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Capps Loses Bizarre Second-Round Matchup at Gatornationals
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By NAPA
Ron Capps’ bid for a third consecutive Funny Car win at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals came to an end in a close second-round race Sunday afternoon at Bristol Dragway. Capps qualified third in his NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra before falling in the quarterfinals to J.R. Todd. The overall weekend performance showed Capps and his Dean ‘Guido’ Antonelli-led team that the drastic changes they made in the early part of the season are paying off as the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series heads into the hot summer races. Capps leaves Bristol No. 6 in the point standings after eight of 20 races on the 2024 schedule.
Capps was one of several drivers who struggled to find traction in the first qualifying session on Friday, but crew chief Dean ‘Guido’ Antonelli got the NAPA Auto Care entry back on track for the second session. Capps laid down a 3.976-second pass at 320.74 MPH to move up from ninth to third, while also earning a bonus point for making the third-best pass of the session. Capps maintained the No. 3 spot through two more qualifying sessions on Saturday.
The NAPA team’s strong performance carried over into the first round of eliminations on Sunday morning when Capps got a big starting line advantage over opponent Buddy Hull and maintained the lead with a winning 3.962-second pass at 323.12 MPH to Hull’s 4.176 E.T. In a second-round battle with fellow Toyota driver J.R. Todd, Capps ran quicker to the 60-foot and 330-foot marks, but he started to lose ground and finished second behind Todd. Capps ran a 4.001 E.T. at 316.45, while Todd recorded a 3.977 E.T. at 319.75.
“I’m so proud of Guido and our NAPA Auto Care team to go out there and compete like we did, to qualify as well as we did, and not only that, but to do it in completely different conditions like we did,” said Capps, the winningest Funny Car driver at Bristol with seven victories. “We qualified well in the Friday night conditions that we didn’t think we’d see the rest of the weekend. We went out and made a great run in the first round and got lane choice against a really good team, our Toyota teammate J.R. Todd and his team, in the quarterfinals. The fans got their money’s worth. It was a great side-by-side race, but we came up a little bit short. We’ve got a string of hot, summer races coming up and it gives me such confidence knowing Guido’s got a combination for that. I’m just so proud of these guys.”
The next stop for Capps and the Ron Capps Motorsports Funny Car team will come in two weeks at the Virginia NHRA Nationals, June 22-23, at Virginia Motorsports Park outside Richmond.
Start / Finish: No. 3 / def. in quarterfinals
Points Standing / Total: No. 6 / 360 pts. (-220)
Next Race: June 22-23, Virginia NHRA Nationals
How to Watch or Listen: FS1,
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By NAPA
For the second event in a row,
link hidden, please login to view Toyota GR Supra driver Ron Capps found himself facing Matt Hagan in what was billed as NHRA’s Funny Car Marquee Matchup of race day. During the Route 66 Nationals near Joliet, Illinois, Capps fell to Hagan, but on Sunday at the NHRA New England Nationals, Capps was able to avenge the loss as he powered past his former DSR teammate to advance to the quarterfinals at New England Dragway. After struggling to make it down the track during Friday’s two qualifying sessions, the NAPA Auto Care team led by Dean ‘Guido’ Antonelli, sent Capps’ machine straight down the groove in 4.036 seconds at 319.37 MPH in the heat of the day on Saturday. They then closed out qualifying by matching their Q3 E.T., settling into the No. 12 spot to set up a first-round rematch with Hagan. Against the No. 5 qualifier, Capps powered to a 4.045-second pass to defeat Hagan’s 4.185-second effort. Capps drew Daniel Wilkerson in the quarterfinals, and while he was the first to stand on the throttle, his machine lost traction early into the run while his opponent made a full pull in the opposite lane to advance.
“We’ve talked about the rejuvenation of this NAPA Auto Care tune-up and what Guido has been working on with our team,” explained the third-year team owner-driver and three time Funny Car world champ. “The end game is another championship at the end of our season. We didn’t get down the track Friday night, so we weren’t able to capitalize on those primetime conditions to get us in the top half but so proud of what Guido and the team did on Saturday in those hot, difficult conditions when it went down the track both times. We’re going to see those same conditions coming up at these next few races and throughout the summer.
“We have the performance. Guido is working hard to get us where we’re used to being, consistency-wise and that’s what gave us two championships two years in a row. We’re going to get that back, but unfortunately, just a little overpowering the track in the quarterfinals here today. Luckily, we’re back to back and we don’t have to wait long to get back on track.”
The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series heads south to Bristol, Tenn. in a few days for the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway, June 7 – 9, where Capps returns as the winningest driver in the facility’s history with seven Bristol wins.
Start / Finish: No. 12 / def. in Quarterfinals
Points Standing / Total: No. 7 / 360 pts. (-220)
Next Race: June 7-9, NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals
How to Watch or Listen: FS1,
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By NAPA
Ron Capps and his
link hidden, please login to view Toyota GR Supra looked strong in qualifying at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway, but the three-time Funny Car world champion didn’t have the Sunday eliminations results he was looking for after a final-round finish at the Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals two weeks ago. The No. 5 qualifier, Capps struggled to find traction on the starting line Sunday afternoon, leading to a first-round exit. Crew chief Dean ‘Guido’ Antonelli tuned Capps to the quickest and fastest pass of Friday’s first qualifying session, a 3.877 E.T. at 335.40 MPH, to earn three bonus points. Capps had traction issues in the second session, but he came back on Saturday and ran a pair of 3-second passes, a 3.994 E.T. and a 3.901 E.T., to qualify fifth.
In Sunday’s first round of eliminations, Capps lined up against No. 4 qualifier Alexis DeJoria, No. 12 qualifier J.R. Todd, and No. 13 qualifier Buddy Hull to form the Funny Car Marquee Matchup. Capps drove into tire smoke after smashing the throttle pedal in his NAPA Auto Care machine
and wasn’t able to recover. He noted the team is still figuring out the characteristics of the new car they brought out earlier this month.
“Man, these weekends are tough,” said Capps, a four-time winner at zMAX. “I was so excited for Guido. We unloaded and went to No. 1 qualifier. It shows the hard work that our NAPA Auto Care team did testing Monday after Vegas. I’ve talked time and time again about how we have
to get ahead of the competition. Guido and our team could easily go off of what we ran last year, and we would probably win races and have a shot at a championship, but we’re looking to be better and that’s the sort of thing I love about this team.”
Capps, who’s in his third year as a driver and team owner, pointed out the off-track highlights of an otherwise challenging weekend.
“Obviously, Vegas was such a great race Friday through Sunday, and then you get to Charlotte and all the NASCAR fans came out and we almost sold the place out every day,” Capps said. “It was just an incredible crowd, and we love doing [these Four-Wide races]. We love especially doing it earlier in the year. We see the same fans when we come back in the Countdown for the second race of the playoffs.
“Had a blast all weekend with our Toyota crossover event, and then having my NAPA teammate, Christian Eckes, come hang out with us on Friday, which was a lot of fun,” Capps continued. “I was hoping to take the Wally to NAPA headquarters on Tuesday, but I’m looking forward to hanging out with my NAPA teammates, Brad Sweet, Chase Elliott, and Christian Eckes. It’s a fun event we do every year at headquarters, and then we’ll focus on going to Chicago.”
The Ron Capps Motorsports Funny Car team will have a few weeks away from the track before the next stop on the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series schedule, the Route 66 Nationals, May 17-19, at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., outside Chicago.
Start / Finish: No. 5 / def. in first round
Points Standing / Total: No. 6 / 274 pts. (-125)
Next Race: May 17 – 19, Joliet, Ill., Route 66 NHRA Nationals
How to Watch or Listen: FS1,
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By NAPA
In one of the closest Funny Car races in four-wide drag racing history, three-time world champion Ron Capps finished third in the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals final round Sunday afternoon at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Driving the link hidden, please login to view Toyota GR Supra, Capps laid down a weekend-best 3.902-second pass at 333.00 MPH to come up just thousandths of a second short in a four-wide photo finish.
Capps and crew chief Dean ‘Guido’ Antonelli worked their way through qualifying, steadily improving in each session. After a pair of 4-second passes on Friday, Capps laid down a 3.988 E.T. at 324.67 MPH to step up in the third session on Saturday. A consistent but slightly quicker 3.980 E.T. in the final session put Capps in the No. 11 position going into Sunday eliminations.
The first quad of Funny Car eliminations was a tricky one, but Capps came out on top. He and fellow Toyota driver J.R. Todd left first with identical .059 reaction times, then Capps held on to win with a 4.289 E.T. at 222.88 MPH over Todd, Dave Richards, and Daniel Wilkerson. Capps was first off of the starting line again in the second round, an advantage that helped him and his 3.932 E.T. finish ahead of Matt Hagan’s 3.938 E.T., Todd’s 3.951-second effort, and Jason Rupert’s 4.055 E.T.
Appearing in his 148th career final round, Capps cut his best light of the day, .056, and charged to his best performance of the weekend to reach the finish line third behind winner Bob Tasca III and runner-up Austin Prock. Capps finished less than a thousandth of a second behind Prock and just nine thousandths behind Tasca.
“What a drag race to watch as a fan,” said Capps, who’s won six times in Las Vegas. “I can’t tell you how ecstatic I am with our NAPA Auto Care team and what they’ve done with a brand-new car and a lot of the new parts that they’ve had to get used to. It usually takes teams a lot longer than this. I’m pretty bummed that we couldn’t win that round. I’m so happy we have our race car back, especially getting on a swing here where Guido is getting comfortable. I’m so happy about the car, but I’m so bummed at the same time. It’s going to take a little bit to digest.”
No. 6-ranked Capps and the Ron Capps Motorsports Funny Car team will get another shot at four-wide glory in two weeks at the East Coast edition of the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, April 26-28, at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C.
Start / Finish: No. 11 / def. in Final Round
Points Standing / Total: No. 6 / 242 pts.
Next Race: April 26-28, Concord, N.C., NHRA Four-Wide Nationals
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By NAPA
As he celebrated 30 years as a professional drag racer, Funny Car superstar Ron Capps was looking forward to a long race day on Sunday at the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park. The three-time world champion entered eliminations in the No. 11 position on the ladder but made an early exit against Blake Alexander in the first round of competition.
Aboard his brand-new link hidden, please login to view Toyota GR Supra, Capps battled to gain a favorable spot on the ladder among a stacked Funny Car field. Typically, teams at this elite level within the sport will go through several test sessions with a new car before throwing it into the intensity of NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series competition, so Capps, crew chief Dean ‘Guido’ Antonelli, and the Ron Capps Motorsports team knew that they would experience some trial and error. His first qualifying effort went up in a puff of smoke, but his second attempt showed more promise as he powered to the finish line with a run of 4.020 seconds at 310.34 MPH. A loss of traction in the third qualifying round forced Capps to shut off early, marking the first time in 20 events for him to begin eliminations from the bottom half of the field.
“Building into the race we had the excitement of the 30 years. Having fans come up throughout the weekend and saying, ‘Happy Anniversary’ and things like that, it was fun,” began Capps as he recalled his weekend. “I always try to keep our NAPA fans updated as much as we can about what goes on with our team. We brought out a new chassis. It’s something we built in the off-season. Rather than testing first, we decided to do it in race conditions and that’s hard to do. But it reminds me a lot of our NAPA Auto Care people because I love this process of trying to take something and be the best with something so new. It’s like pulling your car into an AutoCare Center, you have a dash light blinking and technicians can attack that problem, and they don’t just snap their fingers and fix it. It’s a process, especially with today’s cars, as they try to figure out what the problem is. I love watching my NAPA Auto Care guys do the same thing. The car didn’t go down the track in the first run and to watch how many hours they put in trying to figure things out, it was really impressive.”
As Capps lined up against No. 6 qualifier Alexander, hopes were high as he has defeated Alexander seven out of the eight times they’ve faced each other in the first round of eliminations. Despite getting the starting line advantage, Capps ultimately came up short. Both cars lost traction early in the race resulting in a bit of a pedal fest to the stripe, but Alexander was able to get there first.
“There’s an upside and a downside to bringing a new chassis out at a race. It’s a gutsy move. But a couple of races down the road, I know that we are going to be much better because of it. And that’s also part of me having the utmost confidence in Guido and our NAPA Auto Care team. We didn’t qualify in the top half of the field, so we didn’t have lane choice. As we sat in the staging lanes, seeing dragsters winning only in the left lane made me pretty nervous and sure enough we got put in the right lane. That’s part of not qualifying in the top half. We still felt like we could beat them and that’s the confidence we had going up there. But it just wouldn’t hold, and we lost traction. I feel like I could have done a better job pedaling it. I should win those races, but we didn’t. But I feel like we’re going to have a great car for Vegas.”
Capps is currently fifth in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series points as he heads to the next stop on the tour, the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, April 12-14, where he is a six time winner at the facility.
Start / Finish: No. 11 / def. in first round
Points Standing / Total: No. 5 / 170 pts.
Next Race: April 12 – 14, Las Vegas, NHRA Four-Wide Nationals
How to Watch or Listen: FS1,
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