Under sunny and hot conditions during both days of qualifying at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Ron Capps planted the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger Funny Car in the No. 5 spot, posting a 4.221-second elapsed time at 291.70 mph in the cooler Friday evening session.
His earlier pass on Friday produced a 4.105/241.93 (No. 8), and he came up short in today’s two final tire-smoking tries: 7.846/82.28 (No. 4) and 7.130/91.29.
“We tested the waters today to see how far we could push the track and obviously it didn’t make it down,” said Capps, defending event champion. “But we’re learning. The conditions are very difficult and you could see that by the number of cars not getting down the track .
“Tomorrow is going to be another hot day, so it’s going to be just as treacherous, especially in the middle of the day. And first round is probably going to see the best conditions we’re going to see all day.
“Unfortunately, we have to run our teammate Jack Beckman in the first round. We hate to do that, but, as always, no matter where we qualify and how we run, I always feel like we have a great chance of winning on Sunday.”
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