Ron Capps drove the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car to the top of the charts (unofficially) during a week-long test session held at Palm Beach International Raceway.
Capps made 13 runs down the 1000-foot drag strip from Monday to Thursday, posting a 4.092-second pass at 305 mph on Wednesday, which was, unofficially, the quickest pass of all Funny Cars this week, despite clicking it off early.
His other runs in the NAPA Dodge, which sported a brand-new paint scheme for the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, included a 4.10 at 270 mph on Tuesday and a 4.095 on Thursday, shutting it off early both times.
“The incremental numbers on that 4.10 (-second elapsed time) run on Tuesday were right there with our national-record run of 4.023 seconds,” said Capps of the record he set in 2009, which still holds.
“Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) approached the test this year much like he did last year. He had a big list of parts that he’s been wanting to try. It’s funny because it seems like the Top Fuel dragsters that were testing here were actually racing. They were going back and forth running their 3.70-second laps and I know that the Funny Car teams in general were testing a lot of things.
“We came out of the box and ran 4.10 on a very early shutoff with our normal setup from last year to get a baseline and then Ace went into test mode. That would have been a 4.04 or 4.03. And then from then on we tested a lot of parts that the team put together over the off-season.
“I feel great, the NAPA Dodge is running great, Ace is happy, and we also learned some things that don’t work, which is as important as learning what does work.
“It was a great test session. The track was great. It was as good or better than any track we go to throughout the season and the weather was perfect.”
The first race of the 23-event 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series will be in Pomona, Calif., Feb. 11-14.
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