Stacking Pennies with Corey LaJoie Mar 6, 2026

NHRA Champ Austin Prock Did WHAT This Offseason?!

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Concept

NHRA funny car

NHRA funny cars are special race cars that go very fast in straight-line races called drag races. They have unique shapes and are part of a big racing organization.

Car

Ford Mustang

The Ford Mustang is a popular fast car from Ford that many people like to race and drive for fun.

Car

Ford Expedition

The Ford Expedition is a big car that can carry lots of people and pull heavy things like trailers or boats. It's popular with families and people who need a strong vehicle for big jobs.

Concept

John Force Racing

John Force Racing is a top drag racing team that makes their own car parts and builds their race cars themselves. They focus on doing everything inside their own shop.

Concept

sprint cars

Sprint cars are special race cars that go very fast on short dirt or oval tracks. They have big wings on top to help them stay stable.

Concept

Daytona 500

The Daytona 500 is a very famous and important car race in NASCAR. Many fans look forward to it every year.

Concept

NASCAR

NASCAR is a type of car racing where drivers race special cars on oval tracks. It's very popular in the US and lots of people watch it.

Term

horsepower

Horsepower tells you how powerful a car's engine is. More horsepower usually means the car can go faster or accelerate quicker.

Concept

IndyCar

IndyCar is a type of car racing with very fast, single-seat cars. They race on different types of tracks including big ovals and city streets.

Concept

drag racing

Drag racing is a race where two cars go straight ahead as fast as they can over a short distance to see who wins.

Term

nitro methane

Nitro methane is a special kind of fuel that race cars use to go really fast. It's very powerful but also dangerous to handle.

Concept

NHRA tour

The NHRA tour is a big drag racing competition where the best drag racers race their cars at different places across the country.

Car

top fuel dragster

Top fuel dragsters are super fast race cars that go straight and very quickly using special fuel. They are very long and have big engines that make a lot of power.

Car

funny car

Funny cars are special race cars that look like regular cars but are built to go very fast in a straight line. They have their engine placed in a way that makes them tricky to drive.

Term

wheelbase

Wheelbase means how far apart the front and back wheels are on a car. This distance changes how the car drives and feels.

Car

non-winged sprint car

Non-winged sprint cars are fast race cars that don't have big wings on top. This makes them harder to drive but very exciting.

Term

bell housing

The bell housing is a part that covers where the engine connects to the gears that make the car move. In some race cars, it's very close to the driver’s feet.

Part

drive shaft

A drive shaft is a long rod that helps send power from the engine to the wheels so the car can move. In some race cars, it’s very close to the driver.

Concept

sitting on top of the rear axle

In funny cars, the driver sits right above the back wheels, which is different from most cars where the driver sits more in the middle. This changes how the car feels when driving.

Concept

alcohol dragster

Alcohol dragsters are race cars that use a special type of fuel called alcohol to go very fast in drag races.

Term

tire shake

Tire shake is when the car's tires start to wobble or vibrate a lot while going fast, which can make the car hard to control.

Term

parachutes

Parachutes are like big fabric chutes that open up behind a race car to help it slow down quickly after going very fast.

Term

smoke the tires

When the tires spin so fast that they make smoke, it means they are slipping on the ground instead of gripping.

Term

tire data

Tire data means information about how the tires are working, like how hot or worn out they are, to help make the car go faster and safer.

Term

timing

Timing means when the spark happens inside the engine to make the car run well and not slip.

Term

clutch

The clutch is a part that helps you change gears in a car by connecting and disconnecting the engine from the wheels.

Car

Tesla Semi

The Tesla Semi is a big electric truck that carries heavy loads without using gas. It can speed up quickly and helps keep the air clean by not making smoke.

Car

Ford Bronco

The Ford Bronco is a tough, big car made to drive on rough roads and trails. People talk about it because it looks cool and can handle bumpy, hard places really well.

Term

downforce

Downforce is the push that keeps a race car stuck to the ground when it goes really fast. This helps the car not slip or fly off the track.

Concept

race car

A race car is a car made to go really fast and compete in races. It is built differently from normal cars to help the driver win.

Term

stuck throttle

A stuck throttle means the gas pedal gets stuck, so the car keeps speeding up even if the driver wants to slow down.

Term

burnout

A burnout is when a car spins its wheels really fast but doesn’t move forward much, making the tires smoke.

Term

nitro car

A nitro car is a super fast race car that uses a special fuel called nitromethane to go really, really fast.

Concept

acceleration in racing

Acceleration means how fast a car can speed up. Some race cars can speed up so fast that it feels really hard on the body.

LIVE

Okay, everybody, we have a special edition stack-in pennies,

because it's not every day you get to talk to a fellow like this.

Doesn't come, doesn't live in town.

We talked to a lot of NASCAR winners.

We talked to some motor sports people.

We're broadening our horizons, if you will.

Stackin' them deep, sellin' them cheap.

I'd say it's like gasoline, rubber, and victory.

Where's that here?

Stack-in pennies.

Back to back.

Defending and raining.

30-year-old from Pittsburgh, Indiana, in town,

so we had to get him up here to Nonsense Scratch.

Please help me welcome Austin Prok.

Austin Prok.

I'll be honest

When I did a quick Google search through my research on you

I did not realize you had all the stuff going on

I mean you just assume hey back-to-back two-time NHRA funny car champ just gonna keep running back

You got a whole family team. Nope you packed it up packed it up move over to Bob tasker racing

So is the whole change is it weird? Is it uncomfortable? Are you excited? Is it all of those things?

It's all those things I worked at you know my previous employer from the time

I was in high school till you know just a few months ago. So that shop for the listeners

Yeah, John Force racing so

The that shop was kind of like home to me and being in

Another race shop was kind of like being in another woman's bed. You know, it just felt weird doesn't feel right. Yeah, and

You know, it's been it's been fun. You know, I have my family with me still

We moved as a bunch and got my whole team with me all the crew members a few other employees from the race shop

So all familiar faces in there

Just a huge

Undertaking making over this race team, you know, that there's been a lot of change going on

The only thing that's the same in that building right now is the expedition that tows the race car and the Ford Mustang

Dark horse body that's on it. Everything else has changed and we've been working

15 to 18 hour days seven days a week for the last few months and

As a race car driver, you wouldn't think I'd be in there, you know getting dirty with the boys

But you know, I'm the one closing the doors at the end of the night

So I know you're not wearing that ring when you're working on those top

Some days I do I this thing's kind of hammered. I busted a couple diamonds out of it on the floor in the shop

But working man. Yeah. Yeah, I got to get your paws dirty and you know earn your keep

What's the point in winning it if you're not gonna wear it? Exactly. Yeah, I got a next week

I get my second one on on the same hand and you can bet your ass off two of them on be dragging it around

They won't be 12 ounce curls anymore, they'll be 15

Your dad was at forces for 27 years. Yeah, like really that's all you've known your whole life, right?

Yeah, for sure

I never knew anything outside of that building and that's been a huge

You know learning curve at John force racing everything's done in-house and you kind of live in your own world

You know you build your own parts. You build your own chassis

You don't deal with any outside manufacturers and going over to task erasing you deal with all outside manufacturers and

You know trying to get things how they need to be the right way and

You know, it's just been let alone the work

But just making the relationships making the connections with the people that you need to deal with day in and day out

It's been a eye-opener for sure

So zoom out a little bit and give our majority NASCAR fans audience a little bit context, right?

Let's back up

So you had started drag racing straight line

Relatively late. I don't know early 20s. Oh, we'll track guy. Let's go. Yeah, so you order magic kids

You started some spring cars right from from Indiana

You you pointed out Pittsburgh, Indiana is the quote-unquote birthplace of Jeff Gordon

We don't really know for sure where he's exactly born. Well, we'll talk to Jeff here in a couple weeks

after Darlington, but

So you had some oval track experience naturally you gravitated to where your dad was and there was an opportunity and now you're hauling ass

but is there any sort of

Oval racing interest they keep up with NASCAR at all. Do you watch sprint cars? Yeah, I keep up with all of it

You know this year. Like I said, I've been so busy in the shop

I didn't even realize that NASCAR season was starting until the Sunday of the Daytona 500

So I'm definitely a NASCAR fan. Definitely a fan of all motorsports

You know, you got horsepower and four tires. I'm in so yeah, I enjoyed it

I and I respect all all forms of motorsports and you know, I'm game to get behind the wheel of any of them, too

I love Indianapolis because like we were talking about I was like, well, where's your shop?

And you're like, oh, it's right next door to forces

But like I love going and seeing Tommy from cold art art like when I went and saw him and had lunch

There was Indy car guys at lunch. There was the Indy race part spring car team at lunch

Like there's it's such a melting pot for all sorts of different racers

So like is there Indy car teams around you and sprint car teams around you as well?

Yeah, for sure Tony Stewart racing is right down the street from us and drag team now

Yep drag team and sprint car team Rico a bruise taking over the reins on that with Ricky Warner

Those are two good friends of mine. So I'm excited for them this season

But yeah, that's one nice thing about

Living in Indianapolis area is it's all racers, you know, there ain't much going on there

Other than a few good steak houses and the you know, the the racing scene and you know being around our breed

Essentially, you know racers were we're all a little different, but when you're surrounded by them

It's really nice speaking of a little bit different

I feel like people that inhale nitro methane for a living are a little bit different because you got to be damn

You're crazy to go and that fast speaking of clay like clay last week

He was in course bus at Daytona and I was like

How you reverse age and then like you I was like Corey asked you to go on a beer

I was like, we're gonna have to check his ID. You're like, no, I'm 30. Yeah

So what is it about nitro that makes you guys look so much younger? It's the fountain of youth. Yeah, I

Honestly believe it does. Yeah. No, I swear like I mean, there's some there's some grassroots drag racers

You know pioneers they'll live till 90 95 years old and all they did was huff nitro their whole life

There's got to be something Don Pardome looks like he's you know, 65 years old. Yeah, he's almost 90. Yeah

Yeah, so I was at Daytona. It was like dark

I forget but Eddie would the wood brothers. He's like, hey, you're a racer come here

I want to meet somebody and he walked me over. He's like, this is a snake. I was like

Shit like I wasn't ready. I was like, hey man, but it's like he has like an aura around. Yeah

He's like he's like the rich or petty drag race for sure. Yeah

Short story to go along with that Don Pardome actually got me my first sponsorship to get on the NHRA tour in 2019

So, yeah, he's a good family friend of mine. Oh shout out snake guys like him. I grew up

Close to English town, New Jersey. So my dad we would go to English town all the time

So I was like a huge Bernstein. I was a big Joe Mato fan

Like my dad my kid has a Joe Mato die cast in his room because it's like a Pennsylvania guy. Yeah

Scranton yeah, and I love maple grove. I've never been to maple grove

But I was like because we went to English town, but

Yeah, just like guys had so much swag like Bernstein

Think and you had to back then because it was so it's it's still sketchy. Yeah, but then it was really sketchy

Yeah, but like I'm looking at this

11,000 horsepower blows my mind every time I see it. Yeah, cuz like we think 900 is good

You know a world Alice print cars got 900. Yeah, things got a lot of power

Where the hell are they getting 11,000? Yeah

Yeah, if you ask my dad it actually makes 13,000 by the torque sensor. Well, you win back-to-back championships by having 13

Yeah, we make more horsepower than essentially any other race car in one cylinder. That's so crazy

So you driven both top fuel dragsters and funny cars

Get into the weeds a little bit about how they drive differently because I

They're like it would be this looks the same to me. Yeah

The the funny car is tenfold harder to drive

Okay, you have the same amount of horsepower the same power plant and 125 inches a wheelbase rather than 300

You know so I always for you know circle track racers or grassroots racers

I compare it to

Non-winged sprint car the nitro funny cars the non-winged sprint car the

The dragsters like driving a Cadillac down the freeway, you know, it just kind of floats through there

Is it tough to drive? Yeah, but nowhere near as

As tough as the nitro funny car you got the bomb in front of you

You know that the engine sitting right on top of your feet the bell housings in between your feet the drive shafts between your legs

You know the drive shaft when I sit in that thing the drive shafts a half inch away from my ass

You know and then you're sitting on top of the rear tires to brass balls sit on between both sides of which

Which the funny car is one of the only cars?

I believe or motor sports where you actually sit on top of the rear axle

So like getting that feel like when it steps out it feels so much different

Compared to any other race car where you're just in front of the rear axle or or you know in the middle of the race car

It definitely gives you you know a different aspect of the first one feel like right because you you had this idea of what you expect

Going from alcohol cars to then top fuel dragsters to then F1 say how hard how are gonna be?

Holy moly. Yeah that I didn't have much drag racing experience before I got in the dragster

I only made probably eight runs in an alcohol dragster before I got in the top fuel car and

John forcey threw me on a crash course like I literally

licensed in

Super comp dragster super gas and then got into the a fuel alcohol dragster

Made I think three runs in an alcohol funny car

But I only made just enough runs to get my license into each of those in the first time

I ever competed was my first professional debut in Pomona, California first race of the year

I licensed in the dragster

Three days, I think two days before the national event made just enough runs to get my license

And they sent me there and Q1 was my first ever full-pole never even went to the finish

We're already where'd you qualify? I think we qualified in the top half. I think we might have been a

And I won first round in a pedal fest

I'd never had to pedal a race car before I stood on the gas first round racing my teammate at the time and

Both of our cars shook and just instinct

I got out of the gas slapped it again when you have slow tire shake like that

You have to be able to decipher what the tires do and to understand how to apply the throttle back so

One sensation is like the tire will like waffle the slot sidewall

And if it does it as soon as you stand on the gas that means it's slow

So you can just get off and slap it the quicker you slap it the better you're gonna run

if it goes out there and goes

60 feet or a hundred feet and then does that it's fast

So then you have to get off let the tire recover roll into the throttle

So it was a slow shake

I slapped it turned on the wind light no parachutes sure to shut down on to her got it stopped it and crash it and

Went on to second round. Did you forget the parachutes or they shouldn't come out?

No, I went for him. I set them all up and they did not deploy

Is that a common thing the drivers do their own parachutes kind of like hey if I'm gonna jump at this airplane

I want to be the one to mess this up. Yeah

It's kind of

Gone the other way a little bit, you know, just like any other motor sport

The driver used to always be hands-on on the race car. Yeah, you know, some drivers are getting away from that

I'm still heavily involved in every aspect of the race car, you know, I'm surprised my hands aren't black right now

Caps still does it. I saw caps. Yeah caps caps packs his parachute. It's I mean I

Do it because it's kind of

the my crew has

Better areas elsewhere to put their time and effort

So I just do it to help help out if I can't get to it if I have media appearances

I have no problem, you know trust in my guys to pack my parachutes

I trust them to assemble the engine in 30 minutes and send me on a 340 mile an hour run

So you go from the dragster and you get into the funny car the first time

What what was it? It feel like going from a non-wing to a wing from non-wing sprinkler

Were you like holy shit that was harder and I thought it was yeah, absolutely

I mean they the front like like your field of vision is tighter, too

Yes, you can't see out of it the front ends off the ground half the run

They steered like shit. They don't have more downforce

They do but the front it's so short that one tire if any tires are on the ground

It's just one, you know, the things torqued up left front off the ground

You know and aiming the race cars really important just because it is shorter wheelbase when you do give it wheel input

It's more prone to making the the rear axle free and just slipping

Aiming the race car is much more important because when you stand on the gas if it carries the front end if you're trucking

You want to land where you need to be?

Hmm on the racetrack, you know if I'm in there hacks on the wheel from the start to the

330 where they're starting to apply the clutch the crew chief is gonna be really mad at me because it's gonna

Smoke the tires a lot that thing ever land when you have a wheel in it. Oh, yeah

Yeah, yeah, I mean it'll like I've had runs where it'll stick the tire

You know and it'll leave all goofy and it'll pull the front end up and when it pulls the front end up

It'll sit on the left rear and drive you towards the fence or and then you're just in there

You can't lift. I mean you can but you know, that's a loser. You know, so you just hang on and you give it wheel

But you start feeding it and then you go well

This is all happening in a few thousandths tenths of a second you're feeding it wheel and you're like

Well, I can't do that because when it lands it's gonna yank and then make it smoke the tire

So like I'll start to give it wheel and then before it lands

I'll bring it back and then try and feed it like just asking Jesus to take the wheel

Naturally when you get sideways, you're giving it wheel. Yeah, yeah, that's right thing. So it's crazy. Yeah, they're uh, they're

Definitely always entertaining as soon as you think you got it under control. It throws you for

Baves, what are you doing? What I'm just mowing the lawn. No, it's blazing hot and dry out here

Don't you remember smoky bear says avoid using power equipment when it's windy or dry. Where'd you learn this?

Oh, it's on smoky bear calm with many other wildfire prevention tips

Right. Thanks, honey bear because remember only you can prevent wildfires

Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service your state forester in the ad council some loop. What do you think?

makes

the difference between the great

Ones and the good ones. I think being able to handle all conditions of what it's capable of doing

You know when you make a night if you're on a gripped up racetrack and you go a to b all cylinders lit

You hold the wheel fairly straight

It's when you get into the situations where the crew chiefs got you

You know, there's there's a little bit of grip on the starting line

If you're lined up way outside of the groove and you got to launch the tracks greasy out there

Bring it back to the middle of the racetrack without making it being smooth being finessed

Just like any other motorsport when it smokes the tires or it shakes like making the right

Instinct decision to get the tire to recover because even if my car smokes the tires

I'm hoping the guy next door does too and I always want it if we smoke the tires

I always want to be the guy that wins because I did the better job recovering the race car

So all that's really important to me being able to when when you drop a cylinder when it's running on a the thrust

Propulsion is even on each side when you drop a cylinder it actually thrust steers

So if you lose a cylinder on the left the right thrust is going to drive the car around

Literally from the exhaust push from the exhaust

I'll tell you a story about that here in a second

So when when it drops a hole it feel like you're trucking through there. It'll drop a hole

It feels like you got t-bone. That's how quick it turns

Oh, so as soon as you feel that the more square you can keep the thrust

The easier it is to get back. You might be hand over fist to keep it straight

But if you let it get away from the the vector of the thrust

Out of going straight you can't get it back and you just feed wheel until you have to lift whether you're gonna cross the center

Line or hit the wall well, so what's your story? So my dad figured out how important thrust was a few years back

I think it was 2017 and

He decided to the exhaust he decided to lay the exhaust back

To help instead of push down push back instead of down force help it propel the race car

So he dreams up these pipes dude. I mean they built them hack

You know they built them with broomsticks

They had broomsticks in the headers to try and figure out what angle they thought it needed to be well

They put these things on and one started carrying the front end more

Made the race cars way more difficult to drive because the front ends lighter but faster and to exactly yeah, and to

The Sun was up one day the track was like a hundred and twenty or a hundred and fifteen degrees

Which is fairly warm for us track temperatures equates to grip and he ran the national record with the Sun up and

He walked off the starting line just with his tail between his legs like what did I just create, you know

And yeah now every now every cars every cars got him laid back

NHRA had to build a rule around it saying you can't lay him back more than this and it was a whole deal

But it picked the category up mile an hour and ET like crazy and all he did was tip them back

Everyone silver did that with Larsen's Sprint car. Did you ever see that where they?

Flip the collectors up

He was like he wasn't doing good and they flipped them up and everybody's talked about he started winning again

But they they'll bust your chops for having your collectors up like in the modified series because they say it's down for us

So like everybody and F1 uses their exhaust to go over their wings like that that's been a thing even in a NASCAR for a little bit

With the next gen car

Because everybody's cars are the same this margins are so slim

So everybody was trying to get their pipes out a little further for a little more downforce and how you know

Everybody's got CFD now and it wraps around the car. So, you know talking about that

You switch manufacturers and I always wonder like I

Understand what manufacturers support and OEM support means for the NASCAR sites

I've been around it forever, but how important is that on the NHRA side with data and

Tyres and everything that they do. It's just as important, you know, they obviously your aero package is important and being able to have

Access to engineers and the resources that these big corporate manufacturers have

This is something new to us that we have and I think that my team can really take advantage of

My brother is a mechanical engineer. He actually used to work down here. He was a race engineer for Stuart Haas and oh

2019 to

2022

Okay, yeah, he was on Boyer's car and then he was on Briscoe's car

Was there anything that he took from NASCAR just what he learned tire data

Yeah, he learned he learned so much down there

You the budget is so much more you have so much more room to expense on R&D

He learned so many things like he's he's a big reason of the success that we've had in NHRA drag racing

You know that they the year I think Harvick won the

Brickyard 400 my brother Thomas designed the rear clip for it. So that was kind of a cool, you know

Kissing me off because we were what we were leading

Yeah, and Rodney short pit us a lap then the cost came out where I was a blaney

Okay, you're on second and it still chaps my ass. Yeah, so I appreciate bringing it up

Got a random question

if you

We're at the bar prior to having a couple beers and you just grabbed

John Smith sitting there and you literally put a helmet on him plug them to the top to a car. What would happen?

He'd crash

How so?

So say it's like okay when it goes green pal. You just mash and see what happens. Yeah, they you're accelerating so fast

ESPN back in the day did this like

Diagnostics on NHRA drag racing and if you were lined up one degree off and you stood on the gas

How many feet you would travel off to the left by the finish line and it was like hundreds of feet?

so one just being able to

Steer it and understand where you're going and to being able to withstand just getting your head rocked

Which which is that off the off the bounce it's four to five off the starting line

And then we'll jiggle the engine we take a little timing out of it

To get the tire to regain traction and then when we jam the timing back in it and apply the clutch

We'll get six through the middle of the racetrack

So like it leaves it leaves it launches hard. This is a funny car dragster

You can apply the clutch a lot more aggressively because of the wheelbase

But it leaves it'll have the front end in there. It'll land

You'll feel the tire kind of catch back up and then they send it and it'll pull the front end off

The ground in the middle of the racetrack if you apply the clutch really aggressively

But yeah, just just being able to understand

How quick you need to react to that thing when it leaves and it goes left, you know

Being on top of it and understanding what direction you're going to bring it back into the middle of the groove

I think the majority of like I would say 98% of people

Wouldn't even want to touch on the gas. Yeah, like they wouldn't even want to get in that van

So like a lot of first-time drag racers, even though it's just like super comp like a super comp dragster

It runs like nine seconds in the quarter mile at a hundred and fifty miles an hour

Mm-hmm fast car, but not like what we do

But when they hit the throttle let off the trans brake hit the throttle

90% of them when it hits when it hits them in the back of the seat their foot comes off the gas

Yeah, and that thing's running, you know, nine ten seconds just saying my nitro funny car

When I stand on the gas in two tenths of a second it goes from 2600 rpm to 8600 rpm

Oh, and in less than eight tenths of a second. I'm doing a hundred miles an hour

How much eight tenths of a second it takes about 60 feet about the length of a semi truck from a dead stop doing a hundred

Dude, do you wear like a like a whoop strap or Fitbit? Is that a Fitbit under? What do you know?

This is just a wristband. Do you have you ever worn like a whoop to see what did it your heart rate is during a run?

No, I've always wanted to NHRA's talked about like getting one that they can you know use as a community one to put on television

I would love to see what it looks like it you got to be pinned

Yeah, like I mean when I get out of the race car at the top end

I always say I feel like I could knock out my Tyson like there is no better feeling in the world

Then getting out of that race car after going

340 miles an hour and then feel in the shoots it so I've been a picker guy forever

And we were 12 seconds at a time 10 seconds at a time

Whatever it is and they did that to us when they first started doing it and our

Heart rate would stay fine until after the stop and everything was over then it would shoot

So I wonder if you guys are the same way where you're like you're like in flow state and then when it's done

Yeah, that's crazy. I would I would believe that because like when I

Kind of correlate us to like sharp shooters, you know, like you have to be

Calm breathing very focused meticulous like when you're lining up and like waiting for the tree to drop and then you know

When you stand on the gas obviously

You get 4g's thrown at you. I'm sure your heart rate goes through the moon

That's gotta be a just an unbelievable experience. How do you try to get like are you head?

Are you like cranking up music?

pounding an energy drink like yeah, what sort of like

Physical space do you need to be in prior to like your put your your 341?

Yeah, yeah, I like to vibe like I'm always blaring music in the staging lanes either whether it's in my

What's your music? I love on race day. I love hip-hop like what you're going to do like Mark Barnes

Yeah, yeah, I love Gucci, man. I love that about Mark Martin

plug I've been a big on

Primo rice lately and

What's other dude

What's your dad your dad vibe out for some you know

Crap

Oh, yeah, he doesn't he doesn't screw with me though on race day

Yeah, I play whatever I win in championships. I'll let you listen whatever you want to yeah

What one thing I think that is super cool that Ford does is they get everybody together

At the beginning of the year. Were you able to be part of this year?

So that was my first day of school the networking that gets done there with like even when I think about guys like Vaughan or

Ben Hopson who drives their drift cars?

Daniel Ricard like you get to meet everybody that's involved

How cool has that been to be a part of it's been awesome? I just left another deal like that today

We had a immersion day. They called it, you know learning things and out of Ford racing and you know

What their vision is and how they want us to promote their brand?

So it definitely is cool that they get everybody in all different categories together

You meet a lot of people and you know, everybody's been really nice so far. So yeah, it's definitely been cool

I've never had

Got to experience that in my previous career. So I definitely loved the way they handle business

Did you see Blaney's mustache up close? Yeah, I sat next to him today

Yeah, I think it was like tickling me from a foot away

Dude that thing was like cousin it sitting on the summer let bro. It is hilarious. What um

You're young man. You're 30 years old two-time NHR champ. What is like

How much more do you chase? How much more do you get to go after and then

Do you even think about what you want to drive next or what you want to do?

Yeah, I'm cutthroat. I just want to keep winning

You know, that's the only expectation I have out of myself out of my team

You know, I want to go three in a row. You know, that's the goal right now and

You know the the more you win the better position

You know, you're going to set yourself up for the future

So and the longevity of your career too. So

Yeah, I want to race it out all the way until the day I'm done and when I'm done

I might just disappear like uh martin truex. Well, bro, you keep you keep you know, breathe a nitro methane you can run to your 100

Yeah, I I watched I was on my dad's shoulders sitting on my dad's shoulders and watched john force quick time

On a friday like friday night's my favorite time

uh, watch some quick time

At english town and then my kid was on my shoulders and watched john force quick time

Whatever it was three years ago. So like

The career the the runways long and you have two at 30. Like what's the record? Is he a 15? 16? 16. Yeah

So is that a goal of yours or is your goal yours to spread your wings and maybe do because you're a core midget kid

race midgets and spring cars and

You know that I I wonder if it's the indianapolis thing because like selzey

Tony a lot of those guys

run that but like

Is that something with the four connection? They'd be like, hey, I'd like to

Jump in an oval car. Absolutely. I would love to like like I said earlier

Anything with an engine and four wheels. I am game to drive

I believe in myself that I could do a good job too. You know, I'm a racer at heart

And if you got that passion inside you, you know, I believe you can do anything you want

So I'm always open to trying new things. Um, you know, I you know, I'm young

You know, as you said 30 but in the racing industry. I'm kind of old now. So, you know, no, dude not in

phony cars. Yeah

Maybe an ass car. Yeah, but go another routes, you know, um, not to say that's never gonna happen

But you know the the idea of it's probably getting smaller, but uh, yeah, I'm always open to anything

I I don't know where my career is going to take me. I'm happy where I'm at

But well always open for new adventures mark rushbrook

head over over for brace and came to you right now. It was like

Pick a car to run. We got, you know, broncos into car. We got

Obviously the cup cars we've got

F1 car

Let me give me the keys for that one

That's a hard decision. Um, you know, I

Off the top of my head

I really think that those v8 supercars are pretty interesting. They uh, they seem like they all asked

They seem like they're a handful. They're tough to drive. Um, you know, you can beat and bang

It seems like and everything, you know, you can still be pretty quick that way

A stock car has always been on my list of things to drive. I'd never got the opportunity to do it

Uh, I had opportunities right before I went drag racing and you know after that everything was kind of sewed up

But uh, or a wing sprint car world of outlaw wing sprint car racing or high limit strength car racing

Babes, what are you doing? What I'm just mowing the lawn

No, it's blazing hot and dry out here. Don't you remember smokey bear says

Avoid using power equipment when it's windy or dry. Where'd you learn this? Oh, it's on smoky bear dot com

With many other wildfire prevention tips

Right. Thanks, honey bear because remember only you can prevent wildfires

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For our listeners

Do you feel like

Sprint cars would be better if they put starters on them and you didn't have to push them off with a jeep every time

We ran them now it would ruin the sport

Get out here. It's been

Oh man, so there's a where's that sign that that would be like making nascar turn right instead of left

No, would not it would actually be like, hey, you know what it's 2026. Let's start these things off

Well, just in 1987 larcen larcen was in here and we had this somebody gave us a sign

Says put starters on sprint cars on a friend of mine. He was holding in atlantic cities

She brought me stickers. I got to bring them in here, but uh larcen was like, you know, I always felt the same way

Till I drove that dirt late model. I just started it and drove out on the track and I was like, this is pretty nice

Yeah, have you ever drove one before? No, buddy. I first time I got in the rumble midget

Uh, I didn't have to start it. So they're giving all this stuff. I'm like, hey

You know, you know lucikoni

I know the name. So lu is a just a legend in world

And uh, the world of super like super modified midgets and all that

So he's like my mentor there and I'm like, hey, man, just one small issue

I don't know how to start this thing. So like, oh, you got to

Get it going watch the fuel or watch your oil then flip the fuel on and then fire it up

And then like the fuel was too far away. So my belts had to be loose

So that like start it like pull my earbuds out when I get the time I'm like, what the hell am I doing here?

But to your point shutting it off

With the fuel is just a sketchy because when you shut off goes

Like it gets way lean. Yeah way loud, but

I can't even imagine

Dude, I'm still sweating from the story. There's just something about though

Like when you jam that thing in gear and the push truck gets behind you and

Start, you know shoving you off and the wheels are locked up and the thing's skating

And then all of a sudden it overrides the compression

It does like and also when that sucker fires like you just said, there's no turning back

Yeah, it's game on. You gotta go. You gotta let it read. You gotta let it eat. I want you to we pulled

Not this video game. Got the other one I sent in the group chat the uh

His his record setting run. There's been

Nobody faster in funding car, correct? No 341.68. Yeah

Do you did you know like when you made that rumor you like that might be it like I knew it was trucking

I didn't know that it was gonna run 340 because when it starts pulling it always feels fast

But I caught the scoreboard out of the corner of my eye and

Obviously, he was pretty impressed. So and the best thing about this run is that was

Round one of eliminations like we just dropped it on him, you know

Where is the scoreboard for you to catch it?

On the left side of the wall. So but like yeah, he's passing it. It used to be a quarter mile. I moved it back

Yeah, so we raced to a thousand feet. So the scoreboard's right at a quarter mile

So 320 feet pass finish back back that thing up gay right to where he's staged

When you go up to the line, right you got the uh explain to me like I have never watched drag racing before

You're driving this

Is it auto club? Yeah, right the old the old cast roll gtx hot rod here

And so you're pulling up to the line

Walk me through that process. All right, so

They'll I'll back up from the burnout. They'll raise the body do the final adjustments on the race car

What are those final adjustments? Um, they'll you know look over everything

They'll take the like burnout switch off of it that changes the fuel map

Um, they'll do they burn out on alcohol and no no it's all on nitro

They'll charge the clutch make sure the the bearing on the clutch is all the way push back in its starting position

Look at fuel pressure oil pressure make sure everything's functioning properly look for leaks

They'll drop the body all my dad will roll me into the beams just before the first pre-stage bulb. Yeah

Once i'm set there he'll nod to the other crew chief make sure he's ready

He'll adjust the barrel valve the final adjustment on the barrel valve. What's the barrel valve?

Where the it's our fuel manifold essentially so inlet outlet of fuel returns

He'll adjust the barrel valve and when he walks off all uh i'm very

Like time oriented and my routine

I think that doing the same thing over and over again benefits me because it puts me in a state of mind that i'm comfortable

And i'm not thinking overthinking

Uh, so he'll walk off. I'll do my count. I'll roll in pre-stage let the other guy pre-stage

At this point when you're ready to pre-stage like you got to be ready to go. Um, so once both cars are pre-staged

all

I got the brake on i actually have a push brake all let off of the clutch

So the you'll actually if you listen closely if you ever go to the races you'll hear the rpm drop

It's because the clutch pedals out and it's just it's tugging

And you're holding it with the brake all bump in

Just because you you just want to light that stage bulb the first one the second one

The second one is the fully stage bulb because when you just light it

Your racetrack is longer

So you can you'll get more performance out of the race car

I have a I have an option to roll seven feet or I mean seven inches closer to the finish line

But it makes the et and speed look worse

But your reaction time better because you're closer to the actual starting beam

So I just light that bulb

The other guy will go in and when that yellow light drops

Hammer down and you have to be 100 focused on those amber bulbs

You know because you're asking these cars race so close to each other now

You'll win or lose by a thousandths of a second

So one thousandths out of my human body is can make or break us

Potentially winning the race if it's first round

So when you are watching right they light up

Your pre-stage lights and then I dude he literally just dropped it with his thumb. Look he just he just he pulled it

He's a god nailed it

Yeah, so

Yeah, oh that was awesome. So your brake you push it forward. Yeah, and then let it go

Yeah, so and your brake and throttle have to be in sync all the time because if I hit the gas with the brake on

It's gonna screw up the first few rotations of the tire like literally the first quarter rotation of our tire

Can dictate if the car's going down the racetrack or smoking the tires instantly

So like having those in sync being a machine simultaneously

Um getting off the brake and on the throttle is really important

Yeah, I was talking to clay milkin last week in his bus and you know tires are super important asphalt racing

So I was asking about the tires and he's like, you know, well actually I was asking about stagger

He's telling about the crown of the track and he said we actually

Will measure the tires and use them smaller ones or bigger ones for our gear ratio

Yep, because you're locked into a gear you run, but that's how you'll change gear

Yeah, the the smaller tire will give you more

Drive shaft speed initially, you know, because it's gonna it's gonna free up quicker

Where the taller tire it's harder to pull, you know, even though we have 13 11,000 13,000

Drives her down. Yeah. Yeah, so you will tune we also use our tires. This is like

That looks like a bouncy one. Yeah

We'll actually use our tires. So a new tire. We don't have suspension. So we actually use our tires as suspension as well

Oh, they're dude. So a new a new tire has a

Stiffer sidewall and then like an eight run tire has a much softer sidewall. So we'll

Depending on the track conditions will

A tire with eight runs on it. Yeah, you can get it to that point

You don't want to run it any more than that

But you can junk a set of tires in one run or you could get eight out of them

This depends. Yeah, that this is a pedal fest right here. Yeah, this was a bucking bronco. That was not intentional

Can you is it right on here? This one you beat. Oh, yeah, you come back. Yeah, I actually did end up winning that round

Dude, that's I had no intentions of doing that. No, but yeah, it's just crying right here

So it's starting to come loose. Yeah, and I thought it was just barely on the edge of making it or not

So what I tried to do was just roll out half throttle and flat foot it back

Well, it just blew them off and then I was kind of behind the race car

Well, once I like got back to I tried just rolling into the throttle

Well as soon as I cracked the blades

It picked the front end up and when it picked the front end up my foot came off the throttle

And when it landed my foot went back on the throttle and it literally bucked me for

800 feet just

Move your head like do you doesn't do you move much in your seat or you have a pretty locked in

You're locked in like you can barely breathe when you get strapped in these things like we get strapped in

One of my crew members bobby straps me in and like he literally tries breaking me in half

Like you cannot you can't put on your chest really

Like you're so tight that you can't form a full sentence like you run out of breath

You're you were a mouthpiece. I'm like no, I don't some drivers do I never

I never was a fan of wearing a mouthpiece

In any motorsport. Oh, that was John's big wreck. Yeah

Yeah, that was nasty when

Man, I I asked this question the captain who's on here, but it came across wrong because I was I was virtual, but like

We're in the car like in a funny car and it blows up and blows the body off

What is that? What is the pressure like in there?

So feel like a bomb goes off for sure. Yeah, it is a bomb like I mean that that body weighs 200 pounds

And you have three four thousand pounds of downforce on it and it blows it into the air like that

Like that kind of puts it in retros like your ears like what is it?

Yeah, it gives you a headache like it literally concusses you

Whoa, like it

It'll blow your visor open

Come on. Mm-hmm. I've seen it kind of how much you were I wear a bell

Where do you have a you have a strap like a lock on it?

Uh, yeah, they they so this is my I grew up racing bell and when I raced over there

We he was all simpson branded. Yeah, so I got back with bell this year

But they just delivered my helmets last week and it's got this new formula one lock on it

It's a spring-loaded like lock in like when it goes down the button comes out

And then you have to press the button in to peel it up that thing's nice

It's a little bit of a pain to get open with this is me. I'm trying to open my shield

Yeah after a burnout you're choking. Damn it. Yeah

Yeah, you don't want to open your visor in one of these

We have fresh air in them and that's the only way you can breathe is

Breathe in that you open the visor you're just inhaling man nitro. Yeah and smoke. I got some soft balls for you

Well, you bring up smoke. I wanted to transition that the tony to tony. Yeah, I mean

That guy could literally race wheelbarrows and be successful and he's incredible has

Um, has that how successfully has been surprised you?

No, not at all. Uh, I I've known tony since I was 10 years old

And uh, you know, he's always impressed me. He's just a natural god-given talent

You know anything he touches he wins in and uh, he does a really good job in that race car

You know, they put a good race car under him. He's gonna win a lot more too. You know our sport

it's

It's almost reversed of a normal sport or like a NASCAR like 60 40. It's kind of the other way crew to driver

Um, you know, you got to be on when it's time to be on

But if your race car is not going up the racetrack, the only time you can help it out is if the other guy screws up

Just as bad as you so, uh, you put a good race car under him. He's gonna be lethal

That's that's this is the video I was talking about. Oh, yeah, this is it. This is you getting stuck throttle. Yeah

Whoa, it looks like you're just doing a really long burnout man. Yeah pretty much

Oh, he did get her shut down and how yeah, how you explained it was exactly how it looked

Still doing 145 miles an hour and it was shut off. It was probably running 220 fucking sideways

So, but tony has a tony has a impeccable way of explaining

Breaking down race cars even when I worked for him his feedback was phenomenal

But one thing I heard him say that like light bulb like man, that's a no-brainer, but you never think about it. He said

My my first run of the nitro car my head was six feet behind

Yep, like he he's like I got to work on getting caught up because

The car was six feet in front of where my head was is that how like is that a common thing with the guys?

Yeah, it's just like anything like when you move up the ranks when you're growing up racing

You know you you go up to that next level and the car's driving you you're not driving it

And it's like that but on steroids, you know, you're accelerating like

Nobody should accelerate. Essentially. It's the fastest accelerating vehicle on the planet. Human bodies are not built for that. Yeah, no

I I was gonna ask you because I'm

Uh, a big I was a big drag race fan grown up. What's your favorite?

paint scheme or car of all time

That's hard. I loved, um

Gary Selze's

Oakley Mopar cars back

I haven't pulled up because I was thinking of scotty cans. Yeah, they were so sweet all hand painted by banshee

They were beautiful. Dude. I literally have that. That's what I've been looking at

But also and it had his mustache on the side, you know, I had like kind of like a caricature of himself

Well scotty cannon had he was the one that wore the glasses over his head. Yeah, but then like I was always I always got excited

when the moon eyes car came out

but like

The was a swamp thing

Who's that who was a nice swamp rat swamp rat?

Wait, no big daddy dog. Yeah. Yeah, that was a swamp. Yeah those things were so sick

And I was like

Did you ever watch growing up?

We'd be driving a quarter measure racism eight years older than you so might have been out

But like and they walked away. Yeah. Yep. That was like I watched them a lot

So like watching that thing flip over backwards turn and come back down the track and

Like those guys, but is there any other cars that kind of stick out to you that were like iconic?

Uh, yeah, I mean john force's cars obviously

The superman cars back in the day when they used to do the themed, you know

Across all motorsports, you know, uh, steep kenser had one gel motto had one force had one like those were cool days

The rat think cars were cool

You know the skull cars don pertoms skull cars with caps those the team cars one was blue one was

Green black and green those were sweet. Yeah, for sure. The winston cars were always cool, too

Yeah, bring back the winston days, baby. That's right. Some darts and some drag racing boys

The duffel bag

Babes, what are you doing? What I'm just mowing the lawn

No, it's blazing hot and dry out here. Don't you remember smoky bear says

Avoid using power equipment when it's windy or dry

Where'd you learn this? Oh, it's on smoky bear dot com with many other wildfire prevention tips

Right. Thanks, honey bear because remember only you can prevent wildfires

Brought to you by the usda forest service your state forester in the ad council

Uh, so you're you're in games will win like when's the start up next week? Yeah, we race next weekend

So, uh, I'll go back to

Indy tonight and uh work

till saturday trucks leave sunday morning and uh start testing tuesday

Test tuesday wednesday have thursday off to regroup and friday's first uh,

National event. Yeah, qualifying friday saturday race sunday. Awesome, buddy. Well, damn. It's been fun to talk to you

I appreciate it. Definitely watching along. How can fans follow your journey?

Yeah, uh prok rocket underscore tf. Um, it's my old top fuel handle. I never changed it

That on all platforms austin prok on facebook. Uh, it's a good blend of uh motor sports and culinary arts

I didn't ask you about that right this guy's like the most a good follow

Yeah, this guy's like the uh, you know most interesting man out there

This guy drives 340 miles an hour and also has a culinary arts degree. Yeah, what's your what's your go-to dish?

I don't have one i'll dream stuff up wake up in the morning write it down and go to the store

Uh, no recipes just off the cuff and uh, just get down to the kitchen. Yeah, I try. Yeah, he's he's like an idol

Yeah, him and bobby flay. You ever met him? Uh, no, I haven't hopefully ford can hook me up with that

That's why you don't want to meet your idols dude. You might cook them a dish and you might tell you suck

Yeah, I would hope I would hope he does you know, I want him to be the gordon ramsey

I see on television. Well, if gordon ramsey came in right now and you had a kitchen

What would you make for him?

I don't know. I it's just however I I cook how I feel I feel like how you feel right now. Yeah, uh

The first thing that came to mind is I made it. It's kind of chilly in here

I made a bomb lobster bisque the other day and first stab at it and it was on it like not too in my honor

It was the best lobster bisque I've ever had. Let's go. It was good made mountain stop

Hey, when you come to charlotte, you better have some lobster bisque in the trailer and we'll stop by buddy

Oh, man, so I'm excited. We gotta ask them. So we gotta ask them three questions. Yeah, we can't let them go just yet

Generally, these are oval track guys that are sitting here, but that's not often we get a

Dragster guy. So unique question if you had to pick one car and one racetrack to race out the rest of your life

What'd you go with?

Uh irp pavement midget. Okay. Let's go

Sick

Some of the most fun I've ever had in a race car man. That is a cool

You got to commit there. No break floated in there run the right front towards the wall and hammer down

Hey, they're coming back. Yeah, I know I actually I got some uh, I'm gonna do the ford focus deal

I believe the uh, little thursday night thunder series this year

I want to do the one at the speed drum. I have some I have some little 500 little hooks in the water

Yeah, I won my first uh, focus midget racer first time ever sat in one. Yeah, that place looks sick

question number two

What's uh, the most embarrassed you've been at the racetrack

Uh, probably that video you just showed me for bebop in the throttle for 800 feet. I won

I I did win but I mean that is

pretty dumb-looking

bush league

Uh, I thought it was cool as hell and you still won. So what's the fans thought it was awesome

Like I went back to the trailer and I'm like tail between my legs head down and all the fans are like, dude

You're the best drag racer ever

I'm like, all right

Yes, he's pissed right now

Last question man, if I had the you're you're close to our age

Um, so you'd get the men in black reference cement men in black. Yep, right? You get the pen zaps all your memory

Yeah, if I had that pen and I got the zap all your memories, but you only got to keep one racing memory. What do you keep?

That's tough

Probably winning my first championship that or

Winning my first ever race

Winning the championship probably I pretty much locked it up

one race before the uh

The season was over it was

Mathematically done, but I had to show up to Pomona and just get like entry points

Um, so winning the final round in Las Vegas to cap it off

We won it on a monday race got canceled on sunday for uh, some weather conditions and rolled it out there monday

And won the race no fans there just the boys just the team and celebrated big

No traffic leaving no traffic leaving. Yeah, love it. Awesome. Well, you guys know where to find us whether you're listening

Wherever you find your podcasts or youtube

Special edition episode because we had a special guest a special edition guest here in Austin proc

Back-to-back champion going for three in a row buddy. We wish you luck. That's right

everybody follow along austin and that's uh

Was a bob task of racing that for Mustang dark horse. It's gonna be a good cool year

I'm certainly gonna be keeping up with you more this year. Wish you luck and uh, thanks for stopping in

Yeah, thanks for having me. This is a good time. Yeah, buddy. Y'all have a good day. Keep stacking pennies guys talk to you next week. Bye

About this episode

Austin Prock, two-time NHRA Funny Car champion, shares his offseason transition from John Force Racing to Bob Tasca Racing, highlighting the challenges of changing teams and adapting to new dynamics. He discusses his deep roots in motorsports, the intense physical and mental demands of driving nitro funny cars versus top fuel dragsters, and the unique culture of racing in Indianapolis. Austin also reflects on his rapid rise in drag racing, the horsepower extremes of funny cars, and his respect for all forms of motorsports, including NASCAR and sprint cars.

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Original notes

Two-time NHRA Funny Car champion Austin Prock joins the show to talk about one of the most talked-about moves in drag racing.

After winning back-to-back championships, Prock made a huge offseason change. Leaving his family team to join Bob Tasca Racing.

He talks about:

Why he made the move
What the transition has been like
The pressure of defending a championship
Life inside the NHRA Funny Car world

A must-listen for NHRA fans and motorsports enthusiasts.

If you’re new here, this is Stacking Pennies. From inside the world of all things racing.

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