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CARLSBAD, Calif. (Feb. 19, 2008) - Once those competitive juices start flowing after the off-season is over, the world's best NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series drivers are eager to get back on the quarter-mile. If they had it their way, they'd be racing 24/7.
So is the plight of Ron Capps, who spent the one weekend off between the season-opener in Pomona, Calif., and the second round of 2008 at Firebird Raceway coming up in a few days, whale-watching with his family at a nearby Carlsbad beach. The pilot of the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car loves to spend the time with his family, don't get us wrong, but he's also salivating to get back in the driver's seat and contend for his first Funny Car championship.
"Phoenix is always the race with that break in between," said Capps, three times a runner-up finisher in the Funny Car championship. "Unless you win Pomona, you don't look forward to the weekend off. You want to get right back to racing. Obviously, we're excited to get the race season started."
Four consistent laps during qualifying in Pomona earned the NAPA AUTO PARTS team the Full Throttle NHRA Pit Crew Challenge award that weekend, an honor the team also garnered three times in 2007. Despite a first-round loss in a headliner match against Robert Hight, Capps expects to carry this momentum through the rest of the season.
"At Pomona we were not only favored going into Sunday morning by a lot of people because of our consistency in qualifying," said Capps, "but we felt good as a team. We had one of the best Funny Cars on the grounds, and we had a big match-up with Robert Hight. It really kind of kick-started us right into the 2008 season. It was a heck of a way to get the season started - to go down the track like we did in all four runs in qualifying and win the Full Throttle award."
Capps left Pomona 13th in the point standings yet remained upbeat. "I've always said you really can't start looking at the points until Gainesville (Fla., the third event of the year, March 13-16)," he said. "Every year, until you get three races in the books and let the points kind of settle themselves, you can't really look at the points, especially just from Pomona or just from Phoenix.
"But, once we leave Gainesville on Monday morning, we can kind of see after three races what the points are going to be. And all you really want to do is get to Gainesville with two good races under your belt.
"You always want to start off great in Pomona, but Phoenix is a race track which is very unpredictable," added Capps, who has one national-event win at Firebird, and three runner-ups, "in the sense that sometimes it will seem like a tricky race track, and the next thing you know there's a national record set in the same day. Some people will struggle and will wonder about the track and then you'll have a national-record speed set. It's crazy. Look at the years of how many records have been set - E.T. and mph - on a track that most people call marginal."
RON CAPPS QUICK FACTS:
* No. 13 in Funny Car points after one event
* No. 4 in 2007 Funny Car point standings
* Led 2007 Funny Car point standings by as much as 154 points through 14 of the first 17 races of the season
* Had three wins in seven final rounds in 2007; two semifinal finishes, four quarterfinals, nine first rounds, and one DNQ
* Round win-loss record in 2007 was 32-19
* NAPA AUTO PARTS is new primary sponsor for 2008
* Capps' best results at Firebird Raceway are a 2003 win, and three runner-ups (1998, 2000 and 2005)
* No. 1 qualifier at Firebird in 2000
* At 2007 Phoenix race, Capps lost semifinals to Robert Hight
* Joined Don Schumacher Racing in 2005
* Has three Skoal Showdown titles: 1998, 1999 and 2002
* Third in 2006 final point standings
* Had class-best five wins in 2006
* Had three wins, four runner-up finishes in 2005 (St. Louis was his first
win for DSR in '05)
* 2005 Funny Car championship runner-up, eight points short of title
* Qualified No. 1 once in 2005, in Dallas; first time since Brainerd 2000
* Has seven career No. 1 qualifiers, none in 2006 or 2007
* A perennial fan favorite, Capps has driven and won in both Top Fuel and Funny Cars since he began his pro NHRA career in 1995
* His best season points finishes were seconds in Funny Car in 1998, 2000 and 2005
* He has 25 event wins in 52 final rounds to his credit (24 national event wins in Funny Car, one in Top Fuel)
* His career-best elapsed time (established during an event) is 4.694 seconds, set in 2005 in Dallas
* His career-best speed is 331.61 mph (Pomona 1, '07)
* Capps' career round win-loss record is 313-231
* Capps' career record against 14-time champion Force is 17-38 in round wins. He's won nine of the last 11 meetings against Force, and has won the last four first-round match-ups over Force
* Age 42 (June 20, 1965); born and raised in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
* Lives in Carlsbad, Calif., with wife Shelley and daughter Taylor (11) and son Caden (6)
* Has tested for IROC Series and competed in Skip Barber Formula Ford, Dirt Late Models, Mini-Sprints and Go-Karts
WEEKEND SCHEDULE: Pro qualifying sessions are scheduled for 1:30 and 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 22. Qualifying continues at noon and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 23 and final eliminations begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 24.
ON TV: ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD will televise qualifying highlights at 2 a.m. (ET) on Sunday, Feb. 24. ESPN2 and ESPN2HD will televise NHRA Race Day, a 30-minute pre-race show, at 11 a.m. (ET) on Sunday, Feb. 24. ESPN2 and ESPN2HD will televise the race beginning at 7 p.m. (ET) on Sunday, Feb. 24.
TV COORDINATES: Friday, Feb. 22, 10-10:30 p.m. (ET) – Galaxy 10R / Transponder 24K (analog)
Saturday, Feb. 23, 10-10:30 p.m. (ET) – Galaxy 10R / Transponder 24K (analog)
Sunday, Feb. 24, 10:30-11 p.m. (ET) – Galaxy 10R / Transponder 24K (analog) Downlink Frequency: Galaxy 10R/Transponder 24K -- 12184 MHz Horizontal
ON THE WEB: Get live timing, scoring, multimedia and the latest news updates from every NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event on the Internet at NHRA.com.
CAPPS EAGER TO GET BACK TO RACING
CARLSBAD, Calif. (Feb. 19, 2008) - Once those competitive juices start flowing after the off-season is over, the world's best NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series drivers are eager to get back on the quarter-mile. If they had it their way, they'd be racing 24/7.
So is the plight of Ron Capps, who spent the one weekend off between the season-opener in Pomona, Calif., and the second round of 2008 at Firebird Raceway coming up in a few days, whale-watching with his family at a nearby Carlsbad beach. The pilot of the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car loves to spend the time with his family, don't get us wrong, but he's also salivating to get back in the driver's seat and contend for his first Funny Car championship.
"Phoenix is always the race with that break in between," said Capps, three times a runner-up finisher in the Funny Car championship. "Unless you win Pomona, you don't look forward to the weekend off. You want to get right back to racing. Obviously, we're excited to get the race season started."
Four consistent laps during qualifying in Pomona earned the NAPA AUTO PARTS team the Full Throttle NHRA Pit Crew Challenge award that weekend, an honor the team also garnered three times in 2007. Despite a first-round loss in a headliner match against Robert Hight, Capps expects to carry this momentum through the rest of the season.
"At Pomona we were not only favored going into Sunday morning by a lot of people because of our consistency in qualifying," said Capps, "but we felt good as a team. We had one of the best Funny Cars on the grounds, and we had a big match-up with Robert Hight. It really kind of kick-started us right into the 2008 season. It was a heck of a way to get the season started - to go down the track like we did in all four runs in qualifying and win the Full Throttle award."
Capps left Pomona 13th in the point standings yet remained upbeat. "I've always said you really can't start looking at the points until Gainesville (Fla., the third event of the year, March 13-16)," he said. "Every year, until you get three races in the books and let the points kind of settle themselves, you can't really look at the points, especially just from Pomona or just from Phoenix.
"But, once we leave Gainesville on Monday morning, we can kind of see after three races what the points are going to be. And all you really want to do is get to Gainesville with two good races under your belt.
"You always want to start off great in Pomona, but Phoenix is a race track which is very unpredictable," added Capps, who has one national-event win at Firebird, and three runner-ups, "in the sense that sometimes it will seem like a tricky race track, and the next thing you know there's a national record set in the same day. Some people will struggle and will wonder about the track and then you'll have a national-record speed set. It's crazy. Look at the years of how many records have been set - E.T. and mph - on a track that most people call marginal."
RON CAPPS QUICK FACTS:
* No. 13 in Funny Car points after one event
* No. 4 in 2007 Funny Car point standings
* Led 2007 Funny Car point standings by as much as 154 points through 14 of the first 17 races of the season
* Had three wins in seven final rounds in 2007; two semifinal finishes, four quarterfinals, nine first rounds, and one DNQ
* Round win-loss record in 2007 was 32-19
* NAPA AUTO PARTS is new primary sponsor for 2008
* Capps' best results at Firebird Raceway are a 2003 win, and three runner-ups (1998, 2000 and 2005)
* No. 1 qualifier at Firebird in 2000
* At 2007 Phoenix race, Capps lost semifinals to Robert Hight
* Joined Don Schumacher Racing in 2005
* Has three Skoal Showdown titles: 1998, 1999 and 2002
* Third in 2006 final point standings
* Had class-best five wins in 2006
* Had three wins, four runner-up finishes in 2005 (St. Louis was his first
win for DSR in '05)
* 2005 Funny Car championship runner-up, eight points short of title
* Qualified No. 1 once in 2005, in Dallas; first time since Brainerd 2000
* Has seven career No. 1 qualifiers, none in 2006 or 2007
* A perennial fan favorite, Capps has driven and won in both Top Fuel and Funny Cars since he began his pro NHRA career in 1995
* His best season points finishes were seconds in Funny Car in 1998, 2000 and 2005
* He has 25 event wins in 52 final rounds to his credit (24 national event wins in Funny Car, one in Top Fuel)
* His career-best elapsed time (established during an event) is 4.694 seconds, set in 2005 in Dallas
* His career-best speed is 331.61 mph (Pomona 1, '07)
* Capps' career round win-loss record is 313-231
* Capps' career record against 14-time champion Force is 17-38 in round wins. He's won nine of the last 11 meetings against Force, and has won the last four first-round match-ups over Force
* Age 42 (June 20, 1965); born and raised in San Luis Obispo, Calif.
* Lives in Carlsbad, Calif., with wife Shelley and daughter Taylor (11) and son Caden (6)
* Has tested for IROC Series and competed in Skip Barber Formula Ford, Dirt Late Models, Mini-Sprints and Go-Karts
WEEKEND SCHEDULE: Pro qualifying sessions are scheduled for 1:30 and 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 22. Qualifying continues at noon and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 23 and final eliminations begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 24.
ON TV: ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD will televise qualifying highlights at 2 a.m. (ET) on Sunday, Feb. 24. ESPN2 and ESPN2HD will televise NHRA Race Day, a 30-minute pre-race show, at 11 a.m. (ET) on Sunday, Feb. 24. ESPN2 and ESPN2HD will televise the race beginning at 7 p.m. (ET) on Sunday, Feb. 24.
TV COORDINATES: Friday, Feb. 22, 10-10:30 p.m. (ET) – Galaxy 10R / Transponder 24K (analog)
Saturday, Feb. 23, 10-10:30 p.m. (ET) – Galaxy 10R / Transponder 24K (analog)
Sunday, Feb. 24, 10:30-11 p.m. (ET) – Galaxy 10R / Transponder 24K (analog) Downlink Frequency: Galaxy 10R/Transponder 24K -- 12184 MHz Horizontal
ON THE WEB: Get live timing, scoring, multimedia and the latest news updates from every NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series event on the Internet at NHRA.com.
