CAPPS IN BEST SEAT OF HOUSE IN QUALIFYING, EARNS NO. 4 IN VEGAS

LAS VEGAS (April 14, 2007) - Ron Capps was in the best seat of the house in final qualifying for the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He was sitting in the Brut Revolution Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car with a great view of the bumping in and out of the field in front of him.

After the dust settled, in which John Force was bumped out for the first time since 1987 by Capps' teammate Jack Beckman, Capps completed his final and quickest pass of 4.762 seconds at 322.11 mph, placing him solidly in No. 4. His previous attempts included a 5.937/158.41, a 4.812/323.04 and a7.016/122.51.

"Once again, our sport proved how exciting it is," said Capps, points leader in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car class. "I'm sitting back there getting buckled into the car and I wanted to go up and crawl up in the grandstands and watch what was going on with Force being bumped out, then getting in, and the whole deal.

"Then I watched my teammate Jack Beckman (in 17th) in front of me and it was going to be either him or Force racing. He went down there, his car moved around quite a bit. I knew it was windy out there. Then his coreboard came up and he was racing and Force was out. So it was quite an emotional round.

"What's really going on is we're going to have conditions on Sunday unlike anything we have seen all weekend. It's going to be very cool, it's probably going to be windy, but the coolest we've seen, even in the Friday night sessions.

"Our first run today, we didn't go down there, which is very unlike our car, but Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) really got after it in the middle to see what the track would take. Like he said, the conditions won't be that warm again. There are going to be some very fast elapsed times come Sunday. It's going to be a very different scenario, and that's when you see the good crew chiefs rise to the top, the ones who can compensate and adapt. It's going to be a fast, fast day, I've got a feeling."

Capps faces Jeff Arend in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday.