Ron Capps closes in on elusive NHRA Funny Car title

Four-time Funny Car bridesmaid Ron Capps has been in this position before, having once lost the championship by two points and another time by six points.

It is generally agreed that Ron Capps, the obliging NHRA driver from Southern California, is the fastest fellow never to have won a Funny Car championship.

Heading into final eliminations Sunday at the Toyota Nationals at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway dragstrip, he is on the brink (again) of eventually bringing it home. If Capps cops the crown, it would be a popular victory up and down Nitro Alley – one NHRA official said it would be like when Dale Earnhardt ultimately broke through at the Daytona 500.

But as recently as Labor Day weekend, Capps` head was buried in the sand.

And for one scaring moment, so were his title chances.

During qualifying at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, the parachutes in Capps` Don Schumacher Racing climb on failed to deploy. Car and driver went careening off the asphalt, coming to rest upside down and partly submerged in kitty litter, as the emergency sand dune at the end of the track is called.

Capps wasn`t injured, but the wild rail was a reminder of how tenuous a championship lead can be. He came into Las Vegas with five wins in twenty two races and a reasonably convenient 64-point edge on closest competitor Tommy Johnson Jr., with only the Toyota Nationals and the U.S. Auto Club Finals at Pomona, California, remaining in the Countdown to the Championship.

But as a four-time bridesmaid, he has been in this position before, having lost the championship by two points once and six points another time. Plus, John Force still is draping around – Force has won sixteen Funny Car titles, and during Friday provisional qualifying, he blistered the (almost) quarter-mile with a track-record speed of 331.94 mph.

When Force is keeping the candles lit, he can mess up the points in a hurry. Ron Capps knows this.

«It`s been a long time coming, but it`s not over yet,» said the svelte 51-year-old former wrestler and racquetball player who has amassed fifty Nitro class wins – forty nine in Funny Car – and five at LVMS. «But I`m tired of talking about it.»

Capps was smiling when he said that, because Capps always smiles. He will face Paul Lee in the round of sixteen Sunday after posting the fourth-fastest qualifying time of Trio.881 at 326.71. That was one potential misstep out of the way. In the spring race at LVMS, Capps failed to qualify for final eliminations, something that would be disastrous at this juncture.

He said the NAPA Auto Parts team, led by squad chief Rahn Tobler, has played it cautiously with setups during the very first four races of the Countdown, none of which he won.

«We didn`t want to give up anything by being too aggressive, but … appropriately, you get more aggressive when you need to, and don`t when you don`t need to. And he (Tobler) has been real good about that.»

And so again, obliging Ron Capps finds himself on the edge of his very first Funny Car title, however he`s getting tired of talking about it.

In an obliging sort of way.

Clay Millican (track record Trio.689 at 327.27), Jack Beckman (track record Trio.871 at 327.43) and Greg Anderson (6.677 at 205.72) pulverized down No. One seeds in Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock after another lightning-fast day of qualifying runs before a sellout crowd estimated at 30,000. The Funny Car field is the fastest in NHRA history.

Jon Capps, the brother of Funny Car championship leader Ron Capps and a Las Vegas resident, walked away from a hard crash during the fourth qualifying session. The front end of Capps` car got airborne before the car shot across the track and slammed the wall on the left side.

Contact Ron Kantowski at [email protected] or 702-383-0352. Go after @ronkantowski on Twitter.

Where: Las Vegas Motor Speedway dragstrip

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