Ron Capps raced the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car into his third victory of the season in five events at NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and continued to rack up points as the class leader. He is now 106 points ahead of his DSR teammate Matt Hagan, whom he defeated in the final.
Without lane choice for the final stanza and facing NHRA Rookie-of-the-Year contender Hagan in his first career final round, Capps put an exclamation point on the team’s determination to win every round of every event and eventually Capps’ first Funny Car championship.
En route to his 28th career win in his 57th final round, Capps dismissed Brian Thiel, John Force Racing’s Mike Neff and another JFR driver, Robert Hight, in the semifinal before facing off against his teammate.
Capps launched with only a slight edge over Hagan but led all the way to the finish line, posting a stout 4.182-second elapsed time at 297.81 mph in the heat of the day to Hagan’s 4.335/248.89.
“I was asked several times by the media what was wrong,” said Capps, referring to his two first-round losses of the season following victories in the fist two events, “and I just never worried. Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) needed to get in his comfort zone. You’ll find a lot of teams seemed like they may be struggling here the last few races with [only] four test dates [allowed by the NHRA] for the whole year. There’s a lot of teams including us testing things that you have to try in qualifying once you get in the show and even race day, believe it or not.
“It’s tough to gauge [what] people are actually doing in their pit area. For Ace, he was trying things. Don’s a great owner. He comes in and pats him on the butt and says, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing.’ And that’s big.
“We won that first round with a 4.21. It wasn’t that good. Then we got put over in the right lane and everybody thought we were doomed. And so did I. And it went right down there.
“It seems like when we don’t have lane choice and Ace has his back against the wall a little bit…he comes out swinging. And it’s such a great race car to drive. And even having no lane choice in the final and beating Robert Hight in the right lane, Ace wanted the right lane. So, (Hagan’s crew chief) Tommy DeLago rolled up there and he’d been in the left lane and he chose the left lane. I thought this was cool. We’re going to stage and let the cars do all the talking and lucky enough we got the win.”
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