Since the 1960s, nitro-burning Funny Cars have had NHRA fans on the edge of their seats, watching the incredible machines power to big speeds and fast times. On Sunday at the 71st annual Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, the current Funny Car stars of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series will put their 12,000-horsepower cars to the test during the PlayNHRA Funny Car All-Star Callout.

As part of a packed weekend at the Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals, eight top Funny Car drivers will battle it out for top honors in the PlayNHRA Funny Car All-Star Callout specialty race. The popular callout-style race is back in Indianapolis and promises to deliver fans intense racing action from some of the biggest names in NHRA drag racing. The unique callout format adds a layer of bragging rights to the big-money race, with one driver getting the chance for a massive double-up weekend.

Leading the way is John Force Racing’s Austin Prock, who is the reigning Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals winner and the reigning world champion. Prock will have his pick of opponents of a field that includes, in order, Jack Beckman, Ron Capps, Matt Hagan, Bob Tasca III, Daniel Wilkerson, J.R. Todd and Cruz Pedregon.

Prock currently has six wins on the season and has a commanding points lead. He’ll lock up the regular-season championship this weekend in Indy, and earned the No. 1 seed for this year’s PlayNHRA Funny Car All-Star Callout.

Beckman, a two-time Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals winner, will have the second choice of picks unless Prock calls out his teammate. Beckman collected a pair of wins early this season in Pomona and Chicago.
 
Capps is third and hopes to be the first Funny Car driver to claim multiple PlayNHRA Funny Car All-Star Callout titles after winning the first Callout in 2022. Four-time champion Hagan, who collected the Seattle win last month, is fourth, while Tasca is fifth and will be aiming for his first Callout win as well as his first Indianapolis win. Wilkerson claimed a Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge win in Richmond and is sixth and Epping winner Todd is seventh. Two-time world champion and three-time Indy winner Pedregon will be looking for more success from Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in a field that includes six world champions collecting 12 overall world titles.

Callout selections for the opening round are made on Saturday, with the first round of the PlayNHRA Funny Car All-Star Callout taking place at 12:45 p.m. ET on Sunday. The driver who makes the quickest winning run in the opening round gets to select their semifinal opponent, with that round taking place at 2:15 p.m. The final round is at 4 p.m. and a special broadcast of the Callout takes place at 5 p.m. ET on FS1 on Sunday.

For more information, log on to www.NHRA.com, or visit the official NHRA pages on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Posted by NHRA Communications

LMLCMedia File Photo by Les Puchala