Three-time NHRA Funny Car world champion Ron Capps added another semifinal finish to his 2024 scorecard Sunday afternoon at the In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. Following two final-round appearances in the three previous races, the late-round finish helped Capps and his NAPA Auto Care team finish the season ranked third in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Funny Car championship points standings.
Capps had traction issues in the first qualifying session on Friday before the second planned session was rained out. Capps and crew chief Dean ‘Guido’ Antonelli made up for it on Saturday, though, as Capps in his NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra fired off a track-record 3.821-second pass at 332.75 mph to take the provisional No. 1 spot. He also collected four bonus points for making the quickest pass of the session. In the final session, he smoked the tires and coasted across the finish line
Qualified No. 2, Capps met up with fellow Californian Jeff Diehl in Sunday’s opening round of eliminations. He recorded a 3.842 E.T. at 332.18 mph to get past a tire-smoking Diehl. Capps then got a bizarre second-round win when Chad Green crossed the center line in front of him, negating Green’s win light and sending Capps to the semifinals. There, Capps grabbed a .004-second advantage on the starting line over Jack Beckman, but he went up in smoke while Beckman charged on to get the win.
“You always want to end the year on a good note,” Capps said. “It certainly gives you a little more confidence going into the offseason. But my big thing here, the silver lining is I’ve been watching our team continuously moving up in the points. We finished the year in third place, which is pretty darn awesome considering where we started. Whether we won the championship or not, we’ve always been very solid throughout the season. Our NAPA Auto Care team has been consistent. It’s great for me as a driver to get in and count on a great race car. To get these semifinals and finals like we’ve gone to, I’m very happy with everything. We’ve got a very strong team.”
Capps reached five final rounds over the course of the season, including at the 70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, as well as two consecutive finals in the six-race Countdown to the Championship. This is his 20th consecutive season finishing in the Top 10.
“Obviously, we’d love to win a championship, but we’ll take all this and we’ve got some exciting things coming in the offseason,” Capps said. “We’ll get ready for the PRO Superstar Shootout and we’ll come out swinging. We started this year at the Shootout testing a lot of things, and I don’t think we’re going to be doing that this year. I want to go win that event. I know Guido does too.”
Capps and the Ron Capps Motorsports team will celebrate their third season together at the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Awards Ceremony on Monday, Nov. 17 at the Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula, Calif.
This story was originally published on November 18, 2024. 
