NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

With just four races left in the regular season, Austin Prock, in his first year in the class, is leading the Funny Car points after a dazzling 10-race start to the season. Here’s a look at how the Funny Car title race is shaping up.

THE POINTS LEADER

After the first five races of the season, in which he scored a win, two runner-ups, and three No. 1 qualifying points, Prock – racing in place of medically sidelined teammate Robert Hight – led the points race by just 17 markers, or less than a round’s worth of racing. Five races later, the “Prock Rocket” Cornwell Tools team has a commanding 178-point lead on the field with four races to go.

Back-to-back wins in Bristol and Richmond and a runner-up in Epping have boosted his lead to a nearly insurmountable gap. Prock also has won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge four times (Las Vegas, Bristol, Richmond, and Norwalk), which he’ll add to his points total at the reset after Indy.

PUSHING FOR THE FRONT

Second-place Bob Tasca III began the season flaunting 340-mph horsepower, but after winning the NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas, the team took a dip before gathering its balance in Richmond, where they impressively qualified No. 1 in the heat and scored a runner-up followed by a win in Norwalk that helped close the gap a bit on Prock.

Reigning world champ Matt Hagan Is just three points back of Tasca after a trio of semifinal finishes at the last three events. Hagan hasn’t been to the winner’s circle since back-to-back wins at the four-wide event in Charlotte and in Chicago, and they only have five top-half qualifying spots in the first 10 events, unusual for a Dickie Venables-tuned machine.

THE FORCE FACTOR

Clearly, John Force is out of action for the foreseeable future and more likely for at least the remainder of the season. He was in second place at the time of his crash and has since slipped to fourth.

There’s little doubt that the team will soon name a replacement driver (Jack Beckman? Tommy Johnson Jr.? Robert Hight?) to finish the season for Force, but the driver replacement rule only allows for eight races. Logically, the team should bring the car back in Brainerd to run the final two races of the regular season and all six Countdown to the Championship races. It's unlikely that missing Seattle and Sonoma will drop Force out of the top 10, but he will probably drop several more spots.

LOOKING FOR TRACTION

At the five-race mark of the season, it was J.R. Todd who was right on Prock’s bumper, but he’s now sunk to fifth place, 228 points behind the leader, thanks in part to first-round losses in Chicago and Richmond, but a recent runner-up in Bristol and a No. 2 qualifying berth in Norwalk shows that the team is recovering.

Three-time Funny car champ Ron Capps likewise got a morale boost in Norwalk, where he was runner-up behind Tasca to move up one spot from seventh to sixth, but it was his first final-round appearance of the season. The car has seemed wildly inconsistent, especially in qualifying where they have five starts from 10th place or worse, costing them valuable lane choice in round one.

Daniel Wilkerson, in his first full season after taking over the wheel from father Tim, has had a rollercoaster season with a high of a runner-up in Charlotte and a low of five first-round losses.

Alexis DeJoria, likewise, has one runner-up (Phoenix) but also a DNQ at the NHRA Winternationals that offset that early hopeful moment. With just three first-round losses this year, the team clearly knows how to turn on win lights early in the day but struggle from there on.

Chad Green started the season with a strong semifinal finish with new crew chiefs Dean Marinis and Joe Serena but hasn’t been back to the final four since then, and an impressive No. 2 qualifying berth at the Richmond event was lost due to a stuck throttle on his first-round burnout.

Blake Alexander has clambered Jim Head’s Funny Car into the final spot in the Countdown thanks to a trio of semifinal finishes that offset two races (Pomona and Bristol) that the team has missed. Without being able to lean on the “perfect attendance” rule, Alexander will have to make the Countdown based on points, with Paul Lee, Cruz Pedregon, Buddy Hull, and Dave Richards all breathing down their necks. Hull, Pedregon, and Richards all have attended every race and will make the Countdown regardless if they run the next four races. Lee, however, skipped the Epping event and will have to make the Countdown based on points; he’s currently in 11th, just 34 behind Alexander.