CONCORD, N.C. - As North Carolina residents, fans, NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series competitors and officials prepared for this weekend’s inaugural NHRA Carolina Nationals at the all-new zMax Dragway, drag racer Ron Capps was challenged by NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip to a duel on the very same dragway.
Waltrip issued the challenge to his fellow NAPA AUTO PARTS racing partner to race down the quarter-mile at Bruton Smith’s stunning facility to continue the pair’s on-air rivalry and banter promoted in NAPA AUTO PARTS’ clever ad campaign using the two racers with disparate racing backgrounds.
Arriving with his fully race-functional NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Waltrip faced Capps driving an NHRA Super Comp dragster, owned by Charlotte’s Tisha Wilson, in the pair’s first head-to-head match-up on a racing surface.
It was a heady experience for both, as neither had been down the new dragstrip touted as the “Bellagio” of drag racing. For Capps, because it was an all-new venue; for Waltrip because it’s doubtful that he had ever been down a state-of-the-art dragstrip in a powerful car in his lifetime.
The track was clearly green as both drivers struggled to gain traction after launching following their burnouts. As the pair tore down the track, Waltrip’s mount experienced some problems at the finish line, resulting in, surprisingly, his hitting the wall and damaging the front of the car. Although Waltrip may have been ahead, it turned into a very-loosely based case of the “Tortoise and the Hare,” as Capps took the victory for all the non-existing laurels in his 500-hp dragster over Waltrip’s Cup car pulled by 800 horses. The numbers: 9.85/115.14 for Capps, versus 11.21/79.38 for Waltrip.
Waltrip’s NAPA crew quickly repaired the Toyota, and Capps was invited to drive it down the quarter-mile. He did so, in fine fashion, posting a run of 10.6 seconds at 140 mph.
“It was a fun thing,” said Capps, who enters this weekend’s national event and the beginning of the Countdown to 1 playoffs in Concord No. 9 in the standings. “It was scheduled originally that we were going to do a little match race. It got so serious that Michael actually brought one of his real Cup cars. So we were trying to up him a little bit by getting a Super Comp dragster, because I didn’t want to show up to a gunfight with a knife. And I didn’t want to get beat by Michael at our own game.”
“Knowing Michael, it was going to be fun no matter what, but we were both pretty serious about it. And it was going to be fun to go down the track at the new zMax Dragway.”
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