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CARLSBAD, Calif. (Aug. 15, 2007) - NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car points leader Ron Capps hopes that a new car the Brut "Test Drive" Dodge Charger R/T team will bring out for this weekend's Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals in Reading, Pa., will produce better results than the team has seen in the past few races.
Capps continues to lead the rankings, has clinched a spot in the Countdown to the Championship, is 75 points ahead of Robert Hight and has admitted that crew chief Ed "Ace" McCulloch and the Brut team have been testing some things which might benefit them during the final phases of the Countdown. With this weekend's race, the last event before the "Countdown to Four" kicks in, the team hopes they'll get some answers to why it's incurred first-round losses in the last three races.
"We've got a whole lot of stuff going on," says Capps, who has held a lead as high as 154 points this year since taking over the top spot at the fourth race. "Leading the points for the Countdown for as long as we have, we've been able to test some things. And to hold on to the points lead while we're testing is very hard to do. You expect to be able to lose a lot of ground in points testing and we still seem to be hanging on.
"But we came to a conclusion in Brainerd that the car we brought out in Topeka as a new car has just not been right. We've been testing a lot of other things and Ace kind of went back a few times to his normal setup and the car just wouldn't react. The car just didn't seem to drive the same from my vantage point. Ace and Ronnie Thompson (assistant crew chief) would make huge changes they would never have made before and the car would not react.
"So, after we lost first round in Brainerd we decided we would pull out our back-up car and we'll start running it in Reading. That's part of being on a great team. Were going to put a brand-new car together, we're going to unload it in Reading and that car should go right down the track first pass in qualifying.
"I've always bragged about my Brut crew, and there's not a whole lot of crews out there who could put a car together like that and make the first run and have the confidence. But, here's the problem. We've been testing a lot of things. If we find out that the chassis just wasn't the same as what we expected, it kind of throws a question mark at all our testing. Ace may have to put all those testing results into another folder and file them away for another time."
Capps, 25-time career victor, is looking for his first win at Maple Grove Raceway. "One of the biggest changes this year was the schedule, and going to Reading before the U.S. Nationals at Indy is odd. We're so used to going to Reading after Indianapolis. Reading has now become the last race where you can claim points both for the Skoal Showdown and the Countdown, and routinely that race track has had national records set there. It's going to be warmer going there in August instead of September, and it's a very hard track for a driver because the groove is always very narrow. But it's a very, very fast track.
"You always kind of reach down and pull your belts a little tighter at Maple Grove Raceway, and now that it's before Indy, it's taking on a whole new importance."
RON CAPPS QUICK FACTS:
* Clinched a spot in the Countdown to the Championship at Seattle event
* Leading 2007 Funny Car point standings after back-to-back wins in Gainesville and Houston, another win in St. Louis, three runner-up, two semifinal, two quarterfinal, five first-round finishes and a DNQ in first 16 races
* Leads Robert Hight in rankings by 75 points
* Has never won at Maple Grove Raceway
* Was runner-up in Reading in 1999 (Tommy Johnson Jr.) and 2000 (Bruce Sarver)
* No. 5 qualifier in Reading in 2006, lost first round to Phil Burkart
* Third in 2006 final point standings
* Had class-best five wins in 2006: Gainesville, Fla., Bristol, Tenn., Topeka, Kan., Houston and Englishtown, N.J.
* Had three wins, four runner-up finishes in 2005 (St. Louis was his first
win for DSR in '05), won at Chicago 2 at Route 66 Raceway and Las Vegas 2
* 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 so far
* 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 51 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 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)
* Is featured, along with son Caden and the Brut Revolution racing crew, in a number of Brut ads appearing in mainstream magazines, such as People, Sports Illustrated, etc.
* New to Don Schumacher Racing in 2005 after eight years with Don Prudhomme.
* Has tested for IROC Series and competed in Skip Barber Formula Ford, Dirt Late Models, Mini-Sprints and Go-Karts
* Is the subject, along with teammate Tony Schumacher, in the behind-the-scenes TV series, American Dragster, airing on ESPN2 and ESPN2HD
POINTS LEADER CAPPS HOPES NEW CAR WILL PRODUCE RESULTS
CARLSBAD, Calif. (Aug. 15, 2007) - NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car points leader Ron Capps hopes that a new car the Brut "Test Drive" Dodge Charger R/T team will bring out for this weekend's Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals in Reading, Pa., will produce better results than the team has seen in the past few races.
Capps continues to lead the rankings, has clinched a spot in the Countdown to the Championship, is 75 points ahead of Robert Hight and has admitted that crew chief Ed "Ace" McCulloch and the Brut team have been testing some things which might benefit them during the final phases of the Countdown. With this weekend's race, the last event before the "Countdown to Four" kicks in, the team hopes they'll get some answers to why it's incurred first-round losses in the last three races.
"We've got a whole lot of stuff going on," says Capps, who has held a lead as high as 154 points this year since taking over the top spot at the fourth race. "Leading the points for the Countdown for as long as we have, we've been able to test some things. And to hold on to the points lead while we're testing is very hard to do. You expect to be able to lose a lot of ground in points testing and we still seem to be hanging on.
"But we came to a conclusion in Brainerd that the car we brought out in Topeka as a new car has just not been right. We've been testing a lot of other things and Ace kind of went back a few times to his normal setup and the car just wouldn't react. The car just didn't seem to drive the same from my vantage point. Ace and Ronnie Thompson (assistant crew chief) would make huge changes they would never have made before and the car would not react.
"So, after we lost first round in Brainerd we decided we would pull out our back-up car and we'll start running it in Reading. That's part of being on a great team. Were going to put a brand-new car together, we're going to unload it in Reading and that car should go right down the track first pass in qualifying.
"I've always bragged about my Brut crew, and there's not a whole lot of crews out there who could put a car together like that and make the first run and have the confidence. But, here's the problem. We've been testing a lot of things. If we find out that the chassis just wasn't the same as what we expected, it kind of throws a question mark at all our testing. Ace may have to put all those testing results into another folder and file them away for another time."
Capps, 25-time career victor, is looking for his first win at Maple Grove Raceway. "One of the biggest changes this year was the schedule, and going to Reading before the U.S. Nationals at Indy is odd. We're so used to going to Reading after Indianapolis. Reading has now become the last race where you can claim points both for the Skoal Showdown and the Countdown, and routinely that race track has had national records set there. It's going to be warmer going there in August instead of September, and it's a very hard track for a driver because the groove is always very narrow. But it's a very, very fast track.
"You always kind of reach down and pull your belts a little tighter at Maple Grove Raceway, and now that it's before Indy, it's taking on a whole new importance."
RON CAPPS QUICK FACTS:
* Clinched a spot in the Countdown to the Championship at Seattle event
* Leading 2007 Funny Car point standings after back-to-back wins in Gainesville and Houston, another win in St. Louis, three runner-up, two semifinal, two quarterfinal, five first-round finishes and a DNQ in first 16 races
* Leads Robert Hight in rankings by 75 points
* Has never won at Maple Grove Raceway
* Was runner-up in Reading in 1999 (Tommy Johnson Jr.) and 2000 (Bruce Sarver)
* No. 5 qualifier in Reading in 2006, lost first round to Phil Burkart
* Third in 2006 final point standings
* Had class-best five wins in 2006: Gainesville, Fla., Bristol, Tenn., Topeka, Kan., Houston and Englishtown, N.J.
* Had three wins, four runner-up finishes in 2005 (St. Louis was his first
win for DSR in '05), won at Chicago 2 at Route 66 Raceway and Las Vegas 2
* 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 so far
* 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 51 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 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)
* Is featured, along with son Caden and the Brut Revolution racing crew, in a number of Brut ads appearing in mainstream magazines, such as People, Sports Illustrated, etc.
* New to Don Schumacher Racing in 2005 after eight years with Don Prudhomme.
* Has tested for IROC Series and competed in Skip Barber Formula Ford, Dirt Late Models, Mini-Sprints and Go-Karts
* Is the subject, along with teammate Tony Schumacher, in the behind-the-scenes TV series, American Dragster, airing on ESPN2 and ESPN2HD
