POMONA — Austin Prock can enjoy his weekend in Pomona for the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Finals.

But he usually enjoys all of his visits to the Southern California drag strip.

Prock, a driver for John Force Racing, is on his way to winning his first NHRA Funny Car championship. He was 189 points ahead of teammate Jack Beckman in the countdown to the Championship playoffs and only needed to make one qualifying run on Friday to win the Funny Car championship.

Whatever happens this weekend is extra wax on the hood.

Prock won’t officially win the Funny Car championship until qualifying is complete on Saturday, but he had an insurmountable lead after Friday’s qualifying round.

Rain delayed the start of qualifying for the Funny Car and Top Fuel teams by about two hours. A second rain delay ended qualifying Friday before the Top Fuel portion was complete. Qualifying resumes on Saturday starting at 11:30

But even the rain couldn’t put a damper on Prock’s championship season.

Beckman was the top qualifier with a run of 3.828 seconds at 334.82 mph. Prock was second with a 3.842-second run at 331.94 mph.

“First place when I last left Pomona, first place now in my PEAK Chevrolet. It has a nice ring to it. Friday at Pomona is always really cool weather. Friday in the final is always very interesting because the whole year has come down to one race, and you can’t wait to get up there for the first run,” Beckman said.

“And then we had a rain delay. In Southern California … Now there’s been a lot going on at the Winternationals, but that doesn’t happen very often in November. It’s just been a weird start to the last race of 2024. So we’re getting some sunshine. We’re pulling up the car there. 3.828 and my best speed since 2020. It’s the fastest I’ve gone this year by over 2 miles per hour.”

Prock won his eighth race of the season in Las Vegas two weeks ago and took all the pressure off to end the season at Pomona Dragstrip for the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals.

“I’ve always liked coming to Pomona. It’s always a pleasure for me, says Prock. “It was something to look forward to and something I got excited about as a kid. I still feel the same way about that place. It has a special place in my heart. I just love going there.”

Prock was the number 1 qualifier in Las Vegas and beat Paul Lee in the final round. But the finals in Las Vegas were pushed back a day and finished on Monday due to a pair of messy crashes on Sunday

– It gets tricky sometimes. It’s just keeping your head down and staying focused,” Prock said. “You still have to do the job at hand. It’s exhausting to be out on the racetrack 10, 14 hours straight. When you win, it’s all worth it.”

The Top Fuel teams were unable to complete the qualifying sessions due to the rain.

The top three drivers in the Top Fuel Countdown to the Championship Playoffs entered the NHRA Finals separated by 45 points. Justin Ashley was 44 points ahead of Antron Brown. Shawn Langdon was third, one point behind Brown.

Ashley is in position to win her first NHRA Championship. He won the NHRA Winternationals at Pomona in March and added three more victories in 2024.

“We deserve to be in this position. We’ve been racing at a high level,” Ashley said. “There are a lot of other competitive race cars that can win a race at any time, at any time. For us, our focus is internal.”

Brown has won three NHRA Top Fuel championships in his career and has a shot at a fourth. He said the level of competition in Top Fuel has never been higher.

“Everybody knows the stakes are high,” Brown said. “Everybody wants it. We do things that we don’t normally do because … we don’t want to go out there just to compete. We want to win.”

Langdon was in the finals in Las Vegas two weeks ago and lost to Brittany Force. He missed an opportunity to close the gap on Ashley and Langdon and doesn’t plan on repeating it.