Ron Capps' favorite NHRA Winternationals: 1998

Ron Capps is a two-time winner at the National Hot Rod Assn. Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona. His first win came in 1998. Capps said that race stands out because he and teammate Larry Dixon won for Don The Snake Prudhomme. Capps beat Tim Wilkerson and won the funny car portion of the Winternationals. Dixon beat Jim Head and won the top fuel portion. Capps said it made it a special day to double up for The Snake.
Capps, who drives for Don Schumacher Racing, finished third in the funny car standings last year. He won five races in 2009.

NHRA funny car driver Ron Capps breaks finger

Ron Capps won the National Hot Rod Association funny car portion of the Winternationals in at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona last year.
He broke the middle finger on his right hand playing racquetball in December and will have to race with a splint. He says it will not affect his ability to race. He uses his right hand to work the brake on his car and release the parachute. In tests, Capps said his finger has not hindered his ability to drive and stop the car.
He will be wearing a glove modified for his hand for the races this weekend in Pomona.
Capps made seven final round appearances in 2009. He won five, including the season opener in Pomona.

Little payoff for auto racing playoffs

Playoffs are not good for auto racing. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase has been dominated by Jimmie for four straight years. It probably cost Tony Stewart a championship this year. It cost Jeff Gordon at least two since the Chase started.
The National Hot Rod Assn. Countdown to One playoffs aren’t much better.
Sure, it’s created what can described as a winner-take-all weekend in the top fuel division at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona. Tony Schumacher leads Larry Dixon by one point with one race remaining.
The other three divisions, funny car, pro stock and pro stock motorcycle, lack that kind of suspense.
Robert Hight has a 105-point lead in the funny car standings over Ashley Force Hood. Mike Edwards is safely in the lead in the pro stock standings, 139 points head of Greg Anderson.
Hector Arana has some work to do in the pro stock motorcycle division, but still holds a 54-point lead over Ed Krawiec.
The one NHRA driver who should be the biggest critic of the Countdown format is funny car driver Ron Capps.
He won five funny car events, the most of any funny car driver, and had the lead in the funny car standings in the first 18 regular season races. But once the Countdown started, he dropped to fifth place with little chance of winning the funny car championship.
“Obviously, the opportunity to win a championship this year is pretty slim,” said Capps, a driver for Don Schumacher Racing. “But, I have to tell you, I am focused on ending the season like we did last year at this event. We went to the final round and had the quickest car. We also won here in the first race of this season, and now we have a very good chance of finishing No. 2 in the points.”
Hight has put together one of the best Countdown runs, winning three of the first five races, but he has little business leading the funny car standings at this point in the season.
“To have a 105 point lead going into Pomona it gives you a lot of confidence,” Hight said. “It is still not over. I think the only (teams) that really has a chance are Ashley along with Tony (Pedregon) and (Jack) Beckman.”
The chances of one of those three drivers, Force Hood, Pedregon or Beckman, catching Hight in Pomona are remote. In the history of the Countdown, no funny car driver has lost his lead heading into the finals at Pomona. It’s unlikely it will happen again.
Auto racing playoffs create paper champions. The winner of an auto racing championship should be rewarded for an entire season of success, not six or 10 races at the end of the year.
Johnson has done amazing things in the Chase.
Hight put together one of the best Countdown runs in the history of the NHRA.
But neither had stellar regular seasons. Hight’s was near disastrous and qualified for the Countdown by the skin of his teeth.
Yet, both are on the verge of winning auto racing championships. It doesn’t reflect well on the auto racing season when only a handful of races at the end are all that really matter.

Photo: Ron Capps won five NHRA funny car races, but is fifth in the Countdown to One standings with one race remaining. (NHRA)

Capps back atop the NHRA funny car standings

Ron Capps has regained the lead in the National Hot Rod Assn. funny car standings with a win at Bandimere Raceway in Colorado and a semifinal appearance at Pacific Raceways near Seattle. He can solidify his spot atop the funny car standings with another deep run at Infineon Raceway near Sonoma this weekend.
“We knew we were going to have a good Western Swing,” said Capps, a driver from Don Schumacher Racing. “Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) was confident with having a new car built and I had the confidence that the NAPA crew guys and the DSR chassis guys had put together a good car. To win in Denver, get the points lead back and have the success we’ve had the last couple of races, is a testament to the hard work of the NAPA crew and the guys back at the shop. My hat’s off to them.”
It is a bit of a homecoming for Capps, who calls San Luis Obispo his hometown. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and is looking forward to returning home to race this weekend.
“Sonoma for me is like coming home to race,” said Capps. “I lived up in the Bay area, went to school there, met my wife Shelley there and got married there. And when I was going to school I was teaching racquetball at a couple of health clubs in the Bay Area and played in tournaments all over Northern California.”
Capps won in Sonoma in 1997. He was the runner-up in Sonoma in 2002 and 2005 and the No. 1 qualifier in 1998.
Capps took over the lead in the funny car standings from Ashley Force Hood. She can clinch a spot in the Countdown to One, the NHRA playoffs, by qualifying for the 16-car field on Sunday at Sonoma.
“Usually, you set your goals and then try to achieve them,” said the 26-year-old graduate of Cal State-Fullerton, “but I think we’ve really outdone ourselves this year. I think we went past what we projected. If anything, we were guilty of limiting ourselves.”
Force Hood has made six final-round appearances in 11 races this year. The only drawback in that streak is that she has only one once. She’s becoming the Atlanta Braves of the 1990s.
“When we suddenly found ourselves going rounds every race and going to finals and leading the points, we talked about it and decided that just because we’re only a 3-year-old team, there’s no reason why we can’t have dreams for the championship,” Force Hood said.
“Maybe some people think that’s crazy considering we’re racing people who have been racing longer than I’ve been alive, (but) sometimes it’s not just about how long you’ve been doing it.”

Photo: Ron Capps regained the lead in the NHRA funny car standings, passing Ashley Force Hood, as the teams head to Infineon Raceway in Sonoma this weekend.

Remembering Scott Kalitta

It was a year ago when National Hot Rod Assn. funny car driver Scott Kalitta died in a accident on the track at Old Bridge Township Raceway in Englishtown, N.J., site of this weekend’s races.
Jack Beckman, a driver from North Hills, was waiting his turn to qualify when Kalitta had his tragic accident.
“We didn't qualify last year for the SuperNationals, as the NHRA cancelled the rest of the qualifying that day when Scott had his accident,” said Beckman, a driver for Don Schumacher Racing. “It didn’t matter to me. It’s the first time that I could ever think of in my racing career where qualifying didn’t actually seem all that important.”
The fallout from the fatal wreck was the change in race distance, from a quarter-mile to 1,000 feet. The shorter distance was implemented for two reasons: to reduce the speeds of the top fuel and funny car dragsters and to create a greater distance to slow down the cars after their runs. The debate continues as to whether the top fuel and funny car divisions will ever race at a quarter-mile distance again.
“It’s never going to be the same,” he said following Kalitta’s death. “It’s not like one day we went, OK, well, we’re over that. You’ll never get over it. There is a time frame when it hurts almost constantly. And then when you get past that it’s a memory and a tugging at the heart when you think of the people we have lost.”
Beckman enters this weekend’s races in fifth place in the funny car standings and has won two events this year. But he said returning to Englishtown will be bittersweet.
“We'll have a chance to honor Scott amongst all the crews and the teams and remember him for the great racer and person he was,” Beckman said.
Ron Capps, Beckman’s teammate, leads the funny car standings and won at Englishtown in 2006.
“We’re going to one of the more historic races we have on our schedule this weekend,” said Capps, who has a 58-point lead over Tony Pedregon. “Really, I was overwhelmed by finally getting to win this race a few years ago.”
Del Worsham, a driver from Chino Hills, is fourth in the funny car standings. He is coming off a second-round loss at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., on Sunday.
“We’re fourth in points so we lost a couple of spots with our second-round loss last week, but that’s OK,” he said. “I’m still optimistic about this weekend in Englishtown; our car showed some good promise in Joliet for the summer races we are about to start running.”

Capps skips rained out Prelude race, heads to Chicago

Ron Capps, the leader in the NHRA funny car standings, was supposed to be part of Tony Stewart’s Prelude to a Dream dirt track race at Eldora Speedway in Ohio. But rain washed out the race and Capps headed straight to Route 66 Raceway in Illinois for the NHRA races this weekend.
“It’s unfortunate, but the bright side, and this happened a few years ago when it was rained out, is that the rain-out date is going to be Wednesday night, Sept. 9,” said Capps. “And it happens to be right after the biggest race on our NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series schedule, the U.S. Nationals, which we run on Monday, Labor Day, in Indianapolis. So, I’ll be able to stay in town again and cruise over and run the Prelude. It will be held prior to what they call ‘The World,’ which is one of the biggest Late Model races they have. It’s going to be just as big an event, and we expect the weather will be good at that time.”
Capps is coming off a win at Topeka and leads the funny car standings by 119 points over Del Worsham, a driver from Chino Hills.
Capps has one career win at Route 66 Raceway. That came in 2005. He was the runner up at Route 66 Raceway two years later.
“Chicago is a track which every year, even with conditions that aren't cool, is considered one of the best tracks we go to, surface-wise,” said Capps, a driver for Don Schumacher Racing. “Lanny Miglizzi, our ‘track whisperer,’ as Tony Schumacher once called him, gets so excited when we roll into Chicago, because it’s a place where you can automatically throw a lot more clutch into these cars and that only means good things for a driver. It means hang on and pull your belts tighter.”

Photo: After winning the NHRA funny car portion of the event at Heartland Park Topeka on Sunday, Ron Capps extended his lead in the funny car standings to 119 points.

Dixon, Capps NHRA winners in Topeka

Van Nuys High graduate Larry Dixon won the NHRA top fuel portion of the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event at Heartland Park Topeka in Kansas on Sunday. Dixon, driving Al-Anabi Racing, laid down a 3.971-second pass in the final against Clay Millican to win his second race of the year and the 45th of his career.
Dixon’s win comes off a weekend at Bristol Dragway in Tennessee when he lost on one of the closest hole shots in his career in top fuel.
“I’ve had worse weekends [than Bristol], but it wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone to say that I’m not where I want to be driving the car, and I think it peaked out last week,” Dixon said Dixon. “Alan [Johnson, team owner] took his crew chief hat off and put his coach hat on and worked on me and getting me right. We went and ran the car at Atlanta on Monday and Tuesday after Bristol and just made a whole bunch of runs. That was just nice, hitting the throttle and getting runs. They learned a lot from that test, and I learned a lot from that test. I was very excited and there wasn’t anything apprehensive about coming to this event. I just wanted to come here and get the gloves on and get in the game.”
Ron Capps, the leader in the funny car standings, won at Topeka, beating Ashley Force Hood in the final.
“It really came around probably from second round on after we beat John Force in the right lane,” said Capps, who extended his points lead to 119 over Del Worsham. “Everybody was saying there was no way you’re going to get down that track. And (crew chief) Ed McCulloch just kept plugging away.”
Worsham, a driver from Chino Hills, had won the previous two funny car events in a row.
Force Hood was the top qualifier and Capps, who drives from Don Schumacher Racing, said he expected her to put up quite a challenge in the final.
"We figured they were going to step up like they were capable of doing,” Capps said. “They were No. 1 qualifier and we figured they were going to run a mid-4.20 and I was going to have to do my job on the starting line. And for Ace to pull out a 4.26 in the final round on a 125-degree track was incredible.”
Force Hood is third in the funny car standings, 126 points behind Capps.
“We’re gonna keep our sights set on that No. 1 spot,” Force Hood said. “I don’t think it’s out of our reach. We just kind of need to stay focused.and keep fighting the fight.”
Jack Beckman, a driver from North Hills, lost Capps, his teammate at Don Schumacher Racing, in the semifinals.
“We had an air line split on the car right at the hit,” said Beckman. “We did everything right for eliminations. And if you look at the numbers up until the time it ran out of air we were hauling butt. It was going to run a 4.25, it was going to turn the win light on, but our car didn’t get there first, so you have to hand it to the NAPA team.”

Photo: Ashley Force Hood lost in the NHRA funny car final to Ron Capps on Sunday at Heartland Park Topeka in Kansas.

NASCAR, NHRA head east

NASCAR and the NHRA made their winter visits to the West Coast. NASCAR will be in Georgia at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend after racing in Fontana and Las Vegas. The NHRA heads to Florida for the Gatornationals in Gainesville.
I'm still trying to figure out how Matt Kenseth can win the first two races of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and be third in the Cup standings.
Kenseth ended up 43rd and last at Las Vegas, barely completing one lap before having to withdraw. He was trying to become the first NASCAR driver to win the first three races of the Cup season.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever dropped out on lap one before," Kenseth said after the race in Vegas. "It’s never really easy. We didn’t even really get to race (Sunday) and we qualified bad, so it was a pretty long weekend for nothing. It’s disappointing no matter what. I’m glad we did great the last two weeks, but, really, you take it one week at a time and shift your focus to that race each and every week, so it’s always disappointing when something like that happens.”

Jeff Gordon, winless since 2007, is leading, with Clint Bowyer in second. Bowyer in second place might be the most bizarre thing about the Cup standings after three races. Seeing Michael Waltrip in the top 12 is a little surprising too. But what has Bowyer done in the first three races, except complain about his garage spot at Fontana?
Nothing against Bowyer, but it's not like he's been much of a factor in the first three races. He had a good run in Vegas, but that's about it.
As for the NHRA, Ron Capps came out as the surprise leader in the Funny Car standings. He won the first two events of the year, at Pomona and Las Vegas.
Capps said the great start to the 2009 season started in the 2008 season finale in Pomona when Ace McCulloch started overhauling his car.
"When we left Pomona, even though we ran good, he completely re-did the tune-up on the car, went back to basics, and started from scratch, redid the whole car," Capps said. "When we showed up in West Palm for our first test session, we were the quickest car every session. Then when we went to Phoenix for pre-season testing, we wanted to test a lot of things. When we rolled into Pomona, we were a little bit apprehensive but a little bit confident. We weren’t sure how the weekend was going to go. To win there, it just proved that a lot of hard work paid off."
Antron Brown is atop the Top Fuel standings. Jason Line leads the Pro Stock standings.

For Beckman, first things first in Phoenix

The NHRA visits Firebird International Raceway near Phoenix this weekend. It was the site of Jack Beckman's first win of the 2008 season. It was also the beginning of a roller coaster season for Beckman.
He went from winning the second race of the NHRA season to dropping out of the top 10 in the Funny Car standings and out of the Countdown to One championship field.
But Beckman recovered in time to win a couple more races before the end of the season, qualify for the Countdown and finish third in the Funny Car standings.

"Last year, even though we did win Phoenix, we didn’t really hit our stride until Denver," said Beckman, a driver from North Hills and a driver for Don Schumacher Racing. "And there's no panic right now. We’ve had a couple of minor hiccups with the tune-up that I think we're close to getting worked out, but the way the Countdown format goes, you can take four or five races to work them out."

Beckman is coming off a wet week in the season opening event at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona. He beat the reigning Funny Car champion, Cruz Pedregon, in the first round, but had to wait two days before racing resumed because of rain. Beckman lost in the second round and enters the Phoenix event eighth in the Funny Car standings.
His teammate, Ron Capps, came away as the winner in Pomona.
"I don't see anybody showing any signs of dominance this year, although I'm very thankful that my DSR teammate Ron Capps and the NAPA car are back to being one of the top cars again," Beckman said. "That will be a lot of fun."

Skies clear in Pomona

The rain stopped, the track dried and the NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona finally came to a conclusion Tuesday.
Jack Beckman, an NHRA Funny Car driver from North Hills, cleared the toughest hurdle of the week on Sunday when he beat reigning Funny Car champ Cruz Pedregon in the first round.
But two days later, Beckman fouled out to Robert Hight in the second round and was eliminated.

"Incredibly disappointing," said Beckman, a driver for Don Schumacher Racing. "I started squeezing the throttle up there. You're focused on the Christmas tree, you want to get a good light and I caught myself doing that. So I went to go back to idle and I double-stepped the throttle. Not only did it red-light, it threw the tune-up on the race car completely off."

Beckman's teammate Ron Capps eliminated Hight in the semifinals and went on to win the Funny Car portion of the races.
"The only bright spot of my day is that Capps walked out of here with the Funny Car win," Beckman said. "And we only have to wait a week to get back and do it again."