Capps eliminated by teammate Scelzi in G'ville first round

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 3 of 23
36TH ANNUAL NHRA GATORNATIONALS
GAINESVILLE (Fla.) RACEWAY
Race Dates: March 18-20, 2005


GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 20, 2005) - It's bound to happen in a multi-car
team, and it's happened twice in three events so far this season for Ron
Capps, driver of the Brut Dodge Stratus R/T Funny Car. He met one of his two
teammates in the first round. In the season-opener it was Whit Bazemore, and
today at the NHRA Gatornationals it was No. 5 qualifier Gary Scelzi.

Capps, who qualified 12th and didn't earn lane choice, blasted off the
starting line first with a .099 reaction time to Scelzi's .111, but it was
Scelzi first at the finish line with a 4.857-second ET at 319.48 mph to
Capps' losing 4.908/315.67. The hottest day of the weekend produced
hard-to-read track conditions, as temperatures today in the 70s were a far
cry from the 40s on Friday and 60s on Saturday in which the teams qualified.

"We're not happy we lost, obviously," said Capps, who is now seventh in the
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car point standings. "I told (co-crew
chief Dan) Olson and Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) we gave it a good shot.
We definitely didn't have lane choice and it was a little bit tricky in that
left lane. There were some oildowns in front of us and the sun was out.

"That would have won a lot of other rounds. I'm pretty pleased," he added.
"We've got a hot rod. It wasn't such a bad loss; we're not going to take too
bad a hit in the points. I'm just real proud of the Brut Dodge guys. It's
unfortunate that we lost, but it feels good to know that we've got a car
that we can unload at the next track in Houston and go for the pole."

"What you want to do on Sunday is you obviously want to win," said
McCulloch. "We were racing a teammate and we wanted to beat him as bad as he
wanted to beat us. The race track all weekend has been really tricky. The
sun came out today, it was warmer. We got a little bit too cautious and it
didn't run quick enough and we got beat."

Next up is the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway, April
8-10.

FUNNY CAR POINT STANDINGS:
1. Whit Bazemore, 237
2. John Force, 228
3. Tommy Johnson Jr., 178
4. Bob Gilbertson, 176
5. Phil Burkart Jr., 174
6. Eric Medlen, 165
7. Gary Scelzi, 162
8. Ron Capps, 157
9. Robert Hight, 150
10. Del Worsham, 142