One month after winning the SCAG PRO Superstar Shootout preseason event, three-time NHRA Funny Car world champion Ron Capps kicked off his 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series campaign by racing to the final round of the NHRA Gatornationals. Battling ever-changing weather conditions all weekend at Gainesville Raceway, Capps in his new-look Carlyle Tools Toyota GR Supra qualified third before turning on three win lights on his way to the final round. Capps, who kicked off his fourth season as a team owner, is now second in the Funny Car points standings.
Capps was on the outside looking in after the first qualifying session when he smoked the tires early in the run. He quickly moved on from that, though, as he threw down a 3.857-second pass at 335.73 in the second session to move up to the third spot. It was the third-quickest pass of the session, giving Capps one bonus point. When rain washed away Saturday’s two planned qualifying sessions, Capps locked in his No. 3 spot going into Sunday eliminations.
Rain showers pushed Funny Car round one of eliminations back into Sunday afternoon. Capps, crew chief Dean ‘Guido’ Antonelli, and the Carlyle Tools team made the most of the break and came back to record the second-quickest pass of the round, a 3.964 E.T. at 325.30 mph, to get the win over John Smith. Capps then set low E.T. of the second round, a 3.951 at 330.07 mph, to defeat young gun Bobby Bode. Capps had to pedal his way to a 4.012 E.T. in the semifinals, but it was enough to get past Alexis DeJoria, who had to lift early.
“I felt like the semifinals was all me letting it get out of the groove,” Capps said. “Our Carlyle Tools Toyota GR Supra was on a string, and when it’s a Funny Car you’re talking about, you rarely hear that. These are such hard cars to drive. They’re just 13,000 horsepower, insanely fun, but very, very difficult – one of the most difficult race cars there is on the planet. We felt like the right lane was better, and that semifinal run, we were going for lane choice. Our car’s really just been cruising. It’s like a Sunday afternoon cruise for me, and then I let it get out of the groove and smoked the tires down there a bit.”
Capps didn’t get lane choice over Chad Green for the final round, putting him in the left lane. He picked up a starting line advantage but struck the tires a few hundred feet out. Though he tried to recover, Capps had to watch as Green went on to get the win.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever been that upset going into a final with a win, but I was really mad at myself,” Capps said, “and I feel like I cost us the final because we hadn’t been in that left lane all day. I know Guido could have gone a high 3.80 in that right lane. It’s all good, though. By the end of the night, I’ll feel better about it.”
Already thinking about the positives of the weekend, Capps praised his Ron Capps Motorsports team and his partners for their efforts over the offseason and into the Gatornationals.
“Our guys put in hard work,” Capps said. “I’m really impressed with the 2025 GR Supra bodies. So many good improvements this year. It’s been fun with Slugger (Labbe of Toyota Racing Development) to watch the work that they did in the wind tunnel in the offseason. It means a lot that Carlyle picked our team to represent their brand and its new look. To debut this car and take it to the final, you couldn’t really ask for anything better except to win, so it was a fantastic start. We’ll be near the top of the points and we’ll head West.”
No. 2-ranked Capps will be back in his traditional NAPA Auto Care colors when he rolls into Phoenix for the NHRA Arizona Nationals, March 21-23, at Firebird Motorsports Park.
This story was originally published on March 10, 2025. 
