AUSTIN PROCK AND MONTANA BRAND KEEP NO. 3 POSITION SATURDAY AT WILD HORSE PASS MOTORSPORTS PARK

CHANDLER, Ariz. (March 25, 2023) – In front of a sold-out crowd, Austin Prock and the Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist Chevrolet dragster held onto their No. 3 qualifying position Saturday at the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. Brittany Force in the Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy machine qualified No. 5 in Top Fuel. In Funny Car, John Force has the BlueDEF PLATINUM Chevrolet Camaro SS team in the No. 8 spot while Robert Hight and the Flav-R-Pac / Cornwell Tools / AAA Chevy Camaro are No. 9.
Running side-by-side in their first qualifying attempt on Saturday, Brittany Force and Austin Prock both were up in tire smoke early and shut off. Prock would have a 5.282-second pass at 142.93 mph while Force would clock in at 6.299 and 95.55. With the rest of the class struggling, Prock and Force stayed third and fourth, respectively, heading into the final qualifying session.
In another side-by-side attempt, both Force and Prock had clean passes. Force would handle the Flav-R-Pac dragster to 3.739 at 328.86 while Prock would lay down a 3.758 at 324.36.
Off his 3.696-second pass from Friday evening, Prock and the Montana Brand / RMT dragster team will enter race day from the No. 4 qualifying spot which sets them up to run against Jim Maroney first round.
“It was a tricky day for most of the pits. The track conditions seemed to be much worse than our data was telling us, but by the end of the day our Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist Chevy dragster was right in the hunt,” Prock said. “I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I was a bit out of sync today, but I’ll be ready to attack in the morning.”
With their 3.722-second pass at 323.12 mph on Friday, Force and the Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy team will get race day started from the No. 5 spot racing against Josh Hart.
“It was definitely a strange start to the weekend for all the teams. Everyone struggled to get down there. Luckily this Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy team had two passes where we got down there with a 3.72 and a 3.73,” said Force who earned a bonus point for being third quickest of the final qualifying session. “Two good solid runs getting us in the fifth position to race Josh Hart tomorrow. Looking to step it up. It’ll be nice and cool and we think we could get this thing really running tomorrow, especially in that first round.”
The BlueDEF Chevy nearly made a clean pass early Saturday afternoon, Force would improve from Friday going 4.273 seconds at 220.62 mph after shutting off early near the 600-foot mark. Force would have more improvement in the final session running into trouble late in the run for a 4.057 at 272.39 landing him in the No. 8 spot for an unfortunate matchup against Robert Hight first round.
The Flav-R-Pac Camaro opened Saturday qualifying with almost immediate tire smoke forcing Hight to coast to a 10.606-second pass at 77.46. Hight would find improvement in the final session with a 4.218 run at 222.95 but the improvement to No. 9 would set him up to run against John Force first round.
The NHRA Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park continues with eliminations Sunday at 11 a.m. Television coverage of the event will continue on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) with a second qualifying show Sunday at noon ET. Eliminations will air Sunday at 7 p.m. ET.
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