Under hot conditions and no sign of the expected rain, Ron Capps drove the NAPA Adaptive One Brakes
Dodge Funny Car into No. 5 during qualifying for the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals.
Capps posted his quickest time of 4.151 seconds at 291.95 mph in the Friday night session, which
earned him the fifth spot, then held on to it through two more qualifying rounds today, which
produced a 4.208/289.51 - the second quickest of that session - and a 4.228/279.79, which was third
quickest for that round.
"All things considered, we're not going to see these conditions on race day," said Capps, a
two-time Bristol champion. "We have a cold front coming in and it's going to be 60 degrees
tomorrow. So, our effort yesterday and today seems like a moot point. It was just: race the
conditions that we were given and see how quickly we can go in qualifying. But, tomorrow it's going
to be cool and fast.
"We actually put the No. 3 cylinder out about half-track on the last run and it still ran a .23,
even though I didn't quite make it to the finish line under power. So, we have a great car. It ran
that 4.20 earlier today in the heat and, again, we are in somehwat of a test mode in the middle of
quaifying, trying things here and there to see if it would improve the NAPA Adaptive One Brakes
car. To be able to try things like that and still have it go down the track during qualifying shows
you how great control Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) and Ronnie (Thompson, assistant crew chief) and
all the guys on the team have on this NAPA Adaptive One car."
Capps faces Bob Bode in the first round of Sunday's eliminations.
