He garnered the bonus point, however, in Friday's opening round, where he clocked the third quickest pass of of 4.149/298.07.

Today's runs were a somewhat squirrelly 5.208/141.77 (No. 9), and finally a 4.165/297.29. Each qualifying day in Memphis enjoyed autumn temperatures in the low 70s.

"Obviously, we wanted to qualify better," said Capps, No. 6 in the Countdown to 1 playoffs standings. "We didn't run as good as we wanted to last night and that was THE run, and everybody moved up.

"To be able to go down the track as consistently as we have is the key and that's the reason we stayed and tested in Dallas (last Monday) and that's already paid off. I can tell.

"We pushed the limit on the track the third qualifying run in the left lane to see what it would hold. That's going to come in handy for tomorrow.

"Tomorrow is calling for a front to come in, with even a chance of rain tomorrow night, which means it's going to be cool and cloudy, and you're going to see track records fall, for sure. So, my point is, it's going to be a completely different race track, with probably better conditions than we saw Friday night."

He will face rookie Daniel Wilkerson, son of Funny Car racer Tim Wilkerson, in the opening stanza of Sunday's eliminations. "In the big picture, you have to get past your first round," said Capps. "You can't overlook anybody and we have as tough a first round as it gets with Daniel, but when you have chance to line up against (points leader) Robert Hight in the second round, at this stage in the season, you have to try to take care of business yourself. You can't rely on somebody else to possibly take out Robert, who has the best car right now.

"So, for us to have that chance, we're going to have to come with our A game the first round to get around Daniela and then try to go after Robert and take those guys out ourselves. That's a big task. But, to be honest with you, I don't think lane choice will be a big deal. I'm kind of excited about it.

Courtesy of Judy Stropus