Capps Focused on Big Picture after Early Exit in Seattle

Funny Car points leader Ron Capps bowed out in the opening round of eliminations Sunday morning at the Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals, but he’s staying focused on the championship picture as the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series heads into the final two races of the regular season. He retained his points lead at Seattle on the strength of his class-leading three wins on the season, along with consistent late-round finishes throughout the year. The driver and Ron Capps Motorsports team owner is chasing his first regular season championship and fourth series title.

Capps began his Northwest Nationals qualifying effort with a pair of tire-smoking runs on Friday, but he clinched his position in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs in the process. Traction issues continued in the third qualifying session on Saturday, but Capps still improved. That paved the way for crew chief Dean ‘Guido’ Antonelli to guide Capps to his best pass of the weekend in the final session, a 3.940-second effort at 329.18 mph.

Qualified No. 10, Capps earned a first-round match with another one of the most experienced drivers in the class, two-time world champion Cruz Pedregon. Capps went into the round with a 56 – 30 round-win record against Pedregon, and 80.43% of Drag Race Bracket Bonanza players picked Capps to get the win again in this meeting. Capps took the starting line advantage, but fateful tire smoke returned. While Capps made every effort to regain traction, he had to watch as Pedregon made his quickest pass of the event to move on.

“It was weird for the NAPA car not to go down the track in the first three qualifying runs, and Guido was pretty confident he found the problem last night after Q4,” said Capps, who earned his first win as a professional driver in Seattle in 1995 while competing in Top Fuel. “We felt very good about it today. We had cloud cover. We felt like he could run a mid-to-high 3.80, and that’s really what this car loves to do. For some reason it shook the tires, so Guido is up there looking at the computer and him and the NAPA Auto Care guys will figure it out.”

Capps went into the weekend as the points leader for the eighth time in 11 races. He’s the only Funny Car driver with three wins on the season, highlighting a 2026 campaign that also includes one runner-up finish and two No. 1 qualifier awards. He’s keeping all that in perspective as he moves past a challenging West Coast stretch.

“We’re fighting for a championship, and the regular season championship on top of that,” said Capps, a four-time Seattle winner across Top Fuel and Funny Car. “We’ve built up a great points lead because of the success we’ve had so far this season. We’re obviously going to lose a little bit of that depending on who goes further, but that’s why we worked real hard to win those races and gain those points. We’ll just see what happens. We’re going to have to fight all these teams for a championship anyway. Our championship juices are already flowing.”

Though the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series has some time off before wrapping up the regular season, Ron Capps and his NAPA Auto Care team will be back on track again next weekend as Capps and Gordon take part in the fan-favorite 49th annual Night Under Fire on August 1 at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. The match racing event will feature several NHRA Top Fuel and Funny Car stars battling for the “King of Nitro” title. The next NHRA Mission Foods Series event is the NHRA Brainerd Nationals, Aug. 21-23, at Brainerd International Raceway.

Start / Finish: No. 10 / def. in first round
Points Standing / Total: No. 1 / 884 pts. (+37)

Next Race: August 21-23, NHRA Brainerd Nationals, Brainerd, Minnesota
How to Watch or Listen: FS1, NHRA.TV

NAPA Racing:@NAPARacing
Ron Capps: @RonCapps28
Ron Capps Motorsports: @TeamRonCapps