PEAK Motorsports Update- August 18, 2025

NHRA: Lucas Oil NHRA NAtionals - Brainerd, MN

Monday, August 18, 2025: 

Austin Prock woke up determined to better his reaction time performance during the NHRA Mission Foods Lucas Oil Nationals and the John Force Racing Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car driver saved his best for the championship round at Brainerd International Raceway. 

The reigning Funny Car Champion and current season point leader cut a 0.043-of-a-second reaction time against J.R. Todd, whom he finished runner-up to at this race last year. Prock went on to clock a lap of 3.907 seconds at 321.50 mph while Todd’s run went up in tire smoke. His reaction times in the first three rounds were 0.048, 0.048, and 0.052, giving him a four-run average of a stunning 0.047. 

After qualifying second, Prock tripped the win light in the first three rounds of Sunday’s competition under cool and cloudy skies, putting Jim Campbell, Matt Hagan, and Chad Green on the trailer before facing Todd in the final. 

It was Prock’s sixth win, and second straight, in 13 races this season and 14th in his brief 33-race Funny Car career. The Prock Rocket heads into the Cornwell Quality Tools U.S. Nationals Labor Day weekend with a dominating 242-point lead ahead of JFR teammate Jack Beckman. 

Beckman’s third-round qualifying run of 3.879 seconds at 330.63 mph earned him the number one spot in Funny Car for the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet SS team heading into Sunday’s eliminations for the fourth of the season. ‘Fast Jack’ and the PEAK Squad then went on in the final qualifying session to easily defeat Matt Hagan to earn their third Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasy NHRA Challenge of 2025. 

On race day, the 37-time Funny Car winner dispatched Dave Richards and Dan Wilkerson in the first two rounds before coming up on the short end against runner-up Todd. Beckman’s run of 3.889 seconds at 323.81 mph wasn’t enough to get around Todd’s run of 3.863 at 334.32 mph. 

Despite the semifinal round finish, Beckman moved back into second place in the point standings, now 27 ahead of Hagan and 58 ahead of Ron Capps.  

Force’s Monster Energy dragster was once again on the hunt for track speed records during the weekend, setting the Brainerd International Raceway record not once, but twice, once in qualifying and again in eliminations. She ran 3.697 seconds at 340.82 mph in Saturday’s first qualifying session, a performance which would earn her the number two qualifying spot. The two-time Top Fuel Champion then went 3.679 seconds at 341.25 mph to defeat Shawn Langdon in Sunday’s second round which marks the 10th time in eliminations she’s run over 340 mph. 

Force beat Will Smith in Round 1 of eliminations and moved into fifth place in the point standings with the Round 2 win against Langdon. In the semifinals, she ran a 3.718 second run at 337.07 mph but it wasn’t enough to get past eventual runner-up Clay Millican’s 3.715-second run at 321.50 mph. 

The next race on the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing schedule is the Cornwell Quality Tools U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park August 27 – September 1.