Prock is making a great case for the media panel’s votes for the Auto Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award that recognizes drag racing’s top rookie performer.
“I’ve been lucky enough that I’ve been surrounded by great people. That’s one thing my dad told me at a young age was if you surround yourself with smart people and people that are accomplished, you’re a lot less likely to fail,” Prock said. “I’ve been lucky enough to do that since I started racing. I had my brother there right by my side. Between the two of us, we were smart enough to get the job done, and we just surrounded ourselves with great people and ended up meeting up with Tony Stewart at the Fort Wayne Rumble.
“I won my first indoor race there and Tony won the same night,” Prock continued. “I caught his eye and he did a lot for me. I raced out of his shop for five years and he helped me out tremendously because it was just me and my brother doing it.
“My dad, he was gone racing all the time. If we wanted to do it, we had to do it on our own,” Prock noted. “So I had to hustle money and things like that and Tony was nice enough to let us race out of his shop and use all his product sponsors. That helped us get by and get me to where I’m at now.”
As for Force, young Prock can hardly remember a time he wasn’t part of daily life.
“Growing up around John, he considers me family, and I was lucky enough for him to give me a shot,” Prock said. “He saw an opening in his team and he wanted someone that he considered family. And he considers the Prock name family to him. So here we are.
“I don’t really have one mentor that I listen to all the time,” Prock added. “My dad told me you’ve got to surround yourself with multiple great people, but you have to balance all that. If you just listen to one person or if you try to listen to too many, you can get lost. I feel like we’ve done a good job of balancing that. I have so many great people around me — they’re not going to let me fail. It’s just how it all worked out and I guess it’s meant to be.”
He still enjoys stirring the pot a little.
Reigning Top Fuel champion Steve Torrence was fresh off his six-race Countdown sweep when Prock startled him at the Winternationals.
In the second pass of Prock’s career — and a qualifying pass at that — he needled Torrence at the end of the track about having a slightly better reaction time.
A rarely disarmed Torrence said, “He’s kicking butt and trash-talking me. We got out at the end. Austin looks over at me and he goes, ‘I’m coming for you.’ I said, ‘Wait a minute — you’ve made two passes so far.’”
Prock said, “I was just messing around with Steve. We’re all family out here. It’s nice to throw a jab at your buddy every now and then. He’s probably going to leave a lot more on me than I am on him. But for my second run out there, to leave on him, that was pretty damn cool.”
Prock embraces his self-confidence.
“I’m not afraid to try and back my confidence up,” he explained. “I feel like if you do talk a little smack or make a jab, you have to be able to back it up. Maybe that gives me a little bit more motivation to back it up and do the things that I want to do. If I call someone out, or call myself out, it gives me more motivation to excel and succeed at what I am talking about.”
Prock got the best of Torrence in the Seattle final, too.
“I wanted to race him in the finals,” Prock said. “I said, ‘When we get to my first final, I want to run against Steve Torrence because I wanted to be the guy who stops him.’ It’s pretty bad-ass that the rookie stopped the champ. I can’t believe we stopped them Capco Boys. I told you guys in Pomona I was coming for them.”
It was just one victory for Prock, but that shot heard throughout the Top Fuel class at Seattle might have been what energizes a sport that needs a breath of fresh air.
In the past two or three years, Torrence has barged his way to the forefront with his independent family team to disrupt the status quo. Then with his unprecedented performance, Torrence, in a sense, became the status quo.
And for years, Prock has had a reputation for “tearing up” stuff.