Story By: SARA SLAUGHTER / JOHN FORCE RACING – INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Austin Prock and the Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist Chevrolet dragster team enter the final race of the regular season, the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, sitting sixth in the Camping World Drag Racing Series points standings.
With points and a half on the line ahead of the reset for the NHRA Countdown to the Championship, Prock and company will be looking to make an impact on the standings.
In his 2019 debut season, Prock was a semifinalist at the U.S. Nationals after qualifying the Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist dragster in the No. 12 spot. In only his second start at the world’s biggest drag race last season, Prock qualified 14th and had a first-round exit. The result had little effect on the resilient team. They would go on to finish third in the Camping World standings thanks to a sensational Countdown in which the Montanan Brand team went to three finals and won twice after starting the playoffs from the No. 12 position, equaling the biggest start-to-finish improvement in history.
“I’m excited for the biggest race of the year. This Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist team is putting in the work to make sure we can battle with the rest of them. We will have a few new faces on our team this weekend, but we are not new to battling adversity. These small setbacks only make us stronger as a team. I believe we have a strong chance at leaving here with the hardware.”
Driving this year for the new crew chief tandem of Chris Cunningham and Joe Barlam, the 2019 NHRA Rookie-of-the-Year sits sixth in points and owns the team’s only Top Fuel win of the season (in the Circle K 4Wide Nationals at Charlotte). The Montana Brand team also made it to the finals of the Winternationals and earned a No. 1 qualifying position at the Sonoma Nationals.
Competition at the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park kicks off with five rounds of qualifying Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 3:30 and 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 and 5:00 p.m. Eliminations are slated to begin on Memorial Day Monday at 10 a.m. Television coverage of the event begins on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) with qualifying shows Sunday at 11:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. ET. Eliminations coverage will have two shows on Monday, the first at noon ET on FS1 and the second at 2 p.m. ET on FOX Broadcasting Network.