Capps upset in second round in Texas

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 21 of 23
O'REILLY NHRA FALL NATIONALS
Texas Motorplex
Dallas, Texas
Race Dates: Oct. 7-9, 2005


DALLAS (Oct. 9, 2005) - The unparalleled battle for the 2005 NHRA POWERade
Drag Racing Series Funny Car championship took another turn this weekend at
the O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals, as the rankings re-shuffled once again.
Ron Capps, driver of the Brut Dodge Stratus R/T, was one of the victims,
after losing in the second round to Frank Pedregon.

Capps easily disposed of Jack Wyatt with a 4.831-second elapsed time at
318.92 to Wyatt's 5.151/226.77 in the opening stanza, but the Don Schumacher
Racing driver who arrived here in third just 45 points out of the lead, now
finds himself 57 markers behind event-winner and new points leader John
Force, following his loss to Pedregon in the quarterfinal.

Gary Scelzi, points leader coming into this event, lost in the first round,
as did Robert Hight and Eric Medlen. The order has re-shuffled to: Force,
Scelzi, Capps, Hight and Medlen.

Warmer track conditions were not considered necessarily the cause by the
Brut team, even though Capps, with lane choice, lost traction at the hit of
the throttle, and attempted to pedal the car to the finish line for a win.
Pedregon's run was just as ugly, but he made it across the stripe in 5.680
seconds at 191.73 mph to Capps' losing 8.309/120.35.

"Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) looked at the computer and was trying to
figure out why it did that," said Capps. "We saw (Tony Schumacher's crew
chief) Alan Johnson do it and (co-crew chiefs) Todd (Okuhara) and (Dan)
Olson do it with the Matco Tools car in front of us. We started wondering if
it was the track.

"John Force went 4.83 behind us, so the track wasn't that bad. Ace just felt
like we didn't take enough clutch out of it. It tried to make it, but the
track just wasn't as good as we thought it was going to be. And that's part
of the learning curve."

As for his Funny Car championship hopes: "Unfortunately, we're letting Force
back in there instead of making a huge run with this," he said. "It's just
going to sell a few more tickets in Vegas and Pomona and make it interesting
for the fans.

"Boy, it's getting down to it here."

Next up is the ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals at The Strip in Las Vegas on Oct.
21-23.

FUNNY CAR POINT STANDINGS:
1. John Force, 1396
2. Gary Scelzi, 1360
3. Ron Capps, 1339
4. Robert Hight, 1291
5. Eric Medlen, 1263
6. Tommy Johnson Jr., 1167
7. Whit Bazemore, 1129
8. Del Worsham, 1103
9. Tony Pedregon, 1089
10. Cruz Pedregon, 941

***