Capps nabs third in Mopar Mile-High Nationals qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
Round 13 of 23
MOPAR MILE-HIGH NHRA NATIONALS
Bandimere Speedway
Morrison, Colo.
Race Dates: July 15-17, 2005


CAPPS SURVIVES FIRE TO QUALIFY THIRD FOR MOPAR MILE-HIGH NATIONALS

MORRISON, Colo. (July 16, 2005) - Ron Capps survived a fire in the second
round of qualifying while posting his quickest elapsed time of the weekend
in the Brut Dodge Stratus Funny Car. Capps' 4.832/318.84 run in that session
held throughout the weekend, earning him the No. 3 spot. He joined his
teammates Whit Bazemore and Gary Scelzi in a 2-3-4 Don Schumacher Racing
qualifying sweep for the Mopar Mile-High Nationals.

His other passes included a 4.982/303.23 in the first session, a
5.722/178.59 in the third, and a 4.872/317.34 in the final.

"For Schumacher Racing this has been a great weekend, so far. Underline 'so
far' because we have a lot of work to do tomorrow," he said. "But, I tell
you, there was a lot of weird stuff happening here during qualifying. There
were cars shutting off at the starting line and not making their runs. There
were cars having a lot of problems.

"This place will take its toll, mentally, physically and on these cars.
Starting this three-race West Coast swing, there are a lot of guys who will
be out of parts. Thank goodness we have great sponsors who supply us with a
lot of parts.

"It's been a great qualifying effort. We're working our way back up in the
Skoal Showdown and that's a priority for us on Friday and Saturday, to
qualify better than we have the first half of the year. So far, we're doing
a great job of that and we need to get into the Skoal Showdown. It's
important to us.

"On top of that, having lane choice and just running well is great. To be
honest with you, I actually let off and hit the 'chutes before anything
happened and all of a sudden it decided to kick a rod out," he said of the
fire at the end of his quick pass. "And that's just part of being up here at
this altitude. You can go around to all of these teams and you'll see
carnage laying in the pit areas. It's just what the mountain does to you.

"Taking advantage of the cool conditions Friday night was the key (to
qualifying well). And the Brut Dodge ran great, even though we had the fire
afterwards. A lot of people might think we used up the engine, but the
engine was in great shape. It just happened to kick a rod out on the
shutdown, which is strange. The fire was big and orange, but it wasn't hot.
It didn't stay lit very long. I jumped out to pick up the body, so the body
didn't have any marks on it.

"We took advantage of the Friday night session. It was an ego shot. You
won't see those (cooler) conditions again all weekend. We're going to have
absurd conditions on Sunday. We're going to have 90-something degrees and
we're starting an hour later than usual and it's going to be hot and very,
very difficult."

Capps faces Gary Densham in the first round of eliminations on Sunday.