Capps takes No. 11 in Joliet qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 10 of 23
CARQUEST NHRA NATIONALS
Route 66 Raceway
Joliet, Ill.
Race Dates: June 10-12, 2005


JOLIET, Ill. (June 11, 2005) - Ron Capps cruised through four consistent
qualifying runs in the Brut Dodge Stratus Funny Car to qualify No. 11 for
the CARQUEST NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway.

His first pass of 4.922/314.97 placed him No. 7 in the field of 23 cars
attempting to qualify for 16 spots. The second round produced a 4.907/310.41
for No. 15, which was followed by a 4.826/322.04 in the third session, which
planted him solidly in No. 11, as the 4.904/313.44 in the final round did
not improve his position.

"It's been a strange weekend," said Capps. "The crew chiefs kind of had
everything thrown at them."

Capps, along with his teammate Gary Scelzi, shared the disappointed for
their other teammate Whit Bazemore and crew chief Lee Beard, who failed to
qualify for only the first time since Reading, Pa., in 2003. "I feel bad for
Bazemore and Beard and the Matco Tools guys because every crew chief out
here goes through that and you hate to see it," said Capps, of Carlsbad,
Calif. "And, as teammates, it's what makes Don Schumacher Racing so good. We
have a lot of depth here and things like that happen.

"I was in the lanes back there (in the last session) wondering what the
track was going to do, but at the same time hoping that Whit and those guys
got in. The conditions came around to where we thought we could run a 4.78
or .79, but it just wore a lot of clutch for some reason.

"Tomorrow we're going to try to go back and run that 4.82 (-second elapsed
time) we ran in the heat of the day in that first run today. That'll put us
in the playground to play tomorrow, for sure."

Capps faces No. 6 qualifier Del Worsham in the first round of eliminations
on Sunday.

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