NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

When Austin Prock jumped into the saddle of teammate Robert Hight’s Cornwell Tools Camaro, he inherited one of the quickest rides and the best crew chiefs in Funny Car and is the current points leader in the race for the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series world championship.

What he did not inherit was any of the points that Hight earned last year towards participation in the prestigious Pep Boys NHRA All-Star Callout later this year at the NHRA U.S. Nationals, putting the Funny Car rookie into catch-up mode if he hopes to be among the elite eight in Indy this Labor Day weekend.

Before Hight took a medical sabbatical to start the season, he was second in the Pep Boys points, just 10 markers behind Bob Tasca III based on qualifying points earned at the final six events of last season following the 2023 Callout, which Hight won. The cutoff for the top eight was Tim Wilkerson at 870 points. (Points are earned at a graduating scale starting at 175 for No. 1, 165 for No. 2, down to 85 for No. 16.)

The “good” news for Prock in trying to climb this tall mountain is that neither medically sidelined Hight nor suddenly retired Wilkerson would earn any more points this season, realistically resetting Prock’s goal to out-pointing 10th-ranked Alexis DeJoria in the 13 events this season (ending at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd) that will set the field.

So far, through four races, Prock and his tuning father, Jimmy, have done an amazing job at chipping away at that deficit. They’ve qualified No. 1 three times — in Pomona, Phoenix, and Las Vegas — which earned them 525 points (175 points for No. 1 qualifier x 3). They picked up an additional 90 points after a disappointing No. 15 slot at the rain-soaked and qualifying-shortened Winternationals.

The current standings below are a little misleading right now, showing Prock in 15th place because Hight and Wilkerson are still shown on the scoreboard (because, technically, they could re-enter competition at any point before the Callout), but realistically, he’ll be in 12th after he passes both of them and Alex Laughlin, who also is not competing this season. So then, as it sits, Paul Lee is actually in the eighth spot at 1,110 points.

All of this means that Prock, with 615 points, will need to significantly out-point Lee over the last nine events to get to at least the No. 8 spot, but that’s a big ask considering that Lee’s Jonnie Lindberg- and John Medlen-tuned machine has also been qualifying well.

If you do the rough math, Prock is averaging about 153 bonus points per event, while Lee is averaging about 137 points after qualifying third once, fifth twice, and 10th once, so, if both drivers retain that pace, Prock will only close the gap by 16 points per race times nine events, which is only 144 points, not near enough to catch Lee’s current 495-point edge. rock will definitely need Lee to stumble while continuing to rack up top-three spots if he has any hope of cutting the lead, and even then there’s Blake Alexander and DeJoria to get around as well.