittany Force was stopped in round two. The No. 4 qualifier after raising the track speed record to 334.65 mph, the second youngest of John Force’s drag racing daughters took out veteran Lex Joon in round one before running afoul of Shawn Langdon, whose 3.900 was just good enough to cover her 3.953 in the Chevrolet Accessories dragster.
“Proud of my Chevrolet Accessories team this weekend,” said the only woman to have won as many as 300 elimination rounds in the sport’s premier category. “We didn’t get the win, but we continue to show progress on hot racetracks. First round our car drove into smoke and after a steady pedal, I got it to hook up and drove to the finish line against Lex Joon.
“Unfortunately, in round two, we got outrun by Shawn Langdon in a good side by side drag race,” she said. “This team will pack up, regroup and get ready to get back after it in Seattle in a few weeks.”
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