Driving the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car, Ron Capps collected his third No. 1 qualifier of the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season and the 10th if his career today at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway.
Capps came out strong in the warmer yet somewhat overcast conditions during today’s third qualifying round to post a 4.121-second elapsed time (an unofficial track record at 1000 feet) at 297.22 mph. He held the top spot through the final round of qualifying in the dark, despite a loss of traction in that pass.
His previous passes included a 4.937/158.22 (No. 9), 5.470/129.31 (No. 11), and a 17.277/21.85 in his final try.
It looked like it would be a Don Schumacher Racing one-two-three before the final pairing, with Capps leading the way, followed by teammates Matt Hagan and Jack Beckman. Tony Pedregon, in the opposite lane to Capps, however, pulled out a 4.135/294.50 to move into second.
“It’s a tribute to Don (Schumacher, team owner), who has put together a full shop (in Brownsburg, Ind.),” said Capps, “which is something out of the ordinary for a drag-race team, and we have in-house chassis builders now.
“These are all new DSR chassis, and it’s kind of cool to be able to say, I want to thank the guys back at the shop, like the NASCAR guys do.
“The incremental numbers [showed that] we were quicker than any other car out there on both runs Friday, but it just wasn’t making a pass at a certain point on the track. And Ace needed to fix that and he did earlier today and it ran the .12, but it was trying to do that the last couple of days.
“And then we had nothing to lose in the last run. We knew Tony Pedregon was going to hop it up, which he did, and we knew we were going to try to run an .07 or .08, and obviously it didn’t hold.”
All four qualifying sessions were held in early evening and in the dark of night, with eliminations beginning at noon on Sunday. “I would like to know a good weatherman right now,” said Capps, “because I don’t know what tomorrow is going to be. If it’s going to be cloudy, then, yeah, we feel pretty comfortable.”
Capps faces Gary Densham in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday.
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