Ron Capps, driver of the NAPA Auto Care Funny Car, skated into his first Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win of the season on Saturday afternoon at the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals. The California native defeated Alexis DeJoria and Jack Beckman in front of packed grandstands at Sonoma Raceway to win the specialty event.
The Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge kicked off in a rematch of the semifinals in Norwalk, Ohio, where Capps secured his 80th professional win alongside his Ron Capps Motorsports teammate, Maddi Gordon, who won her first in Top Fuel. Capps got the starting line advantage over DeJoria and held on to that lead in his Dean “Guido” Antonelli-tuned machine, making the second-quickest run of the session, going 3.941 seconds at 329.26 mph while DeJoria ran into tire smoke.
In the finals, Capps and Beckman left within two-thousandths of one another, and Beckman was slightly ahead of Capps to the 330-foot mark when both drove into tire smoke. Capps’ instincts took over as he got right back on the throttle and his 12,000-horsepower machine took him for a wild ride, veering from side to side as he pedaled to the stripe ahead of Beckman. The three-time world champion used his 30 years of experience to keep it off the wall and away from the centerline on his way to victory.
“What’s crazy is, while things are really good, we don’t feel like we’re at our best right now,” remarked Capps. “But we’re leading the points and we’ve won three Wallys. So if we are not feeling at our absolute best and we’re still having the season we’re having so far, it’s great. Because I know when Guido gets a few more things ironed out and he’s more comfortable, it’s gonna be fun. It’s cool that we’re not there yet. But what’s great is to add these little points. You don’t want to talk about them too much but at the same time, it means so much to us. So the fact that this Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge offers bonus points – that’s huge. Championships can be won and lost on just a couple of points. I was just talking to Jack Beckman about that, reminding him that the last championship he won, he beat me by only two points. Those little points end up being huge as we go through the season.
“When the car went sideways off the bat, I said it was like driving a sprint car. I’ve been very lucky to get to race in a lot of different things like SRX, sprint cars, dirt late models, and midgets. I think it’s always helped me when I’ve gotten back into the Funny Car. There’s nothing closer to a nitro Funny Car than a midget or sprint car when they’re not hooked up. Over the years, that experience has helped me. In this case, for sure. I can guarantee if I’d never driven a dirt car, I probably couldn’t have pulled that off.”
Eliminations for the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals will begin tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. at Sonoma Raceway. Capps’ Friday evening run of 3.900 at 330.07 put him in the No. 4 qualifying position where he will race Austin Prock in the opening round of NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Funny Car competition.
