When defending two-time NHRA Funny Car champion Austin Prock joined Top Fuel champ Doug Kalitta in ringing the opening bell Wednesday at the New York Stock Exchange, it was quite ceremonial.

In a way, it marked Prock officially ringing the bell on the start of the next chapter of his drag racing career. After winning the last two Funny Car crowns for John Force Racing, Prock will compete for 2026 and beyond for one of former boss John Force’s chief longtime rivals, Bob Tasca III.

It’s not every day that a celebrated driver wins back-to-back championships for the most prolific driver in drag racing history and then just up and quit – but that’s what Prock did after last season. And instead of sporting his usual JFR and Chevrolet colors in 2026, Prock will be driving the Quicklane Motorcraft Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Tasca and Bob Tasca Racing.

Tasca announced last week that he was stepping aside from driving his Funny Car “for now” and handing the keys exclusively over to Prock.

“When all this came about and (Tasca) said that he would step aside from driving the race car, I honestly was a little bit taken back,” Prock said. “I felt bad taking his ride away from him. But this is the decision he made, and he’s very excited. (Tasca has) said plenty of times that this is the most excited he’s been for a NHRA season in his entire career. So that gives me a lot of confidence, a lot of passion to put into this sport, along with my family, that he believes in my family like he does to go out there and take the reins of his operation and make it the way we want to make it.”

Prock took his father/crew chief, brother, and entire team with him to Tasca

It wasn’t only Prock that left JFR. Not only did he bring his father and crew chief Jimmy Prock, and Austin’s brother and co-crew chief Thomas, with him to the Tasca camp, but his entire 13-man crew also turned in their resignations to John Force Racing to join Prock.

Rumors have been plentiful as to why Prock left JFR, from a difference of opinion with Force and team leadership, to a matter of money (all of the Prock’s reportedly got a substantial raise to jump to Tasca), to seeing a better long-term opportunity for his father and brother with Tasca than they all envisioned if they had stayed with Force.

Switching teams wasn’t the only thing Prock did during the off-season. He also got engaged, will test next week and shake down his new ride for the first time, all in an effort to get ready for the opening of the 20-race NHRA season on March 5-8 at the legendary Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

Not only is the Indianapolis resident hoping to earn a third consecutive Funny Car championship, Prock is also hoping to be a pivotal part of NHRA history as the sanctioning body will celebrate its 75 anniversary this season.

Obviously, the No. 1 question that fans, media, opposing teams and even John Force himself still want to know is how and why could Prock pull up stakes with his family and his entire team and jump to the competition?

“My family wanted to continue racing together, and this was the opportunity that we had,” Prock said during a media call on Tuesday. “Bob Tasca offered to bring the whole family together and we took the gig. We’re very excited. Bob’s great to work with. We’re excited to work with Ford Racing, Quicklane Motocraft and PPG. It’s going to be a very exciting season. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, though.”

Top Stories

Brad Keselowski Gets Real on His Daytona 500 Plans With Bold 6-Word Confession

Bubba Wallace’s $218.94B Sponsor’s Exit Triggers Unlikely 23XI–NASCAR Partnership

NASCAR Fans Celebrate as Jack Roush Makes History With Second Bill France Award

Mark Martin Sounds the Alarm on NASCAR’s Crippling Sponsorship Crisis With Bold Corey Heim Confession

Fans Rally Behind NASCAR’s Clash Format Announcement as Madhouse Set to Kick Off 2026 Season

So what happened between Prock and John Force that resulted in their split?

Force is known as a demanding team owner and boss, not always the easiest guy to work with or get along with. He’s built his drag racing empire on one key principle: it’s his way or the highway. One need only ask Tony Pedregon, who won a championship for Force in 2003 and also walked away at season’s end to join forces with his brother, fellow Funny Car driver Cruz Pedregon, about why he left JFR.

So what happened between Prock and Force?

“We had some talks with John Force and things didn’t go how we envisioned they would go,” Prock said. “And all of a sudden we were shaking hands with Bob Tasca. So it definitely wasn’t on my bingo card in 2025. But, you know, life changes sometimes.

“I’m just excited to race with my family. We have my whole team together still. There’s 13 of us that are all still working together. And that makes me excited because, as I said in my championship speech, it’s the people that you surround yourself with that put in the work. That’s how we excel in this in this category, in this sport. So that’s a huge plus for us right now.”

Prock then expanded a bit on his decision to part ways with Force.

“There’s three sides to the story,” Prock explained. “There’s my side, his (Force’s) side and the truth, and I’m not going to get into that. But we made our decision based on wanting to race as a family. The most important thing to me is I love my family and I want to continue to race with them. So all the hard feelings that people have towards me and my family is what it is.”

And then Prock got in another shot at his former boss: “I can tell you one thing. They’re really going to be mad when we start winning races. Another thing is Dale Earnhardt. He was one of the most hated drivers in the series. So it’s not always a bad thing. We’re just going to keep rolling with the punches, you know.”

Because of his aggressive, win-at-all style, the garage hated and felt jealous of Dale Earnhardt. But Prock points out how history shows that being hated doesn’t stop greatness.

JFR has moved on and even expanded to a 4-car operation in 2026

Prock’s leaving was part of a double whammy to his now former boss. Force had already known his daughter Brittany was retiring at the end of the 2025 season to start a family with her new husband. But Prock’s bombshell was unexpected, perhaps none more so than to Force. JFR will have three new drivers out of a four-driver lineup in 2026, with Jack Beckman as the only returnee, having replaced Force in 2024 after Force’s near-fatal and career-ending crash near Richmond, Va.

New to JFR this season, although not new to the sport, will be Josh Hart replacing Brittany Force in the JFR Top Fuel dragster, while Prock’s spot will be filled by two Funny Car drivers and cars: veteran Alexis DeJoria and Jordan Vandergriff, expanding JFR back to its former four-car roster.

Prock realizes that his departure from JFR has not only caused hard feelings within the organization but also with its fan base. Some may perceive Prock as a traitor or self-centered or any other number of negative adjectives.

But that kind of thing comes with the territory.

“Is it unfortunate? Absolutely,” Prock admitted. “Nobody wants to be the bad guy. But if I’m the bad guy for the series, someone’s got to be it. So I’m just going to the thing that’s going to aggravate them the most is when we start winning, if we drop the door in Gainesville. … That’s kind of our motto right now. We’re prepping to do that. And when we start turning on win lights, they’re going to be the angry ones. And I’ll be smiling in victory lane with the trophy.

“I always kind of race with a chip on my shoulder. I always got something to prove to myself. So, you know, I’m definitely hungry.”

Prock ready for battle with JFR and every other Funny Car team

With Force permanently sidelined due to a traumatic brain injury he suffered in the 2024 crash, Prock knows it will still be a war between the Tasca and Force camps, perhaps ratcheted up even more than ever before because of Prock jumping teams.

“We’re ready for battle,” Prock admitted. “I’m always up for the challenge and I’m excited for this new challenge. We had success two years in a row and it took a long time to get to that point. But we were just kind of fine tuning it there at the end and continuing to turn on win lights. So now to be back in the shop and creating something new, trying to create something better is definitely fun as a professional racer. You always like a challenge, and this is going to be a big challenge.

“When we put on the helmets, I’m rivals with everybody. You know, I want to whoop them regardless who it is. If there’s 20 Funny Cars out there, they’re all my rival on Sunday. And Bob Tasca, he’s really given us the keys to the race team. We’re doing things the Prock way and he’s footing the bill. That’s a good feeling.”

So for Prock, personal history won’t matter once the helmet is on. Whether it’s John Force Racing, Bob Tasca’s longtime rivals, or any other Funny Car team in the lanes, Prock sees only competition.