SEATTLE — Top Fuel rookies Austin Prock and Jordan Vandergriff are challenging each other — and even interacting with the legends of the sport, who are still fussing with each other after all these years.
The result is a lot of juicy smack-talk.
Prock, who drives the Montana Brand-Rocky Mountain Twist dragster for John Force Racing, and Vandergriff, who wheels his uncle Bob’s D-A Lubricant-Penn Grade dragster, are the early frontrunners for the Auto Club of Southern California Road To The Future Award.
Each had an impressive debut. By the third race, the icon-centric 50th Gatornationals at Florida’s Gainesville Raceway, the naturally confident Prock was declaring he’s “ready to show these legends what this new rookie is all about.”
One of those legends made this Top Fuel career possible for Prock. Don “The Snake” Prudhomme had an unexpected conversation with an old buddy during the January’s Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., that ended with sponsorship for Prock.
“We started talking drag racing,” Prudhomme said. “I told him Force needed a sponsor. He said, ‘Hell, I’ll sponsor him!’ The kid is dynamite. I like rookie kids. I just enjoy being around rookies and watching them build themselves up.”
Prock says his hastily brokered opportunity “is all because of ‘The Snake.’ He stuck his neck out for me and got it done. I owe him the world.”
Prudhomme has been promoting Prock, saying, “I saw someone who’s a rookie that looked like a veteran today. It pumps me up a lot. I enjoy it.” And at Gainesville, he didn’t hesitate to declare Prock a legend-in-the-making.
Darrell Gwynn claimed in front of other drag-racing legends such as Kenny Bernstein, Ed “The Ace” McCulloch and Joe Amato that reigning Funny Car champion J.R. Todd is “as good as anybody in this room.” Prudhomme straightaway said, “Wait a minute,” and indicated he’s the top dog.
Todd, clearly flattered, later laughed and said, “Exactly. Snake, he’s the first one to bust your chops, for sure. He’s not going to tell anybody how good they really are. He’s always going to be better than you. That’s something he told me when we won Sonoma in 2017. He said, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll always be second-best to me.’ If I’m second-best to somebody, it might as well be Snake.”
Vandergriff and Prock learned to drive dragsters as classmates at Frank Hawley’s Gainesville school. Vandergriff, whose style is less in-your-face than Prock’s, said he and Prock “are learning together. We’re really good friends. We started this journey together. We’ve taken every step together. We share a bond. Whatever I learn, I’m going to share with him, and whatever he learns he’s going to share with me. We’re going to bounce ideas off of each other.”
By the time they returned to Gainesville in March, they were locked in a friendly T-shirt sales contest. The driver who sold the fewer souvenir T-shirts had to wear the winner’s shirt during the NHRA round at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas.
All that developed during the weekend when the NHRA celebrated a handful of legends and put them on the track in Toyota Camrys for an “Unfinished Business” bracket race.
Final-round, crowd-entertaining shenanigans between eventual winner Warren Johnson, the six-time champion “Professor of Pro Stock,” and runner-up McCulloch ended the program with business still unfinished. It involved hints that Johnson doctored his car, a challenge to swap rides at the starting line and an actual swap after the official final. The legends said they wanted to do it again, next time involving money for charity.
Shirley Muldowney reveled in her first-round victory over one-time chief rival “Big Daddy” Don Garlits and Prudhomme was grousing even before McCulloch eliminated him. Lynn Prudhomme had been honored with the Pat Garlits Award the night before the race during Garlits’ annual International Drag Racing Hall of Fame dinner. But “The Snake” wasn’t interested in elaborating. He said he didn’t want her to go because “I’m kind of pissed off at Garlits.”
And the beat and beating-up continued. Bernstein said, “In any sport, in any endeavor, the pipeline always gets refilled. We’ll be gone. We’ll be talking about these (younger) guys 10 to 15 years from now.”
Lest anyone think Prock is being anointed, his own crew chief, Ronnie Thompson, has dogged him on social media. He posted a photo of Prock tipped headfirst into his chassis, installing seat belts.
“We’re calling him a prodigy, huh? Never seen anybody put the seat belts in upside down. I’m not sure where the crotch strap is going to end up … #newbie,” Thompson wrote.
That was after Thompson tweeted a roundabout compliment to Prock and Vandergriff: “Love this rivalry that’s starting up. I’ve known them both since they thought (poop)ing their pants was cool! Proud to see them both get a shot and step up.”