February 10, 2022 • 42 mins
This week the guys visit with one of the young guns in the NHRA, Austin Prock. Son of legendary crew chief Jimmy Prock, Austin returns to a full time ride with John Force for the 2022 season. Learn about his start and his rise as we get The Skinny.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Skinny with Rico and Kenna is a production of
I Heart Radio. I'm Austin Proc and this is the
skinny from the Fatheads I Wear Studio in Speedway, Indiana.
This is the Skinny brought to you by Toyota and
General Tire. This segment of the Skinny is brought to
(00:21):
you by Toyota. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen once again to
the Skinning. We have a great guest that will join
us here today, Ken Stout and Rico Elmore in the house.
Trek Dude is back behind the controls, Michael Young. Great
to have everybody back in here inside of the studio.
Brisk day outside here in Indianapolis, bricks day, and you're
(00:43):
running side saddle, running side, running side saddle. Here you
here to talk about your dedication to this show. Well,
when the boss calls and says, hey, I've got Austin Proc.
He said he could come in today. How are you
feeling four days after you're off the surgery table from
full knee replacement. Yeah, I'll make it, man, I don't
know how, but I'll make it. And Alice, your wife
(01:05):
was overly excited about us doing this. Yeah, she she
said this is this is really a bad idea? Like
it worked out great. I've exercise and the number those
over the course of time and came out on the
other end. So I'll give her another swing and see
what see how it works out. Austin Proc sitting alongside.
He is a grandson of former nhr A driver Tom Proc.
(01:28):
He is the son of an hr A Championship pointing
crew chief Jimmy Proc and now has a win of
his own and Top Fuel one of the uh, I
don't want to say few drivers anymore, but one of
the special drivers that both licensed and funny Car and
Top Fuel. But didn't get a start there, start off
in dirt man or no it was it was midget.
It was pavement midget racing. You were doing right, so
(01:50):
you have been on the asphalt all along the way.
But before we get into that whole racing thing, as
you take a look here, clearly by the name of
the show and by the two big boys you have
here at the desk, we love food and UH and
I believe you graduated from the ulinary culinary Arts school,
so you're a talented chef as well. And we've got
a big kitchen up there. Yeah, Yeah, I'm jack of
(02:13):
all trades, master of none. But I had to go
to school. Uh, parents made me go to college after
I got out of the high school. I wanted to
go straight on the road, but applied to a few
business schools. Didn't do so hot in high school, so
it got popped out of those in the next best
option was culinary school. Get to cook for all my
friends and family all the time. And I love to entertain.
It's one of my only hobbies when I'm not on
(02:34):
the road racing. That's uh, that's pretty interesting. That stirs
up a few questions right off the bat, because your
father is is intelligent as they come down the road,
and you struggle in high school, so I couldn't keep
your attention. What what was the struggle there? You you
clearly haven't going on upstairs. It was probably just a
little bit of lack of effort. Uh. You know, I
pretty much showed up late and left early to go
(02:56):
to the race shop. You know, I live, eating, breathe,
racing and to where my heart was, and that's where
I spent all my time. And uh, you know, you
worked hard at a young agent. It pays off early.
So you were truly one of those kids that as
he finally figured out where he was was growing up
in the middle of a candy store. Your dad was
in the middle of the biggest, most successful team, winning
(03:16):
championships on a top fuel funny car, and everywhere you
looked was just another thing of beauty. Yeah. Absolutely, I
was lucky to, you know, grow up in the family
that I have and be surrounded by very intelligent people.
You know, every way I looked, there was someone smart
wanting to give me their advice. And uh, you know,
you got two years in one mouth for a reason.
So I listened up, and uh, you know, look at me. Now,
(03:40):
So did did Dad lean on you about high school?
When you were struggling? There was he I'm sure he's
he's trying to steer you as best he can. But
you think about his gig and he's on the road
all the time. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, more mom than him.
You know, Dad was on the road. He was focusing
on day. Uh. She still scares a lot of you.
But uh, you know, they both pushed me, you know,
(04:02):
and they pushed me in the right direction, you know,
when when time was due, and uh, now I get
to drive a top field dragster for a living. Yeah,
it's amazing. So Montana back with you guys after a brief,
a brief hiatus with the with the whole COVID thing
and everything. How's that going. It's going good, you know.
Frank Tiegs he resigned with John Force Racing. He owns
(04:24):
both the company's Montana brand and Rocky Mountain Twist, and uh,
you know, he he wanted this car to be out
there that whole time, but you know, COVID just set
things back and put me sidelined for a little bit.
But happy to have him back. He's a great person
and looking forward to racing with him this year. Well,
it seemed like you didn't miss a beat. You got
in Clay's car when he was out for that race
and damn near wanted was at Norwalk? Yeah, Norwalk? So
(04:49):
that was cool. And uh and uh you know, so
what does what all does Montana do? What's there? So
Montana brand is like power tool assess rebits um, you know,
counter seeks more woodworking things, drill bits, things like that
Rocky Mountain Twist is a high end drill bit. Any
bowing airplane when it gets built, it's drilled with a
Montana brand drill bit Um. They're by far the nicest drill,
(05:13):
but I used I wouldn't just say that, you know,
just because they're fun in my uh my dream, But honestly,
it's the best drill but I've ever used. Got to
use it even when I was working construction and COVID
had the company I was working for. Go pick some
up and uh, you know, you could drill about ten
times as many holes with one. That's that's wild. So
tell us about your team. Joe Bartlin's over with you,
(05:35):
which is awesome. I love Joe. Yeah, we got Joe
b and uh ron to where we pulled him out
of retirement. Uh. You know, everyone thought it'd be real
hard to reel him back in, but uh a quick
phone call and he was on board. I was actually,
uh still in total shock to have someone of his,
you know, legendary career, you know, back in my team.
So him and Joe are gonna work great together. And uh,
(05:57):
I got two of my brothers working on the race
car with me. My brother Thomas, he's going to be
an engineer and do the clutch on my car during
on the weekends. Brother Sam's flying in for the first
few to fill in, and uh, the rest of the
guys are just great family friends. It's gonna be a
good year. Yeah. So your one brother award for Stewart
hoss right yea. Yeah, so he's doing the clutch style. Yeah,
(06:18):
so we just stole him back. He's gonna be working
in the shop during the week designing parts and engineering
things for us, and then on the weekend he'll fly
out do the clutch on the car and hopefully we
will end up in Victor Lene quite a bit. That's
that is awesome. Uh And and moved back a little
bit what Stout talked about earlier. Who did you start
(06:38):
midget racing with? Who? I remember because I talked to
your dad about it at the time. Yeah, so, uh,
I started my first like full size midget. We did
a Ford Focus class race with Brad Nofsinger and Wade
Brown down in North Carolina. Did a few years there,
and then we went out and bought our own national
midget operation and Tony Stewart allowed us to work out
of his race shop there. So me and my brother
(06:59):
we've work together our whole career since I started when
I was ten and he was twelve. So for this
whole deal to come back full circle and get to
race together is pretty sweet. How was shr about losing him?
Probably not excited. Yeah, they weren't. They weren't the fondest
of it. They understood, you know, racing with family is
what it's all about, and they wanted him to stay.
And it sounds like he'll have a job there anytime
(07:20):
he needs to go back if if so, Yeah, I know,
Tony spoke highly of him, and uh, you know, speaks
highly of your family and what a place to work
out of when you're you know, running a midget, so
that's not a not too bad of a place to
run through. Yeah. Absolutely, Tony did a lot for us
in our you know, our career circle track racing and
definitely couldn't have got as far as we did without
his support. So all the kudos to him. And now
(07:43):
I get to race with him on a on a
professional level in drag cars. So pretty sweet. What do
you think of his team and all the this craziness
he's brought into play. I think it's good for the sport,
you know, uh, for him to even manage to put
a team together, and how the world is right now,
how hard it is to get materials and parts and
things like that that you know, that's an unbelievable story
(08:04):
in itself. So I'm excited to see how it all
pans out for him. I'm sure that things get Both
cars are going to run really well. You know, you've
got Dicky Venables and Matt Hagan on one side, and
you've got Leah and Neil Strassbag. You know, he's deserved
a shot at tune in one of these things for
a while and he's got a great opportunity in front
of him. Yeah, should be a lot of fun. Twenty
six years old, man, you have a wealth of knowledge
(08:25):
in this sport. You're clearly switched on man um. A
lot of jealous kids, by the way, to you grow up.
You're ten years old and you're already inside a Tony
Stewart's shop running midget. Yeah, everybody a dream of that
and to see you continue on and now be with
with force obviously, as you mentioned, the entire family involved there.
But uh man, just a huge opportunity. But that opportunity
(08:45):
isn't given to you because you're a proc I'm sure
that opportunity had to be earned, absolutely, you know, I
like I said earlier. I've worked my whole entire life
to get to this point, you know, and I finally
achieved that in two thousand nineteen. And when you know,
the pandemic hit, Nick gets stripped away from you, it hurts,
you know. I was depressed there for a while. And uh,
you know, it definitely built character and everything happens for
(09:07):
a reason. And just happy to be back and living
my dream again. I think we had the conversation, right, Yeah,
we had that conversation. I told him, I said, I said,
it's all about timing, man, It'll it'll come when it's
supposed to. And and uh, you know, at at your age,
I always mentioned this and talk about this. You know,
(09:28):
there's a lot of people that that can be twenty
six at act eighteen, and there's some people that are
twenty six and connect thirty six. And you know, it's
a lot of times around the people that you work
with and that you're involved with, and uh and and
for you to be racing, you know, four jf R.
There's probably nobody else harder in the paddock, if you will,
(09:52):
in the pits, harder to get to get a ride
or to run with. I mean, it's all family that
runs his cards. Daughters always daughters, you know, was side
and law, but you know Roberts still the family. But
and then and then him and now you you know
again and uh so it says a lot for what
(10:13):
what you've done and what he thinks of you, because
I don't think by any means there's any gifts that
come out of that South Point Circle building. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
it's definitely, uh, you know, you can't dream of a
better opportunity. And I'm blessed to be in this position.
You know, we have the best funding, we have the
best parts and pieces and the best personnel in there,
you know. And to add my crew chief lineup to
(10:34):
that that brain trust over there, as Forest calls it,
you know, I think it's gonna be a great year
for the company. Yeah. I couldn't agree more. And and
to really, uh go off of what you said, dere Rico,
I I don't know that the fans of general fans
they always see John Force and his interviews and everybody
who loves him the high energy and and the enthusiasm,
the passion that he has for the sport and has
(10:55):
maintained for an unbelievable amount of time. But what they
don't see as the behind the scenes John Forreson to
have the team that he has and to have the
success that he has, the size of it, the sponsor
that you were talking about, well funded team that is
from relentless pursuit of chasing that dream, and there's nobody
that works any harder. And with that said, once you
(11:18):
get to that level, there's absolutely no excuses and there's
no room for anything other than excellence. I mean, he
expects the absolute best because he's gonna put you in
the best situation and and with that comes a lot
of tents moments, I'm sure. I mean, do you do
you feel that from him? Or there times where he
comes up to you and says, you know, we need
(11:39):
we did all of this stuff here, you need to perform. Yeah,
I think you know, I just expect that out of it.
You know, you have the best parts and pieces, So
there's no reason I shouldn't go up there and do
the absolute best in and be the best driver I
can be. So I kind of carry that pressure on myself. Um,
you know he comes up and gives me his wild
pep talks before I get in the car. I'm already
(12:00):
focused by then, and it's in one year out the other,
you know, and back to business. But uh, you know,
I expect that pressure from him. He doesn't have to
put that on me himself. And uh, hopefully I'll make
him proud again this year. I always say there's one
common denominator across all platforms and motorsports, and and that's quickness.
I think the really good drivers, no matter what the
(12:22):
discipline is, are extremely quick. Their hand eye coordination is
very good and their hands are very quick. They speak quickly.
Everything about them is quick. And you clearly are a
fast talker. You're just one of those people. You're thinking quick.
Everything happens very very fast, which is a norm for you,
and I go down this path because your reaction times.
(12:44):
You know, we're clearly one of the best in the field.
I wish i'd had time. I didn't know you were
coming in and literally kill an hour before, but I
would have looked up the laying around. If that's a
good point, I mean, you could have probably got something
done in that time. But if you're not the best
in the class, you have to be top three. Yeah.
In nineteen my rookie season, I did end up leaving
(13:04):
the leading the class off the starting line. Uh, And
since then, everyone's really picked up their game quite a bit.
Langdon he was he was an animal last year on
the starting line, So I'm gonna have to pick it
up a little bit, but no doubt in my mind,
I'll be right there in the top of the hunt. Yeah.
And and one of those elements that it's always important.
Everybody understands the reaction time is important, but I don't
know if it was stressed as much as it now
(13:26):
is emphasized inside of your category. Yeah, it's gonna be
even closer this year, you know, because I feel like
all the driver crew chief combos have kind of caught
up to each other, so the cars are gonna be
running quicker and closer to each other. So it's even
gonna be more cut thrown up on the starting line.
Like I wouldn't be surprised if you saw, you know,
a low forty or high thirty waverage out of one
(13:50):
of the drivers this year, because you're gonna have to
be that quick up there if you want to go
round on Sunday. So let's talk about that process for
a second. I think it's important to analyze it Michael
wants to go to a break and we'll take a
quick break here. Michael, we'll come back on the other side.
I've got a great question for him, uh In regards
the reaction time. Stay with us. We'll be right back
with more from the Young Gun Austin PRAC. This segment
(14:12):
of the Skinny is brought to you by General Tire.
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visiting General Tire dot Com today. Welcome back to the Skinny.
We have Young Gun Austin proc inside of the studio
with us here today we'll be inside of his race car. Actually,
the day you see this show he'll be he'll start
testing there and Phoenix, so we wish him the best
(14:55):
of luck there. But we were talking about reaction times
and the numbers you just throw out as an bridge
in the thirties or forties. Mind boggling to me. I
remember when a seventy was a was a psychic, you know,
reaction time and fuel. But I would love to talk
or I'd love to talk to your father, because I'm
sure he's analyzed every split second of this. But the
(15:17):
time that it takes for you to see that light
move your foot, you have to physically move the pedal
and the linkage has to open up, it has to
obviously send fuel and make power. It has to then
wrinkle up that huge rear tire before any of that,
before the car even thinks about moving, And you're talking
about an average of point three seconds. Yeah, it's you
(15:41):
know the cars have they become reacting quicker. You know,
the crew chiefs obviously work on that area of the
car because the quicker it reacts, the quicker sixty ft
you get. So um, you know those cars that have
a lower sixty ft you know when they're dabbling in
the eight tens, eight twelves, you know that thing's reacting
really good. So um, it's just a up comp It's
(16:02):
just all added up from the driver being quicker to
the car being quicker, you know, the whole nine yards.
And uh, you know, when I started in two thousand nineteen,
I think that average the year before was like, uh,
you know, like probably like a low sixty or something
mid sixty. And when I went into that class, I
dropped it down to an O fifty eight was my average.
And we didn't get very many attempts at it either.
(16:24):
You know, a car didn't run all that well. Um,
so that could have helped my situation or made it worse.
You know, the more shots you got out of that,
I could have stumbled. But uh, you know, it's just
it's just a cut, cutthroat category right now. And I'm
looking forward to this season. Yeah, and I need to
fix a mistake I just made in that description. When
I was going through all that, I said three tenths
of a second. We're talking about three hundreds of a second.
(16:44):
You said thirties and forties, thirty thousands of a second,
forty thousands of a second. So yeah, not three tents.
You're out the lunch baby. Three tents up on the
board there. And now, yeah, so you've got so al
you have Alan Johnson going over to Coletta's uh, with
(17:05):
all of his stuff, which that could be pretty wild. Yeah,
I'm I'm definitely looking forward to racing those cars over
there this year. I love racing Douggie and Langdon because
you gotta bring your a game when you race those guys,
and the past few years they haven't really had the
car under them that they deserve, and they're gonna get
that this year, so I'm looking forward to racing them.
(17:26):
You know, me and Douggie we go back because we
kind of came up the same way, racing circle tracks,
sprint cars, midgets, things like that. So uh, on the
to do this year. I don't want to be smoking
the tires much, but I do want to race Douggie
in a pedal fest and finally get him on that one.
That's that's kind Yeah. I always talk about Coletta's. We
were I think Stewart was on and we were talking
(17:47):
about it, but we were talking about when you know,
you would roll into Anderson Speedway way back in the
day and nobody had the big haulers, nobody had the
eighteen wheel ors, the stack ors, any of that. Coletta
did and it was one of the old drag trailers
right with the elevator on the back and uh it was,
like I said, I remember it very vividly, all black
(18:12):
gold leaf on the back, top corners Kalata And that's
all it needed to say that dude would come out
and just wear people out and get back in his
stuff and leave, you know. I mean it was yeah,
and I mean it's it's uh, you know, he's down
to business, get it done and he's out of there.
So but yeah, he he was. It is awesome watching,
(18:36):
you know, watching you come through that progression. I don't
I guess I don't really know of any open will
got other guys that I mean, I I not that
I can think of John Andretti for a little bit,
but never full time. Really. Hey, um, let's go back
a little bit and talk about the midgets. So I'd
love to know the thought process and the conversation that
(18:58):
was had the initial conversation between you and your family
to say, I want to go racing, but I want
to go on a midget, not necessarily a drag car
or or was it just a general conversation. Did you
start off in carts and you're like, oh, let's the
natural progression was to go up the midgets. How did
that happen? Yeah, so I started out in quarter midgets,
(19:19):
which it wasn't too much of a shock to the family.
My great grandfather, uh, Jimmy Prock as well, he grew
up racing midgets and was a right on mechanic on
indy cars in the thirties and forties. So we still
have a little bit of circle track in our blood,
you know. And when we moved to Brownsburg, our neighbor
actually had quarter midgets, and uh, I wanted to go racing,
(19:40):
but I didn't want anything to do with junior drags.
I didn't like the bracket racing deal. I like heads
up racing and didn't want anything to do with it.
So they allowed me to go out and I tested
their quarter midget, fell in love, and a few days
later I convinced my dad to uh get me one.
And the rule was is if I got one, me
and my brother we had to do all the work
on it. Uh you know, I had I had to
(20:02):
learn not that me and Thomas learned how to set
him up, change our oil queen our tires at ten
and twelve years old, and uh you know, we'd loaded
all in the trailer and my mom would hop in
the pick up and drive us to the track, and
it was just me, mom and my brother, and we
did it all on our own. You know, everyone else
our age was out, you know, playing football or or
playing catch or something in between races while their parents
(20:24):
were service in their carts, and uh, me and Thomas
we were there doing it all on our own. And
you know, we just kind of got thrown to the
wolves and learned as we went, and uh that was
some of the best best knowledge we've ever gained. I
know Dad doesn't have any spare minutes, but wouldn't you
think that lurking in the background, Dad would think just
the engineering side of it would would tweak him just
(20:45):
a little bit, like, oh, let's do this, it'll be
kind of fun. But it literally sounds like you just said,
you guys go out fun at it. Yeah, you know,
And a majority of the time we were on our own.
But you know, he got to fly home during the week,
so when we had him in the garage or whatever,
he'd come out and helped tinker on him. And we
were always innovative, you know, we were always trying something new.
We're cutting bars out of the Chassieason moving them and
(21:07):
building steel like solid steel left side nerve for left
side weight which probably was illegal, and trying different wheel sizes.
We were always trying to find that new edge, you know,
because it was it was a new learning curve for
him as well as it was for me and my brother.
So we had a lot of fun doing it. We
even uh we got Rick Warner uh championship winning crew chief.
We got his son Drew into quarter midgets. So between
(21:30):
Ricky and my dad and all us boys, we had
all kinds of Yeah, so that's a that's a cool story,
and and talk about a way to grow up. That's
a way to grow up, because it's uh no, not
everybody gets a trophy in that gig. Yeah, absolutely. You know,
if you want to, if you want to become a
professional racer one day, you gotta start young, and you
gotta you gotta learn it all. You know. Um My
(21:52):
dad told me at a young age, you know, he said,
the more you know about this race car, the better
race car driver you you're going to be. And you know,
I thought he was blowing smoke up my but there
for a while. But uh, you know, once you grow
up and get some intelligence and you you finally learned
he was right that whole time. Yeah, and it's worth
mentioning too that you were successful in the midge. You
want a championship? Yeah, two thousand four team, we want
(22:12):
to payment Midget championship. And uh, you know, I loved
race in that car. I wish I I wish I
could have kept it, you know, I wish our finances
were a little different back then where I could still
have that, you know, in my pocket. But I loved
that car. And uh, I just loved payment midget race.
And if I could ever get in one again, I
wouldn't blink an eye. So talk to me about the
transition from the midget two you went to uh Frank
(22:36):
Holley school? Is that correct? In a super comp car? Um?
Is that? Is that? Yeah? Is that correct? So? Yeah,
you made that transition from midgets to drag race? And
what spawned that? What? How did that come about? So
two thousand sixteen, it was the off season and I
had actually just purchased a World of Outlaw operation. I
was gonna go winsteak car racing, and uh Forest called
(22:57):
me that winner and said, hey, he said, you want
to go drag racing, and I'm like, hell if John
Forrest is calling you to go drag racing. Yeah, So,
so the deal was, He's like, uh, you know, I'm thinking,
I'm good over here, dude. I'm gonna go lose every dime.
I'm gonna go lose every dime I have and we're
(23:17):
gonna have fun. Man. I've got this car's got this
big wing on it. I'm good over here. I'm good.
So so I started listening and uh, he said, I
if you want to drive one of these cars one
of these days, he said, come work on my daughter's
cars for a couple of years and we'll start training
in and you're gonna take my spot. That was that
was the plan at the time. Um time still hasn't come,
(23:38):
but uh, you know, I know, but he did get
a good mechanic at of it. That's what I think
he was thinking. I told I told Stuart that he's
still got a he's got plenty of life in him.
I mean twenty years you know. Yeah, Forest is thinking
if I can draw him up another crew chief like Jimmy,
I'm good here, so let me get him going down
that path. Yea, all right? Yeah, So I worked on
(23:58):
his daughter's cars in two thousand seventeen on Courtney's, two
thousand eighteen on Brittany's and uh, in the middle of
two thousand seventeen, I was off going to Frank Hollowey's.
I got my super comp dragster licensed, super gas, UH, nostalgia,
funny car, alcohol, funny car, a fuel dragster. All this
in one crash course of a year, along with beating
up and down the road, you know, working on her
(24:20):
on Courtney's car. Um, So it was a lot of fun,
you know, a lot of uh like, better get there
and and do the best you can because you only
got two days to get your license, so better have
your head head on straight. And two thousand eight teen
started the year working on brittany Forces monster Energy dragster
and uh, I went to Las Vegas. We usually test
(24:40):
the Monday after they threw me in the funny car,
and uh, there was the best day of my life.
That's gotta be wild. Were you expecting it? Uh? You know,
I knew it was coming that year, UM, but I
didn't really know when, you know, And then you finally
get the news and UM, over there Sunday night after
you know, everyone's loaded up, We pulled the car back
out through my seed insert in there, got all fitted
(25:03):
seatbelt changes, all the all the safety equipment dialed in.
And I went up there Monday morning, and man, it
was it was wild. Everybody and their brother was up
there to see me fail. You know, did you have
your fire suit home? Oh yeah, I had it all
ready to go. Every real driver. Man. So it was
(25:24):
it was wild. And you know, we'd go up there
and I was nervous to begin with, you know, just
even driving one of these things. The quickest thing I
ever drove was a field dragster, which has like three
thousand horsepower, and then you're going into eleven thousand horsepower
funny car and the track attempts like eighty five degrees
and we're going up there to run like three eight
four back in the laid back ahead of days and uh,
(25:44):
go up there, do the burnout, back up. Everything is
sweet stage this thing. Christmas tree, don't come down. I'm
just sitting there to do and I don't know what's
going on because like I don't know if like there's
a leak and they're gonna shut me off or like what.
So I'm just sitting there there and all of a sudden,
Brian and cried. He gets on the radio and he
goes go scared the crap out of me. And I
drilled the throttle, drove it to about three feet straight
(26:06):
as an arrow, and lifted. That was all we planned
on doing. But if they would have let me out
and drove that thing all the way to the lights,
it was the best doing in the world. Like that.
And what sucks too is like when you get to
the three thirt o'clock in a funny car, that's right
when the clutches starting to really kick in starting and
I just started to feel it set me back in
the seat, and it's You're like, man, like that was
getting me going. You know. Yeah, I don't know what
(26:30):
it is about Vegas, but that's the first place that
Stewart ran to it. Yeah, I got a text at
about three o'clock in the morning. I did something. I
was like, okay, what was that? And he sent me that.
He sent me the slip. I was like, you're an animal.
But well, that's awesome, man, that's a great story, great
story and so much success after that. I mean, clearly
(26:52):
fell right into the seat very comfortable. Did it ever
rattle you or is your brain always been take your
a minute to get up to speed. Um, I mean
they're always quick. You know. When I get in this
saying next or this Thursday. I mean, I'm gonna be
behind it for a little bit, especially if we're really
sending it, you know, if the track's cool. Um, but yeah,
it's you're behind it. But if you look out far
(27:12):
enough in the track and and like like Danny and
Karate told me before I got in this thing, because
I was nervous if I was going to be able
to even do it. You know, not very many people
can drive these race cars to a extreme level, you know,
and they're like, either got it or you don't. And
I just kept that in my head, and you know
it did the best I could try to keep it
between the between the head or flames, and uh, it's
(27:32):
all good from there. Excellent job, young driver for John
Force Racing with us here today, Austin Proc. We're gonna
take it for freak and we'll be right back on
the other side. This segment of the Skinny is brought
to you by Toyota. We're back here on the Skinny
Austin Proc in the studio with us on a brisk
day here in Indianapolis Speedway, Indiana. That it's got about
(27:54):
five six incheons of snow out there. It's been it
was kind of cold there last Thursday or so actually,
when I had the surgery done, came out to a
nice snow blizzard and it's been beautiful ever since, sonnywise,
but it's a great idea. Maybe you kind of busted
your ass coming out of there, you know, I might
have and don't remember it. I much like this show.
I don't know how much of it I want to remember.
Oh that's great. There you go, kids, just say no.
(28:18):
So Austin proc in the house with us, obviously geeked
up and ready to go. Here, two man, full slate
in front of you. Let's talk about what's coming at you.
A lot of good competition, but we're gonna be bringing
the heat. You know. We got a good team, uh
with Montana, Brandon, Rocky, Mountain Twist, great crew chief line
up and uh, great people to work with as well.
So I'm really looking forward to it. Um. You know,
(28:40):
I just can't wait to stand on the gas on Thursday.
We're gonna flog this thing for three days and we'll
be all ready to go for Pomona here shortly. But
I gotta but I gotta ask. I gotta go back
to what he said, it took him a while to
catch up, or it'll take you a while to catch up.
You got in Clay Milliken's car, and it took you
no time to catch up. So let's go. Let's go
(29:00):
back a little bit here. Stringer, who I love to death,
is a great friend Clay as well. You step into
the car um that operation and the way Stringer runs it,
it is literally on a string. I mean it is.
They They kind of tell us some of the process
(29:22):
of what they go through, which isn't a secret, you know,
between rounds versus kind of what you guys do. Yeah,
it's they run that operation totally different, and it was
It was very enjoyable to go there and race with
those guys in and see what you can do in
this sport, you know, with with minimal parts or or pieces.
You know, everyone over there works really hard. Uh, probably
(29:45):
even harder than most teams, you know, because your your
service and parts in between rounds and things, and and
what they do with what they have is very impressive. Uh.
That car ran great. That weekend I was in it
and continued on. You know, I felt like that was
almost a turning point for that car. Last year after
I got done running it, it you know, consistently went
up and down the track quick and uh. I really
(30:06):
appreciate what they do for the sport and and how
will they run on on what they do? Uh, it's
a great opportunity to work with them and learn from
everyone over there, Doug and Mike Klover and Clay. It
was a it was a great deal and had to
go out there and shine because that was kind of
a make or break it moment for my career. I
feel like, yeah, it was. It was amazing. I mean
I was. If if there was anybody not rooting for you,
(30:30):
they were they were not very good people, because it
was it was definitely the underdog program coming in and
uh and not being uh and not you know, not
being in the car for a while. And I mean
you didn't miss a beat. I mean stout so you
uh so. So the whole gest of it is, you know,
(30:50):
and correct me if I'm wrong anywhere here. But most
of the time, you know, they take the heads off,
you know, and usually another set goes on you know
headers usually mounted and everything. They actually rebuild the heads
between rounds on every round. So I mean that's that
is that in itself how intense that is because that's
(31:15):
I mean, one it's a quick turnaround, but two you
can't make any mistakes there, and there's a lot of
pieces and parts that go back into all of that
and and so uh that's what amazes me with with
Dougs program and what they put together there. Now when
you were uh at your hiatus if you will, stayed
(31:37):
at j f R and uh, we're doing blowers right,
tell us about that? Yeah, So uh, going into uh
last year, I had obviously got the call wasn't racing
again that season. So second year out and I'm like, man,
what am I gonna do? And they gave me an
opportunity to go work on my old man's car with
(31:58):
Robert Hight driving, and got to build the superchargers. I've
worked on superchargers before, uh in two thousand eighteen on
Alan Johnson's car UM, but that was a j blower
with you know, Darren Mayer rotors. Totally different combination from
what John Force Racing builds in in house. We build
almost all of our parts in house, and we build
that blower from start to finish and frames, rotors, cases, gears,
(32:22):
you name it, every piece that goes into that thing.
So when I got in there, it was a whole
new learning curve in and that was still we were
kind of like phasing out of the COVID layoffs and
things like that, so there wasn't very many people in
there to teach me. So I had to kind of
take myself under my own wing and just you know,
guess how this went and that went, and put my
(32:44):
own twist on it, and uh ended up building one
of the best blowers that's ever been pumped out of
that shop. Threw it on the Dino and uh we
zing this thing and it went off the page on
on race pack and my dad looks back at me
and he goes, nice job, Austin, and he's never told
me like and like that moment is like instilled in
my head. It was like one of the coolest days
(33:05):
of my life. And Uh after that, you know, I
was hungry to figure out why that supercharger was so good,
So we started going through the other three superchargers he
had and we chased it all year long. Just trying
to figure out all these little things to add up
to make more boost you know, Mo boost, mo beta
right right, right. So so we chased that all year
and it was really fun working hands on with my dad,
(33:27):
and uh, you know, I learned a lot out of
the deal. It was not what I wanted to be doing,
but we made the best out of it. I'm more
knowledgeable about the superchargers now and about you know, even
just being a team player on a team, how to
help manage a team, all those sayings. So I'm looking
forward to bringing all that over to my own team
this year. Get to drive cross country instead of fly
across country, right, yeah, yeah, Yeah. What's funny is I
(33:50):
told this to Brian Loans earlier today. Uh but you know,
all last year, all I wanted to do was fly
to the races, fly to the race because that meant
I was back driving. And uh, this year, yesterday, when
the trucks left, all I wanted to do is be
in those trucks and driving it out to the track.
You know, I didn't want to, like see my baby go.
You know, it was almost a bittersweet moment. So it's
(34:11):
crazy out a year, things can change. Your mind. But uh,
I'm really looking forward to get into the race track tomorrow.
That's awesome. Yeah, incredible stuff. I mean it is. It
is super cool working with your father like that and
making those memories like that. You mentioned it before, your
father said, the more you know about it, the better
off you're gonna be. I'm curious how involved are you
at looking at the data acquisition after after the run?
(34:34):
Typically the crew chief will look at it and and
you know, analyze it and make some some suggestions. Are
you hands on in that? Yeah? So when now that
I'm back to driving, every time uh we get back
to the pit, uh, We'll get the car up on
jack stands and I'll run up to the crew chief
lounge and just debrief with them. Typically I try and
tell them what I felt before they pull the computer up,
(34:55):
just to see how good, you know, I felt the
race car, um, because that gives me a better mind
set of like when the car is getting in trouble,
how to peddle it and how to recover it if
if you need to on Sunday, you know, to get
a round win. So I'm pretty hands on up in there.
I definitely couldn't make the decisions, nor want to make
the decisions up on the starting line, but I can
look at all the squiggly lines and and I can't
(35:17):
kind of have an idea of what's good what's bad. Yeah,
super cool. And we had Stewart in here and he
was talking about listening to Leah and listening to Matt
Hagen and how they can analyze every little you know,
hundreds of a second and side of the car what
it's doing and picking up the left front tire and
you know, wrinkling tire whatever, whatever it's doing. And I'm
sure whenever you said you will be behind it a
(35:37):
little bit, but once you get caught up to it,
you you're able to do the same thing. Oh absolutely,
you know. Uh in two thousand nine plenty rounds on
in pedal Fest. You know, I kind of prided my
circle track days, you know, as a benefit, you know,
in this top fuel category. So uh, definitely hate hate
when it smokes tires, but love to see how went
quick I can catch it and get it to hook
back up and go down the race track. So actually,
(35:59):
one my first ever round of competition in a pedal
Fest in Pomona, it was only my I think six
run in a top fuel dragster, things shook off the
starting line, got it to recover, and uh when it
went down there to get my first career round win.
So what is your psyche? What's your thought process? Because
of throwing a throattle is so short, it's pretty much
open or closed. Do you physically think, I gotta squeeze
(36:22):
on this thing so I can try to get it
hooked up? Yeah, I mean like a sprint car, it's
got a thousand horsepiler and it's hard to hook up.
So imagine eleven thousand with a short throw pedal. But
the trick is really to catch it before it gets
in trouble. You know that you've got a lot of
sidewall on these cars, and it's it's a little bit
harder in the dragster because you got about six ft
from the rear end where the funny car you're sitting
right on top of it. But you just gotta you
(36:44):
gotta know that feel for the sidewall and it'll give
you a signal and kind of bite you right in
the ask to tell you to get off the gas.
And you're making those decisions and you know thousands of
a second, so uh, it's really fun, really fun to
try and control that beast and no one, you're only
gonna get better. You have little to no experience, I
mean limited experience relatively speaking. Yeah, absolutely, you know, the
(37:06):
seat time, that's everything in in a motor sport like this,
so in any motorsport. So, uh, looking forward to going
another full season and hopefully it pans out well for
us a month you guys doing uh, I mean, just
going this year with these guys and seeing how things go.
And then yeah, yeah, so this deals a one year,
one year contract for now. Um, you know, we just
(37:28):
got to go out there and show out and get
everyone's attention and hopefully we can keep this train rolling. Yeah,
that's that's awesome. Yeah, you were talking about Tony. Listen
to Leah or Matt or whatever, but and Tron when
he was in here talking about it, he was talking
about the whole run and he's like, there it is,
you know, I'm at this and it's standing up on
the tires and oh, hold on a minute, what is that?
(37:50):
You know? What I mean is just I mean And
and to think that you're you know, that your mind
is And that was one of the things that Tony
was talking about was you know when he first went,
he was like, hell, I was still setting at the
starting line, trying to figure out what just happened. Yeah,
you know, and I was at the end of the track,
you know me what happened? I told him, I don't know. Yeah, although, yeah, yeah,
(38:11):
you can. You can hop out of one of these
things at the top end, and you know, it's three
point six second run and you can go on and
talk about it for thirty minutes about each and every
little feeling you found, you know what. You can talk
about it like it was an eternity long and uh,
you know, it's just one of the coolest things about
this sport. Get your adrenaline going through the roof and
your your mind does weird things. So do they have
(38:32):
any rankings out? Yeah, like a power ranking? Right, yeah, now,
but I'm sure I'm at the top of the list,
my man. Man, let's just go with that. Yeah right,
that's great stuff, man. So looking forward to the test. U,
when's the first race date? It's the following week So
we test this weekend and it's the following weekend. I
(38:53):
don't know any dates. We've been thrashing for the last
three sevent and Pomona. That Yeah, that sounds about right.
So right off the bat, you guys are gonna go
thrash for three days, tear up a bunch of parts,
and then have to be race ready the following weekend. Yeah.
This the you know, start of the year test or
spring training as they call it. It's always brutal on
(39:14):
the crew guys. So I'm gonna be out there. I'm
actually gonna stay on the road from Phoenix test to
Pomona and back to Phoenix, just to help, you know,
help get things done, help organize things. Uh, you know,
even if itit's down to the smallest things, going to
grabbing the guys lunch, you know, just being out there
and being a part of the team and you know,
gaining their respect. Yeah, that means a lot. And and
(39:35):
I'm we had this discussion the other day, not on air,
but we're trying to figure out do you think anybody
that sanctions these races. I won't get into a name,
do you think they own a map? Because then we
go to Phoenix, and then we go to Gainesville, then
(39:55):
we go back to Vegas. It's like, uh, and then
we go from Vega us to Houston. You know, it's
like a lot of hours on the road, that's for sure.
And they've done that a lot of money. It's a
lot of money for how I did it almost all
of last year before I broke chat and into coming
in and feeling like it was a good idea for him.
(40:16):
So but but yeah, it's a lot of money, a
lot of time, a lot of things going on, and
you know, it's just it's just, you know, it's just
a wild deal. And I mean, I'm excited to see
you back out there, dude. You've you've you know, I
think the conversation that we had and that we talked
(40:38):
about was, you know JR. Todd. You know when JR
was you know, j R came into the program. Man,
he was, you know, driving for Dexter Tuttle, you know,
in the in the Torquo car and was was was
putting it on people like nobody's business. And you know,
then went to Lucas's program after that, and uh, you know,
(41:01):
and and kind of kind of had a little bit
of a set back and worked his way back into it.
And again it was all about timing. And uh, I
remember texting him after he won the championship, and I said,
this is what you were waiting on, you know, And
this is what was waiting on you, you know. So
it's it's all the same to you, man, and wish
(41:22):
you the best to walk. I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah,
great to have you in the studio. Great to meet
you and uh and see some of the personality. Man,
so switched on. You are definitely wise beyond your years,
twenty six years old. You got a great run at it,
a great team, great car, certainly very capable. Um, I
expect you to be right in the thick of it. Man. Yep, yep,
I plan on doing the same and I can't wait
(41:44):
to get going. Ladies and gentlemen, Austin proc here will
be driving for John Force Racing here keep your eyes
on him. In two he was hungry for a championship.
Thanks for watching, Thanks for being with us here on
the skinny. This episode has been brought to you by
so Hoy Yota and General Tires. For the latest and sunglasses,
(42:04):
optical frames, accessories and apparel. Be sure to check out
batheads dot com bats fat Heads with a Z Production
facilities provided by Fatheads I Wear Studios. All rights reserved.
The Skinny with Rico and Kenna is a production of
I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
(42:27):
you get your podcasts.
The Skinny with Rico and Kenna is a production of
I Heart Radio. I'm Austin Proc and this is the
skinny from the Fatheads I Wear Studio in Speedway, Indiana.
This is the Skinny brought to you by Toyota and
General Tire. This segment of the Skinny is brought to
(00:21):
you by Toyota. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen once again to
the Skinning. We have a great guest that will join
us here today, Ken Stout and Rico Elmore in the house.
Trek Dude is back behind the controls, Michael Young. Great
to have everybody back in here inside of the studio.
Brisk day outside here in Indianapolis, bricks day, and you're
(00:43):
running side saddle, running side, running side saddle. Here you
here to talk about your dedication to this show. Well,
when the boss calls and says, hey, I've got Austin Proc.
He said he could come in today. How are you
feeling four days after you're off the surgery table from
full knee replacement. Yeah, I'll make it, man, I don't
know how, but I'll make it. And Alice, your wife
(01:05):
was overly excited about us doing this. Yeah, she she
said this is this is really a bad idea? Like
it worked out great. I've exercise and the number those
over the course of time and came out on the
other end. So I'll give her another swing and see
what see how it works out. Austin Proc sitting alongside.
He is a grandson of former nhr A driver Tom Proc.
(01:28):
He is the son of an hr A Championship pointing
crew chief Jimmy Proc and now has a win of
his own and Top Fuel one of the uh, I
don't want to say few drivers anymore, but one of
the special drivers that both licensed and funny Car and
Top Fuel. But didn't get a start there, start off
in dirt man or no it was it was midget.
It was pavement midget racing. You were doing right, so
(01:50):
you have been on the asphalt all along the way.
But before we get into that whole racing thing, as
you take a look here, clearly by the name of
the show and by the two big boys you have
here at the desk, we love food and UH and
I believe you graduated from the ulinary culinary Arts school,
so you're a talented chef as well. And we've got
a big kitchen up there. Yeah, Yeah, I'm jack of
(02:13):
all trades, master of none. But I had to go
to school. Uh, parents made me go to college after
I got out of the high school. I wanted to
go straight on the road, but applied to a few
business schools. Didn't do so hot in high school, so
it got popped out of those in the next best
option was culinary school. Get to cook for all my
friends and family all the time. And I love to entertain.
It's one of my only hobbies when I'm not on
(02:34):
the road racing. That's uh, that's pretty interesting. That stirs
up a few questions right off the bat, because your
father is is intelligent as they come down the road,
and you struggle in high school, so I couldn't keep
your attention. What what was the struggle there? You you
clearly haven't going on upstairs. It was probably just a
little bit of lack of effort. Uh. You know, I
pretty much showed up late and left early to go
(02:56):
to the race shop. You know, I live, eating, breathe,
racing and to where my heart was, and that's where
I spent all my time. And uh, you know, you
worked hard at a young agent. It pays off early.
So you were truly one of those kids that as
he finally figured out where he was was growing up
in the middle of a candy store. Your dad was
in the middle of the biggest, most successful team, winning
(03:16):
championships on a top fuel funny car, and everywhere you
looked was just another thing of beauty. Yeah. Absolutely, I
was lucky to, you know, grow up in the family
that I have and be surrounded by very intelligent people.
You know, every way I looked, there was someone smart
wanting to give me their advice. And uh, you know,
you got two years in one mouth for a reason.
So I listened up, and uh, you know, look at me. Now,
(03:40):
So did did Dad lean on you about high school?
When you were struggling? There was he I'm sure he's
he's trying to steer you as best he can. But
you think about his gig and he's on the road
all the time. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, more mom than him.
You know, Dad was on the road. He was focusing
on day. Uh. She still scares a lot of you.
But uh, you know, they both pushed me, you know,
(04:02):
and they pushed me in the right direction, you know,
when when time was due, and uh, now I get
to drive a top field dragster for a living. Yeah,
it's amazing. So Montana back with you guys after a brief,
a brief hiatus with the with the whole COVID thing
and everything. How's that going. It's going good, you know.
Frank Tiegs he resigned with John Force Racing. He owns
(04:24):
both the company's Montana brand and Rocky Mountain Twist, and uh,
you know, he he wanted this car to be out
there that whole time, but you know, COVID just set
things back and put me sidelined for a little bit.
But happy to have him back. He's a great person
and looking forward to racing with him this year. Well,
it seemed like you didn't miss a beat. You got
in Clay's car when he was out for that race
and damn near wanted was at Norwalk? Yeah, Norwalk? So
(04:49):
that was cool. And uh and uh you know, so
what does what all does Montana do? What's there? So
Montana brand is like power tool assess rebits um, you know,
counter seeks more woodworking things, drill bits, things like that
Rocky Mountain Twist is a high end drill bit. Any
bowing airplane when it gets built, it's drilled with a
Montana brand drill bit Um. They're by far the nicest drill,
(05:13):
but I used I wouldn't just say that, you know,
just because they're fun in my uh my dream, But honestly,
it's the best drill but I've ever used. Got to
use it even when I was working construction and COVID
had the company I was working for. Go pick some
up and uh, you know, you could drill about ten
times as many holes with one. That's that's wild. So
tell us about your team. Joe Bartlin's over with you,
(05:35):
which is awesome. I love Joe. Yeah, we got Joe
b and uh ron to where we pulled him out
of retirement. Uh. You know, everyone thought it'd be real
hard to reel him back in, but uh a quick
phone call and he was on board. I was actually,
uh still in total shock to have someone of his,
you know, legendary career, you know, back in my team.
So him and Joe are gonna work great together. And uh,
(05:57):
I got two of my brothers working on the race
car with me. My brother Thomas, he's going to be
an engineer and do the clutch on my car during
on the weekends. Brother Sam's flying in for the first
few to fill in, and uh, the rest of the
guys are just great family friends. It's gonna be a
good year. Yeah. So your one brother award for Stewart
hoss right yea. Yeah, so he's doing the clutch style. Yeah,
(06:18):
so we just stole him back. He's gonna be working
in the shop during the week designing parts and engineering
things for us, and then on the weekend he'll fly
out do the clutch on the car and hopefully we
will end up in Victor Lene quite a bit. That's
that is awesome. Uh And and moved back a little
bit what Stout talked about earlier. Who did you start
(06:38):
midget racing with? Who? I remember because I talked to
your dad about it at the time. Yeah, so, uh,
I started my first like full size midget. We did
a Ford Focus class race with Brad Nofsinger and Wade
Brown down in North Carolina. Did a few years there,
and then we went out and bought our own national
midget operation and Tony Stewart allowed us to work out
of his race shop there. So me and my brother
(06:59):
we've work together our whole career since I started when
I was ten and he was twelve. So for this
whole deal to come back full circle and get to
race together is pretty sweet. How was shr about losing him?
Probably not excited. Yeah, they weren't. They weren't the fondest
of it. They understood, you know, racing with family is
what it's all about, and they wanted him to stay.
And it sounds like he'll have a job there anytime
(07:20):
he needs to go back if if so, Yeah, I know,
Tony spoke highly of him, and uh, you know, speaks
highly of your family and what a place to work
out of when you're you know, running a midget, so
that's not a not too bad of a place to
run through. Yeah. Absolutely, Tony did a lot for us
in our you know, our career circle track racing and
definitely couldn't have got as far as we did without
his support. So all the kudos to him. And now
(07:43):
I get to race with him on a on a
professional level in drag cars. So pretty sweet. What do
you think of his team and all the this craziness
he's brought into play. I think it's good for the sport,
you know, uh, for him to even manage to put
a team together, and how the world is right now,
how hard it is to get materials and parts and
things like that that you know, that's an unbelievable story
(08:04):
in itself. So I'm excited to see how it all
pans out for him. I'm sure that things get Both
cars are going to run really well. You know, you've
got Dicky Venables and Matt Hagan on one side, and
you've got Leah and Neil Strassbag. You know, he's deserved
a shot at tune in one of these things for
a while and he's got a great opportunity in front
of him. Yeah, should be a lot of fun. Twenty
six years old, man, you have a wealth of knowledge
(08:25):
in this sport. You're clearly switched on man um. A
lot of jealous kids, by the way, to you grow up.
You're ten years old and you're already inside a Tony
Stewart's shop running midget. Yeah, everybody a dream of that
and to see you continue on and now be with
with force obviously, as you mentioned, the entire family involved there.
But uh man, just a huge opportunity. But that opportunity
(08:45):
isn't given to you because you're a proc I'm sure
that opportunity had to be earned, absolutely, you know, I
like I said earlier. I've worked my whole entire life
to get to this point, you know, and I finally
achieved that in two thousand nineteen. And when you know,
the pandemic hit, Nick gets stripped away from you, it hurts,
you know. I was depressed there for a while. And uh,
you know, it definitely built character and everything happens for
(09:07):
a reason. And just happy to be back and living
my dream again. I think we had the conversation, right, Yeah,
we had that conversation. I told him, I said, I said,
it's all about timing, man, It'll it'll come when it's
supposed to. And and uh, you know, at at your age,
I always mentioned this and talk about this. You know,
(09:28):
there's a lot of people that that can be twenty
six at act eighteen, and there's some people that are
twenty six and connect thirty six. And you know, it's
a lot of times around the people that you work
with and that you're involved with, and uh and and
for you to be racing, you know, four jf R.
There's probably nobody else harder in the paddock, if you will,
(09:52):
in the pits, harder to get to get a ride
or to run with. I mean, it's all family that
runs his cards. Daughters always daughters, you know, was side
and law, but you know Roberts still the family. But
and then and then him and now you you know
again and uh so it says a lot for what
(10:13):
what you've done and what he thinks of you, because
I don't think by any means there's any gifts that
come out of that South Point Circle building. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
it's definitely, uh, you know, you can't dream of a
better opportunity. And I'm blessed to be in this position.
You know, we have the best funding, we have the
best parts and pieces and the best personnel in there,
you know. And to add my crew chief lineup to
(10:34):
that that brain trust over there, as Forest calls it,
you know, I think it's gonna be a great year
for the company. Yeah. I couldn't agree more. And and
to really, uh go off of what you said, dere Rico,
I I don't know that the fans of general fans
they always see John Force and his interviews and everybody
who loves him the high energy and and the enthusiasm,
the passion that he has for the sport and has
(10:55):
maintained for an unbelievable amount of time. But what they
don't see as the behind the scenes John Forreson to
have the team that he has and to have the
success that he has, the size of it, the sponsor
that you were talking about, well funded team that is
from relentless pursuit of chasing that dream, and there's nobody
that works any harder. And with that said, once you
(11:18):
get to that level, there's absolutely no excuses and there's
no room for anything other than excellence. I mean, he
expects the absolute best because he's gonna put you in
the best situation and and with that comes a lot
of tents moments, I'm sure. I mean, do you do
you feel that from him? Or there times where he
comes up to you and says, you know, we need
(11:39):
we did all of this stuff here, you need to perform. Yeah,
I think you know, I just expect that out of it.
You know, you have the best parts and pieces, So
there's no reason I shouldn't go up there and do
the absolute best in and be the best driver I
can be. So I kind of carry that pressure on myself. Um,
you know he comes up and gives me his wild
pep talks before I get in the car. I'm already
(12:00):
focused by then, and it's in one year out the other,
you know, and back to business. But uh, you know,
I expect that pressure from him. He doesn't have to
put that on me himself. And uh, hopefully I'll make
him proud again this year. I always say there's one
common denominator across all platforms and motorsports, and and that's quickness.
I think the really good drivers, no matter what the
(12:22):
discipline is, are extremely quick. Their hand eye coordination is
very good and their hands are very quick. They speak quickly.
Everything about them is quick. And you clearly are a
fast talker. You're just one of those people. You're thinking quick.
Everything happens very very fast, which is a norm for you,
and I go down this path because your reaction times.
(12:44):
You know, we're clearly one of the best in the field.
I wish i'd had time. I didn't know you were
coming in and literally kill an hour before, but I
would have looked up the laying around. If that's a
good point, I mean, you could have probably got something
done in that time. But if you're not the best
in the class, you have to be top three. Yeah.
In nineteen my rookie season, I did end up leaving
(13:04):
the leading the class off the starting line. Uh, And
since then, everyone's really picked up their game quite a bit.
Langdon he was he was an animal last year on
the starting line, So I'm gonna have to pick it
up a little bit, but no doubt in my mind,
I'll be right there in the top of the hunt. Yeah.
And and one of those elements that it's always important.
Everybody understands the reaction time is important, but I don't
know if it was stressed as much as it now
(13:26):
is emphasized inside of your category. Yeah, it's gonna be
even closer this year, you know, because I feel like
all the driver crew chief combos have kind of caught
up to each other, so the cars are gonna be
running quicker and closer to each other. So it's even
gonna be more cut thrown up on the starting line.
Like I wouldn't be surprised if you saw, you know,
a low forty or high thirty waverage out of one
(13:50):
of the drivers this year, because you're gonna have to
be that quick up there if you want to go
round on Sunday. So let's talk about that process for
a second. I think it's important to analyze it Michael
wants to go to a break and we'll take a
quick break here. Michael, we'll come back on the other side.
I've got a great question for him, uh In regards
the reaction time. Stay with us. We'll be right back
with more from the Young Gun Austin PRAC. This segment
(14:12):
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visiting General Tire dot Com today. Welcome back to the Skinny.
We have Young Gun Austin proc inside of the studio
with us here today we'll be inside of his race car. Actually,
the day you see this show he'll be he'll start
testing there and Phoenix, so we wish him the best
(14:55):
of luck there. But we were talking about reaction times
and the numbers you just throw out as an bridge
in the thirties or forties. Mind boggling to me. I
remember when a seventy was a was a psychic, you know,
reaction time and fuel. But I would love to talk
or I'd love to talk to your father, because I'm
sure he's analyzed every split second of this. But the
(15:17):
time that it takes for you to see that light
move your foot, you have to physically move the pedal
and the linkage has to open up, it has to
obviously send fuel and make power. It has to then
wrinkle up that huge rear tire before any of that,
before the car even thinks about moving, And you're talking
about an average of point three seconds. Yeah, it's you
(15:41):
know the cars have they become reacting quicker. You know,
the crew chiefs obviously work on that area of the
car because the quicker it reacts, the quicker sixty ft
you get. So um, you know those cars that have
a lower sixty ft you know when they're dabbling in
the eight tens, eight twelves, you know that thing's reacting
really good. So um, it's just a up comp It's
(16:02):
just all added up from the driver being quicker to
the car being quicker, you know, the whole nine yards.
And uh, you know, when I started in two thousand nineteen,
I think that average the year before was like, uh,
you know, like probably like a low sixty or something
mid sixty. And when I went into that class, I
dropped it down to an O fifty eight was my average.
And we didn't get very many attempts at it either.
(16:24):
You know, a car didn't run all that well. Um,
so that could have helped my situation or made it worse.
You know, the more shots you got out of that,
I could have stumbled. But uh, you know, it's just
it's just a cut, cutthroat category right now. And I'm
looking forward to this season. Yeah, and I need to
fix a mistake I just made in that description. When
I was going through all that, I said three tenths
of a second. We're talking about three hundreds of a second.
(16:44):
You said thirties and forties, thirty thousands of a second,
forty thousands of a second. So yeah, not three tents.
You're out the lunch baby. Three tents up on the
board there. And now, yeah, so you've got so al
you have Alan Johnson going over to Coletta's uh, with
(17:05):
all of his stuff, which that could be pretty wild. Yeah,
I'm I'm definitely looking forward to racing those cars over
there this year. I love racing Douggie and Langdon because
you gotta bring your a game when you race those guys,
and the past few years they haven't really had the
car under them that they deserve, and they're gonna get
that this year, so I'm looking forward to racing them.
(17:26):
You know, me and Douggie we go back because we
kind of came up the same way, racing circle tracks,
sprint cars, midgets, things like that. So uh, on the
to do this year. I don't want to be smoking
the tires much, but I do want to race Douggie
in a pedal fest and finally get him on that one.
That's that's kind Yeah. I always talk about Coletta's. We
were I think Stewart was on and we were talking
(17:47):
about it, but we were talking about when you know,
you would roll into Anderson Speedway way back in the
day and nobody had the big haulers, nobody had the
eighteen wheel ors, the stack ors, any of that. Coletta
did and it was one of the old drag trailers
right with the elevator on the back and uh it was,
like I said, I remember it very vividly, all black
(18:12):
gold leaf on the back, top corners Kalata And that's
all it needed to say that dude would come out
and just wear people out and get back in his
stuff and leave, you know. I mean it was yeah,
and I mean it's it's uh, you know, he's down
to business, get it done and he's out of there.
So but yeah, he he was. It is awesome watching,
(18:36):
you know, watching you come through that progression. I don't
I guess I don't really know of any open will
got other guys that I mean, I I not that
I can think of John Andretti for a little bit,
but never full time. Really. Hey, um, let's go back
a little bit and talk about the midgets. So I'd
love to know the thought process and the conversation that
(18:58):
was had the initial conversation between you and your family
to say, I want to go racing, but I want
to go on a midget, not necessarily a drag car
or or was it just a general conversation. Did you
start off in carts and you're like, oh, let's the
natural progression was to go up the midgets. How did
that happen? Yeah, so I started out in quarter midgets,
(19:19):
which it wasn't too much of a shock to the family.
My great grandfather, uh, Jimmy Prock as well, he grew
up racing midgets and was a right on mechanic on
indy cars in the thirties and forties. So we still
have a little bit of circle track in our blood,
you know. And when we moved to Brownsburg, our neighbor
actually had quarter midgets, and uh, I wanted to go racing,
(19:40):
but I didn't want anything to do with junior drags.
I didn't like the bracket racing deal. I like heads
up racing and didn't want anything to do with it.
So they allowed me to go out and I tested
their quarter midget, fell in love, and a few days
later I convinced my dad to uh get me one.
And the rule was is if I got one, me
and my brother we had to do all the work
on it. Uh you know, I had I had to
(20:02):
learn not that me and Thomas learned how to set
him up, change our oil queen our tires at ten
and twelve years old, and uh you know, we'd loaded
all in the trailer and my mom would hop in
the pick up and drive us to the track, and
it was just me, mom and my brother, and we
did it all on our own. You know, everyone else
our age was out, you know, playing football or or
playing catch or something in between races while their parents
(20:24):
were service in their carts, and uh, me and Thomas
we were there doing it all on our own. And
you know, we just kind of got thrown to the
wolves and learned as we went, and uh that was
some of the best best knowledge we've ever gained. I
know Dad doesn't have any spare minutes, but wouldn't you
think that lurking in the background, Dad would think just
the engineering side of it would would tweak him just
(20:45):
a little bit, like, oh, let's do this, it'll be
kind of fun. But it literally sounds like you just said,
you guys go out fun at it. Yeah, you know,
And a majority of the time we were on our own.
But you know, he got to fly home during the week,
so when we had him in the garage or whatever,
he'd come out and helped tinker on him. And we
were always innovative, you know, we were always trying something new.
We're cutting bars out of the Chassieason moving them and
(21:07):
building steel like solid steel left side nerve for left
side weight which probably was illegal, and trying different wheel sizes.
We were always trying to find that new edge, you know,
because it was it was a new learning curve for
him as well as it was for me and my brother.
So we had a lot of fun doing it. We
even uh we got Rick Warner uh championship winning crew chief.
We got his son Drew into quarter midgets. So between
(21:30):
Ricky and my dad and all us boys, we had
all kinds of Yeah, so that's a that's a cool story,
and and talk about a way to grow up. That's
a way to grow up, because it's uh no, not
everybody gets a trophy in that gig. Yeah, absolutely. You know,
if you want to, if you want to become a
professional racer one day, you gotta start young, and you
gotta you gotta learn it all. You know. Um My
(21:52):
dad told me at a young age, you know, he said,
the more you know about this race car, the better
race car driver you you're going to be. And you know,
I thought he was blowing smoke up my but there
for a while. But uh, you know, once you grow
up and get some intelligence and you you finally learned
he was right that whole time. Yeah, and it's worth
mentioning too that you were successful in the midge. You
want a championship? Yeah, two thousand four team, we want
(22:12):
to payment Midget championship. And uh, you know, I loved
race in that car. I wish I I wish I
could have kept it, you know, I wish our finances
were a little different back then where I could still
have that, you know, in my pocket. But I loved
that car. And uh, I just loved payment midget race.
And if I could ever get in one again, I
wouldn't blink an eye. So talk to me about the
transition from the midget two you went to uh Frank
(22:36):
Holley school? Is that correct? In a super comp car? Um?
Is that? Is that? Yeah? Is that correct? So? Yeah,
you made that transition from midgets to drag race? And
what spawned that? What? How did that come about? So
two thousand sixteen, it was the off season and I
had actually just purchased a World of Outlaw operation. I
was gonna go winsteak car racing, and uh Forest called
(22:57):
me that winner and said, hey, he said, you want
to go drag racing, and I'm like, hell if John
Forrest is calling you to go drag racing. Yeah, So,
so the deal was, He's like, uh, you know, I'm thinking,
I'm good over here, dude. I'm gonna go lose every dime.
I'm gonna go lose every dime I have and we're
(23:17):
gonna have fun. Man. I've got this car's got this
big wing on it. I'm good over here. I'm good.
So so I started listening and uh, he said, I
if you want to drive one of these cars one
of these days, he said, come work on my daughter's
cars for a couple of years and we'll start training
in and you're gonna take my spot. That was that
was the plan at the time. Um time still hasn't come,
(23:38):
but uh, you know, I know, but he did get
a good mechanic at of it. That's what I think
he was thinking. I told I told Stuart that he's
still got a he's got plenty of life in him.
I mean twenty years you know. Yeah, Forest is thinking
if I can draw him up another crew chief like Jimmy,
I'm good here, so let me get him going down
that path. Yea, all right? Yeah, So I worked on
(23:58):
his daughter's cars in two thousand seventeen on Courtney's, two
thousand eighteen on Brittany's and uh, in the middle of
two thousand seventeen, I was off going to Frank Hollowey's.
I got my super comp dragster licensed, super gas, UH, nostalgia,
funny car, alcohol, funny car, a fuel dragster. All this
in one crash course of a year, along with beating
up and down the road, you know, working on her
(24:20):
on Courtney's car. Um, So it was a lot of fun,
you know, a lot of uh like, better get there
and and do the best you can because you only
got two days to get your license, so better have
your head head on straight. And two thousand eight teen
started the year working on brittany Forces monster Energy dragster
and uh, I went to Las Vegas. We usually test
(24:40):
the Monday after they threw me in the funny car,
and uh, there was the best day of my life.
That's gotta be wild. Were you expecting it? Uh? You know,
I knew it was coming that year, UM, but I
didn't really know when, you know, And then you finally
get the news and UM, over there Sunday night after
you know, everyone's loaded up, We pulled the car back
out through my seed insert in there, got all fitted
(25:03):
seatbelt changes, all the all the safety equipment dialed in.
And I went up there Monday morning, and man, it
was it was wild. Everybody and their brother was up
there to see me fail. You know, did you have
your fire suit home? Oh yeah, I had it all
ready to go. Every real driver. Man. So it was
(25:24):
it was wild. And you know, we'd go up there
and I was nervous to begin with, you know, just
even driving one of these things. The quickest thing I
ever drove was a field dragster, which has like three
thousand horsepower, and then you're going into eleven thousand horsepower
funny car and the track attempts like eighty five degrees
and we're going up there to run like three eight
four back in the laid back ahead of days and uh,
(25:44):
go up there, do the burnout, back up. Everything is
sweet stage this thing. Christmas tree, don't come down. I'm
just sitting there to do and I don't know what's
going on because like I don't know if like there's
a leak and they're gonna shut me off or like what.
So I'm just sitting there there and all of a sudden,
Brian and cried. He gets on the radio and he
goes go scared the crap out of me. And I
drilled the throttle, drove it to about three feet straight
(26:06):
as an arrow, and lifted. That was all we planned
on doing. But if they would have let me out
and drove that thing all the way to the lights,
it was the best doing in the world. Like that.
And what sucks too is like when you get to
the three thirt o'clock in a funny car, that's right
when the clutches starting to really kick in starting and
I just started to feel it set me back in
the seat, and it's You're like, man, like that was
getting me going. You know. Yeah, I don't know what
(26:30):
it is about Vegas, but that's the first place that
Stewart ran to it. Yeah, I got a text at
about three o'clock in the morning. I did something. I
was like, okay, what was that? And he sent me that.
He sent me the slip. I was like, you're an animal.
But well, that's awesome, man, that's a great story, great
story and so much success after that. I mean, clearly
(26:52):
fell right into the seat very comfortable. Did it ever
rattle you or is your brain always been take your
a minute to get up to speed. Um, I mean
they're always quick. You know. When I get in this
saying next or this Thursday. I mean, I'm gonna be
behind it for a little bit, especially if we're really
sending it, you know, if the track's cool. Um, but yeah,
it's you're behind it. But if you look out far
(27:12):
enough in the track and and like like Danny and
Karate told me before I got in this thing, because
I was nervous if I was going to be able
to even do it. You know, not very many people
can drive these race cars to a extreme level, you know,
and they're like, either got it or you don't. And
I just kept that in my head, and you know
it did the best I could try to keep it
between the between the head or flames, and uh, it's
(27:32):
all good from there. Excellent job, young driver for John
Force Racing with us here today, Austin Proc. We're gonna
take it for freak and we'll be right back on
the other side. This segment of the Skinny is brought
to you by Toyota. We're back here on the Skinny
Austin Proc in the studio with us on a brisk
day here in Indianapolis Speedway, Indiana. That it's got about
(27:54):
five six incheons of snow out there. It's been it
was kind of cold there last Thursday or so actually,
when I had the surgery done, came out to a
nice snow blizzard and it's been beautiful ever since, sonnywise,
but it's a great idea. Maybe you kind of busted
your ass coming out of there, you know, I might
have and don't remember it. I much like this show.
I don't know how much of it I want to remember.
Oh that's great. There you go, kids, just say no.
(28:18):
So Austin proc in the house with us, obviously geeked
up and ready to go. Here, two man, full slate
in front of you. Let's talk about what's coming at you.
A lot of good competition, but we're gonna be bringing
the heat. You know. We got a good team, uh
with Montana, Brandon, Rocky, Mountain Twist, great crew chief line
up and uh, great people to work with as well.
So I'm really looking forward to it. Um. You know,
(28:40):
I just can't wait to stand on the gas on Thursday.
We're gonna flog this thing for three days and we'll
be all ready to go for Pomona here shortly. But
I gotta but I gotta ask. I gotta go back
to what he said, it took him a while to
catch up, or it'll take you a while to catch up.
You got in Clay Milliken's car, and it took you
no time to catch up. So let's go. Let's go
(29:00):
back a little bit here. Stringer, who I love to death,
is a great friend Clay as well. You step into
the car um that operation and the way Stringer runs it,
it is literally on a string. I mean it is.
They They kind of tell us some of the process
(29:22):
of what they go through, which isn't a secret, you know,
between rounds versus kind of what you guys do. Yeah,
it's they run that operation totally different, and it was
It was very enjoyable to go there and race with
those guys in and see what you can do in
this sport, you know, with with minimal parts or or pieces.
You know, everyone over there works really hard. Uh, probably
(29:45):
even harder than most teams, you know, because your your
service and parts in between rounds and things, and and
what they do with what they have is very impressive. Uh.
That car ran great. That weekend I was in it
and continued on. You know, I felt like that was
almost a turning point for that car. Last year after
I got done running it, it you know, consistently went
up and down the track quick and uh. I really
(30:06):
appreciate what they do for the sport and and how
will they run on on what they do? Uh, it's
a great opportunity to work with them and learn from
everyone over there, Doug and Mike Klover and Clay. It
was a it was a great deal and had to
go out there and shine because that was kind of
a make or break it moment for my career. I
feel like, yeah, it was. It was amazing. I mean
I was. If if there was anybody not rooting for you,
(30:30):
they were they were not very good people, because it
was it was definitely the underdog program coming in and
uh and not being uh and not you know, not
being in the car for a while. And I mean
you didn't miss a beat. I mean stout so you
uh so. So the whole gest of it is, you know,
(30:50):
and correct me if I'm wrong anywhere here. But most
of the time, you know, they take the heads off,
you know, and usually another set goes on you know
headers usually mounted and everything. They actually rebuild the heads
between rounds on every round. So I mean that's that
is that in itself how intense that is because that's
(31:15):
I mean, one it's a quick turnaround, but two you
can't make any mistakes there, and there's a lot of
pieces and parts that go back into all of that
and and so uh that's what amazes me with with
Dougs program and what they put together there. Now when
you were uh at your hiatus if you will, stayed
(31:37):
at j f R and uh, we're doing blowers right,
tell us about that? Yeah, So uh, going into uh
last year, I had obviously got the call wasn't racing
again that season. So second year out and I'm like, man,
what am I gonna do? And they gave me an
opportunity to go work on my old man's car with
(31:58):
Robert Hight driving, and got to build the superchargers. I've
worked on superchargers before, uh in two thousand eighteen on
Alan Johnson's car UM, but that was a j blower
with you know, Darren Mayer rotors. Totally different combination from
what John Force Racing builds in in house. We build
almost all of our parts in house, and we build
that blower from start to finish and frames, rotors, cases, gears,
(32:22):
you name it, every piece that goes into that thing.
So when I got in there, it was a whole
new learning curve in and that was still we were
kind of like phasing out of the COVID layoffs and
things like that, so there wasn't very many people in
there to teach me. So I had to kind of
take myself under my own wing and just you know,
guess how this went and that went, and put my
(32:44):
own twist on it, and uh ended up building one
of the best blowers that's ever been pumped out of
that shop. Threw it on the Dino and uh we
zing this thing and it went off the page on
on race pack and my dad looks back at me
and he goes, nice job, Austin, and he's never told
me like and like that moment is like instilled in
my head. It was like one of the coolest days
(33:05):
of my life. And Uh after that, you know, I
was hungry to figure out why that supercharger was so good,
So we started going through the other three superchargers he
had and we chased it all year long. Just trying
to figure out all these little things to add up
to make more boost you know, Mo boost, mo beta
right right, right. So so we chased that all year
and it was really fun working hands on with my dad,
(33:27):
and uh, you know, I learned a lot out of
the deal. It was not what I wanted to be doing,
but we made the best out of it. I'm more
knowledgeable about the superchargers now and about you know, even
just being a team player on a team, how to
help manage a team, all those sayings. So I'm looking
forward to bringing all that over to my own team
this year. Get to drive cross country instead of fly
across country, right, yeah, yeah, Yeah. What's funny is I
(33:50):
told this to Brian Loans earlier today. Uh but you know,
all last year, all I wanted to do was fly
to the races, fly to the race because that meant
I was back driving. And uh, this year, yesterday, when
the trucks left, all I wanted to do is be
in those trucks and driving it out to the track.
You know, I didn't want to, like see my baby go.
You know, it was almost a bittersweet moment. So it's
(34:11):
crazy out a year, things can change. Your mind. But uh,
I'm really looking forward to get into the race track tomorrow.
That's awesome. Yeah, incredible stuff. I mean it is. It
is super cool working with your father like that and
making those memories like that. You mentioned it before, your
father said, the more you know about it, the better
off you're gonna be. I'm curious how involved are you
at looking at the data acquisition after after the run?
(34:34):
Typically the crew chief will look at it and and
you know, analyze it and make some some suggestions. Are
you hands on in that? Yeah? So when now that
I'm back to driving, every time uh we get back
to the pit, uh, We'll get the car up on
jack stands and I'll run up to the crew chief
lounge and just debrief with them. Typically I try and
tell them what I felt before they pull the computer up,
(34:55):
just to see how good, you know, I felt the
race car, um, because that gives me a better mind
set of like when the car is getting in trouble,
how to peddle it and how to recover it if
if you need to on Sunday, you know, to get
a round win. So I'm pretty hands on up in there.
I definitely couldn't make the decisions, nor want to make
the decisions up on the starting line, but I can
look at all the squiggly lines and and I can't
(35:17):
kind of have an idea of what's good what's bad. Yeah,
super cool. And we had Stewart in here and he
was talking about listening to Leah and listening to Matt
Hagen and how they can analyze every little you know,
hundreds of a second and side of the car what
it's doing and picking up the left front tire and
you know, wrinkling tire whatever, whatever it's doing. And I'm
sure whenever you said you will be behind it a
(35:37):
little bit, but once you get caught up to it,
you you're able to do the same thing. Oh absolutely,
you know. Uh in two thousand nine plenty rounds on
in pedal Fest. You know, I kind of prided my
circle track days, you know, as a benefit, you know,
in this top fuel category. So uh, definitely hate hate
when it smokes tires, but love to see how went
quick I can catch it and get it to hook
back up and go down the race track. So actually,
(35:59):
one my first ever round of competition in a pedal
Fest in Pomona, it was only my I think six
run in a top fuel dragster, things shook off the
starting line, got it to recover, and uh when it
went down there to get my first career round win.
So what is your psyche? What's your thought process? Because
of throwing a throattle is so short, it's pretty much
open or closed. Do you physically think, I gotta squeeze
(36:22):
on this thing so I can try to get it
hooked up? Yeah, I mean like a sprint car, it's
got a thousand horsepiler and it's hard to hook up.
So imagine eleven thousand with a short throw pedal. But
the trick is really to catch it before it gets
in trouble. You know that you've got a lot of
sidewall on these cars, and it's it's a little bit
harder in the dragster because you got about six ft
from the rear end where the funny car you're sitting
right on top of it. But you just gotta you
(36:44):
gotta know that feel for the sidewall and it'll give
you a signal and kind of bite you right in
the ask to tell you to get off the gas.
And you're making those decisions and you know thousands of
a second, so uh, it's really fun, really fun to
try and control that beast and no one, you're only
gonna get better. You have little to no experience, I
mean limited experience relatively speaking. Yeah, absolutely, you know, the
(37:06):
seat time, that's everything in in a motor sport like this,
so in any motorsport. So, uh, looking forward to going
another full season and hopefully it pans out well for
us a month you guys doing uh, I mean, just
going this year with these guys and seeing how things go.
And then yeah, yeah, so this deals a one year,
one year contract for now. Um, you know, we just
(37:28):
got to go out there and show out and get
everyone's attention and hopefully we can keep this train rolling. Yeah,
that's that's awesome. Yeah, you were talking about Tony. Listen
to Leah or Matt or whatever, but and Tron when
he was in here talking about it, he was talking
about the whole run and he's like, there it is,
you know, I'm at this and it's standing up on
the tires and oh, hold on a minute, what is that?
(37:50):
You know? What I mean is just I mean And
and to think that you're you know, that your mind
is And that was one of the things that Tony
was talking about was you know when he first went,
he was like, hell, I was still setting at the
starting line, trying to figure out what just happened. Yeah,
you know, and I was at the end of the track,
you know me what happened? I told him, I don't know. Yeah, although, yeah, yeah,
(38:11):
you can. You can hop out of one of these
things at the top end, and you know, it's three
point six second run and you can go on and
talk about it for thirty minutes about each and every
little feeling you found, you know what. You can talk
about it like it was an eternity long and uh,
you know, it's just one of the coolest things about
this sport. Get your adrenaline going through the roof and
your your mind does weird things. So do they have
(38:32):
any rankings out? Yeah, like a power ranking? Right, yeah, now,
but I'm sure I'm at the top of the list,
my man. Man, let's just go with that. Yeah right,
that's great stuff, man. So looking forward to the test. U,
when's the first race date? It's the following week So
we test this weekend and it's the following weekend. I
(38:53):
don't know any dates. We've been thrashing for the last
three sevent and Pomona. That Yeah, that sounds about right.
So right off the bat, you guys are gonna go
thrash for three days, tear up a bunch of parts,
and then have to be race ready the following weekend. Yeah.
This the you know, start of the year test or
spring training as they call it. It's always brutal on
(39:14):
the crew guys. So I'm gonna be out there. I'm
actually gonna stay on the road from Phoenix test to
Pomona and back to Phoenix, just to help, you know,
help get things done, help organize things. Uh, you know,
even if itit's down to the smallest things, going to
grabbing the guys lunch, you know, just being out there
and being a part of the team and you know,
gaining their respect. Yeah, that means a lot. And and
(39:35):
I'm we had this discussion the other day, not on air,
but we're trying to figure out do you think anybody
that sanctions these races. I won't get into a name,
do you think they own a map? Because then we
go to Phoenix, and then we go to Gainesville, then
(39:55):
we go back to Vegas. It's like, uh, and then
we go from Vega us to Houston. You know, it's
like a lot of hours on the road, that's for sure.
And they've done that a lot of money. It's a
lot of money for how I did it almost all
of last year before I broke chat and into coming
in and feeling like it was a good idea for him.
(40:16):
So but but yeah, it's a lot of money, a
lot of time, a lot of things going on, and
you know, it's just it's just, you know, it's just
a wild deal. And I mean, I'm excited to see
you back out there, dude. You've you've you know, I
think the conversation that we had and that we talked
(40:38):
about was, you know JR. Todd. You know when JR
was you know, j R came into the program. Man,
he was, you know, driving for Dexter Tuttle, you know,
in the in the Torquo car and was was was
putting it on people like nobody's business. And you know,
then went to Lucas's program after that, and uh, you know,
(41:01):
and and kind of kind of had a little bit
of a set back and worked his way back into it.
And again it was all about timing. And uh, I
remember texting him after he won the championship, and I said,
this is what you were waiting on, you know, And
this is what was waiting on you, you know. So
it's it's all the same to you, man, and wish
(41:22):
you the best to walk. I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah,
great to have you in the studio. Great to meet
you and uh and see some of the personality. Man,
so switched on. You are definitely wise beyond your years,
twenty six years old. You got a great run at it,
a great team, great car, certainly very capable. Um, I
expect you to be right in the thick of it. Man. Yep, yep,
I plan on doing the same and I can't wait
(41:44):
to get going. Ladies and gentlemen, Austin proc here will
be driving for John Force Racing here keep your eyes
on him. In two he was hungry for a championship.
Thanks for watching, Thanks for being with us here on
the skinny. This episode has been brought to you by
so Hoy Yota and General Tires. For the latest and sunglasses,
(42:04):
optical frames, accessories and apparel. Be sure to check out
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(42:27):
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