Photography: John Force Racing / Gary Nastase / Auto Imagery
BROWNSBURG, IND. (SEPT. 1, 2025) – All three John Force Racing entries left very positive marks on this year’s Cornwell Quality Tools U.S. Nationals but it was Austin Prock and the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS team that now only left their mark but left Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park with a bagful of money and hardware.
Prock finished off a flawless weekend that netted the points leader $330,000, defeating John Force Racing teammate Jack Beckman in the final round after a run of 3.903 at 332.92 in his 12,000-horsepower Cornwell Quality Tools Chevrolet SS. Funny Car.
A day after winning the PlayNHRA All-Star Callout, Prock finished off the regular-season championship, netting $230,000 in the process. He added the $100,000 U.S. Nationals victory for a second consecutive year, a feat not even his legendary team owner could accomplish despite five U.S. Nationals victories of his own.
Prock defeated Julie Nataas, Bob Tasca III and Blake Alexander on the way to the final-round matchup with Beckman and now has seven victories this season and an astonishing 15 wins in his last 32 Funny Car races. He also has 19 victories, with the majority coming during this impressive run over the past two seasons. Prock powered past Beckman in the final round, capturing another special Indy moment and taking the points lead into the Countdown to the Championship.
Prock’s big points lead will reset in the playoffs, but he enters the postseason as a dominant champ, winning back-to-back races and taking plenty of momentum into the postseason as he seeks a second straight world title.
“To win the U.S. Nationals in my rookie season (in Funny Car) was obviously really special,” said Prock. “We came out guns blazing, and it just put a little bit of an extra pep in our step, and to go out there and execute and do the job and have a dominant performance like we did last year, and then to come back again this year and do it is just surreal.
“It was a dream of mine to win a championship, but you never know if that’s going to happen. So many stars have to align. You have to get the right opportunity. You have to be surrounded by the right people. You have to have the right sponsors backing you. So, to get a U.S. Nationals win last year and then win the championship and then come back to win the Cornwell Quality Tools U.S Nationals again in our Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS, I don’t even know what to say. You know, they say when you win the U.S. Nationals once, it puts you in an elite group. When you do it back-to-back, it’s an even more elite group.”
Beckman, who was the No. 1 qualifier, drove to his fourth final round of 2025 after defeating Justin Scheiefer, Paul Lee and Alexis DeJoria. He’ll open the Countdown in second place ahead of Matt Hagan in third.
“So, there’s no silver lining to this, right?” said Beckman, “You make it to a final round, you need to capitalize. Now, in the Countdown, if you tell me six runner-up finishes will get us the championship, sign me up for that. But nobody gets to the final round and says, ‘Ah if we lose, it’ll be okay’. It stings. “We did lose to our Cornwell Tools-sponsored teammate at the Cornwell Quality Tool Nationals so there is some silver lining, but it’s frustrating for us because we have a PEAK SQUAD Chevrolet SS good enough to win. And I was driving good today.
“We’ll be back here to test all day tomorrow. We will unload a brand-new car, which will be our backup car. We just want to prove it, and we will go onto the Countdown and unload maybe be a little bit hungrier.”
Force earned her fifth U.S. Nationals No. 1 qualifying position (2019, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025), putting her against No. 16 qualifier Ida Zutterstrom in Monday’s first round of elimination. Force and the Cornwell Quality Tools team posted a lap of 3.690 seconds, the third-quickest run of the event to that point, to dispatch Zetterstrom and move on to the second round. On top of that, the speed, 343.51 mph, was the fastest run in NHRA history, surpassing the 343.16 mph run she made July 25, 2025, at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.
In Round 2, the two-time NHRA Top Fuel Champion (2017, 2022) left on Tripp Tatum by one-hundredth-of-a-second (0.063 to 0.073) but the run went awry immediately after. What was initially thought to be loss of traction turned out to be something completely different: the engine’s horsepower hit so hard that it activated the safety system that automatically shuts off the engine and deploys the parachutes. There was nothing Force could do to respond after that.
“In the second round, it stuck the rear tire so hard off the step, that when it released, our automatic safety system put out the chutes and shut off the engine,” said Forcre. “I went to pedal the car and had no power. I would have loved a shot to chase down Tatum who got into trouble further down the track. Luckily, we will be testing here in tomorrow so we can prevent this from happening in the future.
“Overall, we’ll look at the positives in the weekend: we qualified No. 1; we set the national speed record at 343.51 mph, and we leave fifth in points going into the Countdown. Proud to have done all of that at the biggest race of the season, here in Indianapolis in Cornwell Quality Tools colors.”
NEXT RACE
Round 15 of 20 of the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series is the 40th NHRA Reading Nationals presented by Nitro Fish, Sept. 19-21 at Maple Grove Raceway in Mohnton, Pa.
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BROWNSBURG, IND. (SEPT. 1, 2025) – All three John Force Racing entries left very positive marks on this year’s Cornwell Quality Tools U.S. Nationals but it was Austin Prock and the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS team that now only left their mark but left Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park with a bagful of money and hardware.
Prock finished off a flawless weekend that netted the points leader $330,000, defeating John Force Racing teammate Jack Beckman in the final round after a run of 3.903 at 332.92 in his 12,000-horsepower Cornwell Quality Tools Chevrolet SS. Funny Car.
A day after winning the PlayNHRA All-Star Callout, Prock finished off the regular-season championship, netting $230,000 in the process. He added the $100,000 U.S. Nationals victory for a second consecutive year, a feat not even his legendary team owner could accomplish despite five U.S. Nationals victories of his own.
Prock defeated Julie Nataas, Bob Tasca III and Blake Alexander on the way to the final-round matchup with Beckman and now has seven victories this season and an astonishing 15 wins in his last 32 Funny Car races. He also has 19 victories, with the majority coming during this impressive run over the past two seasons. Prock powered past Beckman in the final round, capturing another special Indy moment and taking the points lead into the Countdown to the Championship.
Prock’s big points lead will reset in the playoffs, but he enters the postseason as a dominant champ, winning back-to-back races and taking plenty of momentum into the postseason as he seeks a second straight world title.
“To win the U.S. Nationals in my rookie season (in Funny Car) was obviously really special,” said Prock. “We came out guns blazing, and it just put a little bit of an extra pep in our step, and to go out there and execute and do the job and have a dominant performance like we did last year, and then to come back again this year and do it is just surreal.
“It was a dream of mine to win a championship, but you never know if that’s going to happen. So many stars have to align. You have to get the right opportunity. You have to be surrounded by the right people. You have to have the right sponsors backing you. So, to get a U.S. Nationals win last year and then win the championship and then come back to win the Cornwell Quality Tools U.S Nationals again in our Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS, I don’t even know what to say. You know, they say when you win the U.S. Nationals once, it puts you in an elite group. When you do it back-to-back, it’s an even more elite group.”
Beckman, who was the No. 1 qualifier, drove to his fourth final round of 2025 after defeating Justin Scheiefer, Paul Lee and Alexis DeJoria. He’ll open the Countdown in second place ahead of Matt Hagan in third.
“So, there’s no silver lining to this, right?” said Beckman, “You make it to a final round, you need to capitalize. Now, in the Countdown, if you tell me six runner-up finishes will get us the championship, sign me up for that. But nobody gets to the final round and says, ‘Ah if we lose, it’ll be okay’. It stings. “We did lose to our Cornwell Tools-sponsored teammate at the Cornwell Quality Tool Nationals so there is some silver lining, but it’s frustrating for us because we have a PEAK SQUAD Chevrolet SS good enough to win. And I was driving good today.
“We’ll be back here to test all day tomorrow. We will unload a brand-new car, which will be our backup car. We just want to prove it, and we will go onto the Countdown and unload maybe be a little bit hungrier.”
Force earned her fifth U.S. Nationals No. 1 qualifying position (2019, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025), putting her against No. 16 qualifier Ida Zutterstrom in Monday’s first round of elimination. Force and the Cornwell Quality Tools team posted a lap of 3.690 seconds, the third-quickest run of the event to that point, to dispatch Zetterstrom and move on to the second round. On top of that, the speed, 343.51 mph, was the fastest run in NHRA history, surpassing the 343.16 mph run she made July 25, 2025, at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.
In Round 2, the two-time NHRA Top Fuel Champion (2017, 2022) left on Tripp Tatum by one-hundredth-of-a-second (0.063 to 0.073) but the run went awry immediately after. What was initially thought to be loss of traction turned out to be something completely different: the engine’s horsepower hit so hard that it activated the safety system that automatically shuts off the engine and deploys the parachutes. There was nothing Force could do to respond after that.
“In the second round, it stuck the rear tire so hard off the step, that when it released, our automatic safety system put out the chutes and shut off the engine,” said Forcre. “I went to pedal the car and had no power. I would have loved a shot to chase down Tatum who got into trouble further down the track. Luckily, we will be testing here in tomorrow so we can prevent this from happening in the future.
“Overall, we’ll look at the positives in the weekend: we qualified No. 1; we set the national speed record at 343.51 mph, and we leave fifth in points going into the Countdown. Proud to have done all of that at the biggest race of the season, here in Indianapolis in Cornwell Quality Tools colors.”
NEXT RACE
Round 15 of 20 of the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series is the 40th NHRA Reading Nationals presented by Nitro Fish, Sept. 19-21 at Maple Grove Raceway in Mohnton, Pa.
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Continue reading...
