{"id":7915,"date":"2026-10-07T00:52:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T00:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=7915"},"modified":"2026-10-07T00:52:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T00:52:48","slug":"back-into-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/?p=7915","title":{"rendered":"Back Into the Conversation!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After a somewhat staggered season with his new team to date – NHRA’s 2X and defending World Champion has found his stride — and the timing is perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now driving for his new team (Tasca Motorsports) – Austin Prock<\/strong> delivered his 2nd win for 2026.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Austin Prock got the best of Jordan Vandergriff when it mattered most in St. Louis for for the 2026 edition Mid-West Nationals, delivering an impressive run of 3.909 at 332.84 in his Tasca Motorsports\/Motorcraft Ford Mustang in the final round to move to third in points.
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It is Prock\u2019s second victory this season and his first career in St. Louis, keeping the back-to-back world champion in the title conversation. He had performed well since May, but had only one win to show for it, coming up just short throughout the summer and early in the Countdown.
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But that changed on Sunday in St. Louis, as he charged to the final round by taking down a loaded lineup of Ron Capps, J.R. Todd and No. 1 qualifier Jack Beckman, who were all ahead of him in points heading into eliminations. That\u2019s not the case anymore, and Prock then delivered a strong .045 reaction time in the championship round, leading wire-to-wire against Vandergriff to get his 23rd career victory.
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It pushed him up to third in points, as the Funny Car standout for Tasca Racing is now 106 points behind leader Matt Hagan with three races remaining.
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\u201cThis was a big win. For the points, for our family, for our team \u2014 this is the time to get hot,\u201d Prock said. \u201cAfter everything we\u2019ve been through this year, all the hours we haven\u2019t slept and seven days a week working at this, it really pays off when you get a win. We\u2019re hot right now, and we\u2019ve been hot for the last 12 races. We just haven\u2019t been able to finish the job.
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\u201cWe had a really dominant Ford Mustang this weekend. We had to run through a lot of hitters today. Each round was like a final round. Everybody we beat was in front of us in the Countdown. It was an epic way to cap it off. You don\u2019t have days like this very often. When you run through four hitters like that, that\u2019s like winning two races in one.
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\u201cWe\u2019re just over 100 points out of the lead. We\u2019re in striking distance now going into Dallas and I\u2019m really excited for these next three races.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Championship title contender Jack Beckman <\/strong>qualified #1 at St. Louis and went the “final four” on Sunday.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Vandergriff advanced to his sixth final round of 2026 after defeating Cruz Pedregon, John Force Racing teammate Alexis DeJoria and Hagan. He stayed second in points and now trails Hagan by 72 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Independent racer Chris King <\/strong>(from Chicago) was one of 18 cars entered for FC racing at St. Louis — he just missed the field @ 17th.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

NHRA Mid-West Nationals <\/strong>\u2013 Funny Car Class Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WIN: Austin Prock \u2013 3.909 secs 332.84 mph (Career win #23)
R\/UP: Jordan Vandergriff \u2013 3.926 secs 325.37 mph
Low ET: Jack Beckman \u2013 3.864 secs
Top MPH: JR Todd \u2013 336.07 mph
Bump: 4.234
Entries: 18<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posted with files by NHRA Communications & Bruce Biegler
Photos Courtesy of NHRA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a somewhat staggered season with his new team to date – NHRA’s 2X and defending World Champion has found his stride — and the timing is perfect. Austin Prock got the best of Jordan Vandergriff when it mattered most in St. Louis for for the 2026 edition Mid-West Nationals, delivering an impressive run of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[264],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7915"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7915"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7917,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7915\/revisions\/7917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nitrofccanada.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}