Capps Wraps Up NHRA Regular Season with Semifinal Finish at U.S. Nationals

Ron Capps capped a strong NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series regular season with a semifinal finish Monday afternoon at the 72nd annual NHRA U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park. After leading the Funny Car standings for much of the season, Capps entered the finale just 12 points out of first, reclaimed the lead during qualifying, and advanced to a semifinal showdown with Matt Hagan that ultimately decided the regular season championship. Capps finished the regular season second in points and will enter the Countdown to the Championship solidly in title contention after a standout weekend.

Capps and his special-edition Carlyle Tools Funny Car rolled into Indianapolis ranked third in points with a deficit that could be erased through qualifying points alone. The NAPA Auto Care team, led by crew chief Dean ‘Guido’ Antonelli, went to work immediately on Friday, kicking off qualifying with the second-quickest pass of the session, a 3.938-second E.T. at 329.10 mph, to earn three bonus points. Capps earned another four points with the quickest pass of the second session on Saturday, a 4.003 E.T. at 315.64 mph. With a 3.914-second pass at 332.18 mph in the third session, Capps went to the provisional No. 1 spot and grabbed four more bonus points to sit just one point behind Hagan going into Sunday’s final two qualifying rounds. On Sunday, the fourth session also counted as the first round of the PlayNHRA Funny Car All-Star Callout, which was Capps’ 20th career specialty event and fifth Callout. He drove into tire smoke for the first time all weekend while Alexis DeJoria raced on for the win. Capps closed out qualifying with low E.T. of the fifth and final session, a 3.936 E.T. at 329.34 mph, to claim another four bonus points and take the points lead back.

The Carlyle Tools Funny Car kept the momentum going in the first round of eliminations Monday, where Capps faced fellow nitro veteran John Smith. Capps fired off his quickest pass of the event, a 3.908 E.T. at 333.66 mph, to move on over Smith. The turnaround for the quarterfinals brought some tense moments in the Ron Capps Motorsports pit, as Antonelli discovered a mechanical issue and the team had to thrash to fix it in time to face Daniel Wilkerson. Capps had to suit up in the pit area and Antonelli didn’t have a chance to fine-tune his adjustments for the round. With the track heating up, Capps drove his way to a 3.989 at 320.97 mph to defeat a tire-smoking Wilkerson. That set up a pressure-packed semifinal match with Hagan to decide the regular season champion. Without lane choice, Capps ended up in the right lane. Like the two Top Fuel dragsters that ran in the lane before him, Capps went into tire smoke almost instantly after hitting the throttle, and Hagan went on to win the round and reclaim the No. 1 ranking.

“We didn’t think it’d be that big a deal to be in the right lane,” said Capps, a two-time U.S. Nationals winner. “It’s a lesser chosen lane with Funny Cars for sure, but we still went 3.93 in qualifying there, so we thought we could still get down there pretty well. But we sat up there and watched the two dragsters, including Alan Johnson’s, smoke the tires at the hit of the throttle in the right lane, and we knew it was going to be not good for Funny Cars. We went up there, and it did blow the tires off at the hit. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t have two lanes that we could have given them a run for their money, but Hagan’s car ran great, and all the drama and build up made it extra exciting for the fans. It was a fun battle and now we focus on the (overall) championship. But all in all, just a good finish to the regular season. A strong No. 1 qualifying effort by the guys and Guido used his NAPA Know How to get us up there for the quarterfinals and get past that round. Little moments like that are fun. We’ll get the NAPA colors back on the car and head to Michigan.”

After a well-deserved weekend off, Capps and the NAPA Auto Care Funny Car team will kick off the Countdown to the Championship at the inaugural NHRA Great Lakes Nationals, Sept. 18-20, at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan.

Start / Finish: No. 1 / def . in semifinals
Points Standing / Total: No. 2 / 1,056 pts. (-27)

Next Race: September 18-20, NHRA Great Lakes Nationals, Martin, Michigan
How to Watch or Listen: FS1, NHRA.TV

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