Five days after suffering a violent crash that destroyed his primary race car at the NHRA Arizona Nationals, Ron Capps and his NAPA Auto Care team rebounded impressively on Friday at the NHRA Winternationals, recording the quickest run of each session to score the provisional pole after the first day of qualifying for the third event on the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Series schedule.
Right out of the gate, Capps rocketed down the In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip in 3.852 seconds at 330.47 mph to collect three bonus points and put himself in the No. 1 spot. Capps and his Dean “Guido” Antonelli-led team returned to the starting line for the second session and once again clocked the quickest run of the round – a 3.830 at 328.94 – to bank another three bonus points and secure their spot at the top of the Funny Car timing sheet heading into day two of qualifying.
“I’ve bragged about our team so many times, but I’ve got to give it to these guys,” said Capps. “We have a backup car that’s ready to run. If we had won that round (on Sunday in Phoenix) and needed to be ready to go, we have a backup car that we can pull out, and it’s ready to race. That being said, we knew we had a car that was ready to run here in Pomona, but they actually had someone bring out another car from the shop back in Indy, which was the (Don Prudhomme) “Snake” Army tribute car, the body, that we ran last year at the U.S. Nationals and our 2022 world championship chassis. So, these guys, they’ve barely slept. They basically built two cars this week. They never complained and just kept powering through. To unload with that car and make that run in the very first session was pretty incredible.”
The three-time world champion returned to the driver’s seat with some bumps and bruises but none of the hesitation one would expect from someone who experienced an explosion before careening into the Firebird Motorsports Park guard wall at more than 200 mph less than one week prior.
“I’m pretty beat up, I’m sore and bruised, but Friday could not get here soon enough, I just wanted to get back in the car,” Capps added. “No hesitation. But I just want to acknowledge all of the people who reached out this week. We’ve got so many great partners, and I can’t tell you how many messaged or called me and Guido within a few hours of the accident and offered help. TMS Titanium, Toyota, I mean so many of our smaller associate partners, they were ready to step up and make sure we had what we needed. It truly is like a family here. We’re a one-car team, I don’t want to get emotional, but it was over a handful of people that reached out. I was in my motorhome on my way up here getting these messages and I’m just so grateful.”
With cool temperatures forecasted for Saturday, Capps and the NAPA team will be focused on staving off the competition during the weekend’s final two qualifying sessions. If they are able to retain their position at the top of the Pomona leaderboard, Capps will score his first No. 1 qualifier award of the season and 38th of his career.
“We could possibly see quicker conditions tomorrow and even quicker on Sunday,” said Capps, a lifelong Californian who has seven prior poles at his home facility. “It’s going to be a little overcast and this place is legendary for speed. I don’t think we’ve seen the quickest runs yet.”
Qualifying for the 65th annual NHRA Winternationals will pick back up at 12:30 p.m. PT on Saturday.
This story was originally published on March 29, 2025. 
