There is a LinkedIn profile belonging to Austin Prock that has not been updated since it was created.
The page does not have a profile photo. There are no updates about work and life milestones. It simply has his name, experience listed as a race car driver, Indianapolis location, and education. But it’s the “About” section that stands out.
Prock created the page when he was 19 years old. It says as much right at the start of what he wrote in the about section before saying he is the son of Jimmy Prock and attempting to live his dream of being a professional race car driver. It goes on to further describe how much he’s already done in his career. And then comes the clincher.
The last sentence reads, “I will one day set records of my own in the world of motorsports.”
Saturday, Prock capped off doing just that in his rookie NHRA Funny Car season. At 29 years old, Prock claimed his first championship after qualifying for the NHRA finals in Pomona. In the process, he picked his 15th No. 1 qualifier on the season with the fourth-quickest run in class history.
“I was probably 10 when I had that thing,” Prock said of the LinkedIn page.
When reminded of what he wrote, Prock joked, “Well, I was pretty smart back then. Predicting the future.”
No one could have predicted what Prock did this season. The year started with Prock not having a seat after his Top Fuel team at John Force Racing disbanded because sponsorship ended. But when Robert Hight had to step out of his Funny Car for undisclosed health reasons, Prock was the next man up.
Prock began the year winning in his debut during the inaugural PRO Superstar Shootout at Bradenton Motorsports Park. In his first official NHRA weekend at Gainesville, Prock qualified No. 1 but lost in the final round. In the second race of the year, he lost in the first round.
But then the domination started to appear. Prock reeled off seven No. 1 qualifiers in the following nine races. He won four of those races. By the time the Countdown started in September, Prock had five wins and an 18-round lead in the points (before the reset). He’s won three of the five Countdown races.
Prock has a win/loss record of 50-11 going into the finale. It is one of the most dominant seasons in Funny Car history.
“That’s pretty crazy,” Prock said. “That was 10 years ago (writing on LinkedIn), and that was the year I won my national midget championship. So, I guess that all makes sense. That’s pretty cool.
“Back to growing up racing: I had to hustle my (for) own sponsors as well. So, we’ve always had to grind for it and those are the things that it takes to stick out. You said that point stuck out — and maybe it stuck out to one of our partners back then as well.”
The Funny Car championship triumph comes with the organization that gave Prock a chance in drag racing. But more importantly, it comes with a team featuring his father, Jimmy, and brother, Thomas.
It has been well-documented all year how much it’s meant to the Prock family to race together. For Austin, he knew from the beginning of the year what the goal was because his father, who never speaks so outright, stated he wanted to win the championship.
Prock was never fazed.
“Honestly, I didn’t really feel much pressure at all — all season long,” he said. “Bradenton, obviously, I was nervous (about) getting into a totally different race car, a totally different beast, and expecting to perform. Or I was expected to perform as a rookie. I guess you could call that pressure. But it was what I dreamed of. So, pressure, I feel like, only makes you worse. Those players in sports, or racers in motorsports, perform (well) under pressure because they don’t feel the pressure. I just tried to block all that out and focus on what I needed to do.
“I study my craft every day. Every run I make, I go back and watch the videotape in slow-mo and see things I could do better, practice my reaction times, and just try to be a machine. I know I can drive a race car; it was just a matter of if I could do it at the highest level. I knew this car was going to be behind me and I knew all these guys were behind me, and if I did my job at least decent, we would have a shot at winning races. Everyone did a great job this year as a team.
“We had the quickest race car and one of the quickest drivers off the starting line, and that’s what it takes to win these races.”
