Capps dismissed in first round in Houston

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 4 of 23
O'REILLY NHRA SPRING NATIONALS
HOUSTON RACEWAY
Race Dates: April 8-10, 2005


BAYTOWN, Texas (April 10, 2005) - Ron Capps, driving the Brut Dodge Stratus
Funny Car for Don Schumacher Racing, gave the fans at the O'Reilly NHRA
Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway a close race in the first round of
eliminations today. He came up short, though, as Cruz Pedregon claimed the
win with a 4.867/314.39 lap to Capps' 4.870/314.75. The margin of victory
was just .0512 of a second.

Capps and the Brut team came back strong after a late-night session to
repair the Brut Dodge following an excursion into the sand at the end of his
final qualifying run on Saturday, and were greeted with completely different
weather conditions for Sunday's eliminations: cooler, overcast skies.

"The conditions today were so different from all weekend," said Capps. "We
had the trip into the sand last night, and the guys did a great job of
putting the car together. Nothing was really hurt bad on the car and we felt
really confident. We knew we had to run well in that round. We saw Eric
Medlen win in front of us, he ran a 4.76, and we were trying to run the same
number and get lane choice for second round.

"The car just slowed down a lot. It didn't run near as good as we thought it
would. There was a pretty bad crosswind and we were ready for it. The Brut
Dodge just kind of drove down there. It was driving like a Dodge Magnum; it
was real safe and easy to drive going down there, which usually is the case
when it isn't running real hard.

"When it runs hard it starts to really get after it in the middle of the
track and it becomes a handful. It never was a handful, and at about 800
feet I saw Cruz pop his nose out there and I knew it was going to be a close
race.

"It's unfortunate. It's still early in the year and we're OK. There are a
lot of people in the points hunt who were matched up in that first round. We
hate to lose to anybody; we felt like we beat ourselves.

"Ace and the guys will go right to Vegas. The good thing is we have no
weekend off. When you lose you can go right back at it the next weekend. And
Vegas has been great to me and I loook forward to it."

Capps is now 11th in the Funny Car point standings.

Next up is the NHRA Nationals at The Strip in Las Vegas April 14-17.

NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES FUNNY CAR POINT STANDINGS:
1. John Force, 303
2. Whit Bazemore, 289
3. Robert Hight, 268
4. Tommy Johnson Jr., 231
5. Cruz Pedregon, 230
6. Eric Medlen,, 219
7. Del Worsham, 215
8. Phil Burkart Jr., 211
9. Bob Gilbertson, 207
10. Gary Scelzi, 196
11. Ron Capps, 193

***