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3-second run in Las Vegas test gets Ron Capps ready for finale

Ron Capps launch

BROWNSBURG, Ind. (Nov. 11, 2014) – NAPA AUTO PARTS Funny Car crew chief Rahn Tobler is attacking this weekend’s season finale at Pomona, Calif., like the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series world championship depends on it.

And none are more impressed with his approach than NAPA driver Ron Capps whose narrow loss two weeks ago in the quarterfinals eliminated him from contention for the championship title.

“The part that really stings is losing a close race like we did to Del at Vegas,” Ron said of being edged out of contention by about six-thousandths of a second.

When the team stayed at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Monday for testing, Tobler had decided to make a radical change to the Dodge Charger R/T’s clutch system.

The team’s full runs were stellar: the first at 4.02 seconds at 318 mph and the last at 3.99 at 321.

“A lot of teams stayed to test and it was like another race,” Ron said. “For Tobler to completely go to an innovative clutch setup like we’ll use at Pomona and next season just tells you the NAPA Know How and brainpower we have at DSR. It was great to see all the other Funny Car crew chiefs huddled over Rahn’s computer after those runs Monday.

“It’s encouraging for our DSR Funny Car program for sure.

“I’m excited more so for Pomona than I have been for a long time. We don’t have a chance to win the championship but testing really showed us something that will be really, really good down the road.

“With the conditions we’ll see at Pomona I surely want to go in there and take back the moniker of having the quickest Funny Car after Cruz (Pedregon) took that from us at Englishtown in June. We could see a lot of 3-second runs this weekend.”

Ron will start the AAA Finals ranked seventh in points with two event titles this season but is only 76 points out of third place.

Above all, however, is winning another event title.

“We want to go the banquet (Monday night) with all our guys to support our other teams and there’d be nothing better than going with a little headache from celebrating a win at Pomona. That would be the ultimate way to end the season for our NAPA team.

“I want to be able to get as far right on the stage as we can for the banquet because it’s based on points.

Ron Capps, NAPA AUTO PARTS Funny Car

Last event (Nov. 2, Las Vegas): Qualified No. 4; lost in first round to event winner Del Worsham

2013 AAA Finals: Qualified No. 12; lost in second round to Gary Densham

2014 Winternationals: Qualified No. 5; lost in quarterfinals to Bob Tasca

Career at Finals: Wins 0; Runner-ups 1 (2008); Poles (2012) 

Career at Pomona: Wins 2; Runner-ups 3; Poles 2 

NHRA Finals Event Schedule (All times PT) 


Friday:
 12:30, 3:30 p.m., qualifying

Saturday: 12:30, 3:30 p.m., qualifying

Sunday: 11 a.m., championship eliminations

ON ESPN 2 (All times ET)

Sunday: 3-4:30 p.m., qualifying
Sunday: 7:30-10:30 p.m., championship eliminations

Pomona TV Listings

Sunday, November 16

3:00 PM  NHRA Pomona Qualifying (tape delayed)  ESPN 2

7:30 PM  NHRA Pomona Final Eliminations (tape delayed) ESPN 2

Don Schumacher Racing View All

Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), the winningest team in drag racing history, has raced to claimed more than 340 NHRA national event victories and 17 Mello Yello World Championship titles. Headquartered in Brownsburg, Indiana, DSR fields professional teams competing in both the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing series and Factory Stock Showdown, including the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car driven by 2016 World Champion Ron Capps.

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