Sat, 26 Sep 2009, 10:36 PM Capps Drives NAPA Dodge to No. 9 in Texas Qualifying

Courtesy of Judy Stropus

ENNIS, Tex. -- Ron Capps qualified the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car in the No. 9 spot for the NHRA Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex today.

Under clear but hot conditions, Capps posted his quickest pass of 4.207 seconds at 295.27 mph in Friday evening's second session in the first pairing to go down the track, before cooler night-time conditions settled in. That placed him No. 9 at the time, which he held through the remaining rounds. His opening try produced a 6.045/112.70 (No. 13), and today he recorded a 4.763/180.00 (No. 9) and finally a 6.928/91.37.

"Not exactly where we wanted to end up qualifying," said Capps, who entered this event fourth in the Countdown to 1 playoffs standings and will face No. 7 Tim Wilkerson in the opening round. "I don't really think lane choice is going to be a big deal tomorrow, and running Tim Wilkerson is going to be a tough, tough task.

"We spent most of the qualifying trying to get the NAPA car to move a little quicker the first 100 feet and put it back to where it used to be. Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) is still working on this new tune-up. We feel like a lot of people have caught up to where we were earlier in the year and that's the reason Ace has made the changes to try to better ourselves and get quicker. We feel we have to be ahead of the game these least few races of the Countdown.

"We worked on the early numbers of the car," added Capps, the class-best five-time national event winner this year. "It went a little further that last time, but we think we got it where we want it to be early in the run. If we can do that tomorrow against Tim and put our second-half numbers where they usually are with the NAPA car, we'll be good to go.

"Every round is going to be huge from hereon out and racing another Countdowner in Tim Wilkerson, who's a guy that vied for the championship last year, who's been consistent and whose team has been on its game, is going to be a lot of fun."

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