Capps claims No. 7 in Memphis qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 17 of 23
O'REILLY NHRA MID-SOUTH NATIONALS
MEMPHIS (Tenn.) MOTORSPORTS PARK
Race Dates: Aug. 19-21, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Judy Stropus, 203-438-0501; cell, 203-243-2438;
jstropus@earthlink.net

CAPPS CLAIMS NO. 7 SPOT IN MEMPHIS QUALIFYING

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Aug. 20, 2005) - Ron Capps continued his consistence
performance in the Brut Dodge Stratus Funny Car from the Don Schumacher
Racing camp, clocking four solid passes to qualify No. 7 for the O'Reilly
NHRA Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park.

His quickest pass of the weekend was a 4.967-second pass at 288.21 mph,
which he established in the final round of qualifying and not the Friday
night session, which usually produces the best numbers because of the cooler
conditions. His first three laps resulted in a 5.003/290.88, a 5.009/295.46
and a 5.122/275.56.

"You always have a plan to come in on Friday, fire a pretty good shot, so
you'll be at the back of the field for the next session and be able to run
in cooler conditions. And we did that, but then we didn't execute as well in
the second run on Friday night when the air was probably the best we'll see
all weekend.

"That kind of put everybody behind the 8-ball a little bit and we kind of
fought it from there."

There was a chance that Capps could have made it into the Skoal Showdown had
he qualified third or better, but that didn't happen in his final attempt.
"Well, we're not worrying about the Skoal Showdown any more, because we're
not in. But we learned a lot from that run. And in the first run on
Saturday, Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) and the crew felt we were working on
our race-day setup.

"I feel great. We went down the track all four runs (in the extreme heat)
and hopefully we can do it four more times on Sunday."

Capps meets his teammate Whit Bazemore in first round of eliminations.

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