Driving the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car at the 45th annual NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif., Ron Capps qualified No. 5, posting his quickest pass on Friday of 4.076 seconds at 307.65 mph in the second of four qualifying rounds for the weekend.
His other laps were a 4.149/302.08 on Thursday (No. 4), a 5.581/125.27 (No.3) and a tire-smoking 5.439/131.51 in the two sessions today. He will face Bob Tasca III in the opening round of Sunday’s eliminations.
By qualifying in the field (No. 3), Robert Hight clinched the Funny Car championship today, and Capps will now compete for No. 2 in season-ending points on Sunday.
“It’s always our goal to qualify in the top half and get lane choice first round,” said Capps, who entered the event just 22 markers out of second place. “Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) told me the first run today that we were pushing the envelope pretty hard to see what the track would hold, pretty much knowing that that would be the same kind of weather conditions we would see in the first and second rounds on Sunday.
“We had the wick up pretty high in tonight’s run. We were looking to surpass our national record run of 4.023 seconds, but it was just a little bit too much.
“It still gets me pretty pumped up that we have a car that can go out there and have a shot at running a low 4.0, and when I see Ace jumping in the box before we fire up I know he’s thinking it can run better than what we set the national record at.
“I was ready, I pulled my belts a little bit tighter and I got pretty pumped up. And It was running great until it just pulled the tires loose. That’s just part of the game.
“Second place is our goal,” added Capps, who has been a championship runner-up three times in his career. “I’d like to be standing there up next to Robert at the banquet. It would still be a feather in our cap to finish second. It’s been a great year.
“This is one of those years that you’re not really excited to see end. You are really still pretty pumped up. Conversely, it gets you even more excited about what’s coming up in a month and a half when we go preseason testing for 2010. We have so many things going on and Ace has so many great ideas that I think he’s going to try tomorrow for next year that I can’t wait to get going again.”
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