Capps No. 9 in Seattle qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 14 of 23
CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals
Pacific Raceways
Kent, Wash.
Race Dates: July 22-24, 2005


KENT, Wash. (July 23, 2005) - Ron Capps continues his steady course down the
quarter-mile in the 2005 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car class,
recording four stout qualifying passes in the Brut Dodge Stratus at the
CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at Pacific Raceway this weekend, to place
him No. 9 in the field.

His 4.864/312.78 in the first session was good for sixth place at the time,
while the laps that followed where consistent passes of 4.823/313.22,
4.862/313.66 and 4.887/310.63, but did not help improve his position at this
track in the Northwest corner of the country.

"It's been one of those grueling weekends already," he said, "just watching
the weather change and the clouds come in. That last session we watched a
lot of cars in front of us. Cruz Pedregon smoked the tires directly in front
of us. (When you're sitting in the staging lane) until you get to some cars
that you can watch and see if the track is going to hold anything, these
crew chiefs (including Cruz's Wes Cerny) don't know a lot."

The California native who is fourth in the Funny Car point standings, will
face Phil Burkart Jr. in the first round of eliminations on Sunday.

"One good thing is the guys are running good in both lanes," he added.
"Because we're No. 9 qualifier we're not going to have lane choice against
Burkart, but I feel we're OK as far as lanes are concerned. We didn't
qualify as good as we wanted to, but there are some good match-ups when you
look at the points.

"As good as we did in St. Louis in the heat (he won), I think we're pretty
confident. I'm surprised the 4.887 came up on the board (in the last round).
When they yelled at me on the radio I thought they said .98 and I would have
been happy with that, as that would have been low of the round at that
point. We're very happy with the .88. All four runs were in different
conditions, so it's 'hats off' to (crew chief Ed) McCulloch and all the Brut
guys."