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Event 2 of 20 Firebird Motorsports Park Chandler, Ariz. March 20-22, 2026
CHANDLER, Ariz. - Ron Capps and the NAPA Auto Care Funny Car team turned chaos into a commanding victory Sunday afternoon at the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park. The three-time world champion overcame a rocky start in qualifying and bounced back from an engine explosion in the quarterfinals to earn his 78th career national event Wally and his 10th since becoming a team owner in 2022. The veteran wheelman set low E.T. of all four elimination rounds, including the final, where he defeated second-year driver Spencer Hyde. Capps is now ranked third in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Funny Car points standings.
Capps kicked off race day in a big way, as he left first against three-time NHRA Heritage Series Nostalgia Funny Car champion Jason Rupert and set low E.T. of the round with a 3.980-second pass at 323.19 mph to advance. Capps then led wire-to-wire in his second-round match against Daniel Wilkerson, winning with a 4.144 E.T. to Wilkerson's 4.157 E.T., but just as Capps crossed the finish line, a massive engine explosion split his Funny Car body in half and sent him into the wall. The incident was eerily similar to the one Capps suffered at this race one year ago, but he managed to scuff the wall, saving the chassis. The NAPA Auto Care team thrashed to rebuild the car fitted with a spare body and made it to the ready line just in time for a semifinal race against defending event winner Paul Lee. The two drivers left the starting line together before Capps pulled ahead to win with a 4.124-second pass at 303.09 mph.
"This is the coveted one right here," Capps said as he held up the trophy. "You just think of the legacy and what's gone into this. This is unbelievable. Thank you to Wally Parks, first of all. Katherine (Wooten) and everyone at NAPA, all the NAPA Auto Care people. We knew this was going to be a battle of attrition and dropped cylinders today. A couple of those runs, there was no way I would imagine that would have got us lane choice, but it did. It was like a bracket car. This win reminded me a lot of first my win in St. Louis [1997] because it was hot and we had 150-degree track temps there and we dropped cylinders all day but still won the race.
Next up for Capps and the NAPA Auto Care Funny Car team is the NHRA Winternationals, April 10-12, at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip in Pomona, Calif., where they will also compete in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Funny Car Challenge. As a California native, it's one of the tracks Capps calls home. He's also won the Winternationals four times, most recently in 2021. Qualified: No. 7 (4.023 E.T. at 317.79 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Funny Car Point Standings (Unofficial): 1 Chad Green 174 2 Spencer Hyde 156 3 Ron Capps 151 4 J.R. Todd 140 5 Matt Hagan 135 6 Alexis DeJoria 126 7 Jordan Vandergriff 125 8 Paul Lee 111 9 Dan Wilkerson 107 10 Jack Beckman 74
A weekend of record high temperatures presented challenges for teams competing at the NHRA Arizona Nationals, but Rookie of the Year contender Maddi Gordon and her Carlyle Tools Top Fuel team adapted well and reached the semifinals for the second consecutive race Sunday afternoon at Firebird Motorsports Park. The Ron Capps Motorsports driver had the quickest car on the property on Friday and ultimately qualified a career-best fourth, setting up a promising race day in the heat. Gordon is now fifth in the Top Fuel points standings after the second of 20 races. With crew chiefs Rob Flynn and Troy Fasching calling the shots, Gordon was the star of the first qualifying session on Friday morning as she fired off the only sub-4-second pass of the session, a 3.844-second E.T. at 329.42 mph. Though she didn't improve in the second session, she maintained the top spot to end the day as the provisional No. 1 qualifier for the first time as a professional driver. Saturday brought Gordon's first career Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, a race-within-a-race featuring the semifinalists from the previous event. It was a side-by-side race from stripe to stripe, but Gordon's 3.806 E.T. came up just a tick short to two-time and reigning world champion Doug Kalitta and his 3.804 E.T. In the challenging final qualifying session, Gordon's machine lost traction around half-track and coasted to the finish line, ultimately settling into the No. 4 starting position. On Sunday morning, Gordon lined up against newcomer Jaren Mott. Gordon grabbed the starting line advantage and never looked back, powering to a 3.852-second pass at 324.98 mph to move on. Gordon then met up with 2025 regular season champion Tony Stewart in the quarterfinals. Though Stewart moved first, Gordon drove around him with an ultra-consistent 3.851 E.T. at 324.83 mph. In the semifinals, matched up with past world champion Shawn Langdon, Gordon started to lose traction down-track and coasted across the finish line behind Langdon. She did, however, earn a spot in the next Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge with her semifinal appearance. "Rob and Troy have proven they know how to walk it down the hot racetracks," Gordon said. "It's not about applying all the power. It's walking it through there, which can be harder than trying to slam down those fast runs at times. I'm just really, really happy. I was in the car just looking around, thinking, 'There is nobody else I'd rather drive for than Ron (Capps), Rob and Troy, Chuck (Grospitch), everybody on our team, Carlyle Tools, and Monster Energy. "My reaction times are getting a little bit more consistent in the .080s, and my dad and I worked on that on the practice tree this weekend," continued Gordon, referencing her father, three-time NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car world champion Doug Gordon. "As much time as the crew chiefs spend in the lounge making the race car go fast, I try to spend the same amount of time making me the best driver I can be. My reaction time on the starting line and my reaction time catching it when it smokes the tires or something like that is what's going to make me a valuable driver, so that's what I'm trying to work on." Gordon's rookie season behind the wheel of the Carlyle Tools Top Fuel dragster will continue in three weeks at one of her home races on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series tour, the NHRA Winternationals, April 10-12, at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip in Pomona, California. Qualified: No. 4 (3.806 E.T. at 327.82 MPH)
Elimination Round Results:
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel Point Standings (Unofficial): 1 Doug Kalitta 176 2 Josh Hart 174 3 Shawn Langdon 167 4 Leah Pruett 157 5 Maddi Gordon 152 6 Antron Brown 110 7 Tony Stewart 108 8 Tony Schumacher 101 9 Billy Torrence 78 10 Shawn Reed 65 10 Justin Ashley 65
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