CAPPS NAILS DOWN NO. 12 IN READING QUALIFYING
MOHNTON, Pa. (Aug. 16, 2008) - Ron Capps nailed down the No. 12 spot in qualifying for the 24th annual NHRA Nationals today, putting an exclamation point on the improved performance of the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car by posting the third quickest pass of the final session of 4.169 seconds at 292.46 mph in the heat of the day, which matched the elapsed time of his quickest run of the weekend in cooler conditions on Friday night.
His other passes were a 5.077/149.10 (No. 15), Friday night’s 4.169/295.14 (No. 12), and a 7.695/84.52 (No. 12).
"Great run." he said of that final pass at Maple Grove Raceway. "In fact, it matched our qualifying run in the good conditions on Friday night. So, if we're going to see race conditions with some heat in the track like we saw today I think we're pretty ready...and we have 'the champ' first round." Capps faces 14-time champion John Force in the opening round of eliminations.
"We are trying to sneak some stuff in here to test. We wanted to make sure we got in the show, so we left our normal setup in the NAPA Dodge Charger on Friday. On Saturday we put in our experimental stuff. The first run Saturday (7.695/84.52) was, I think, a little bit of driver error. We're not sure why the car made a hard right-hand turn when it left the starting line, but whatever we did with the chassis we fixed it. It went right down the middle in the last pass and it was a great run."
Capps' career record against Force is 17-40 in round wins. He's won nine of the last 13 meetings against Force, and has won the last four of five first-round match-ups over Force.
