Capps is No. 11 in Pomona qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2005 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 23 of 23
AUTOMOBILE CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NHRA FINALS
Pomona (Calif.) Raceway
Nov. 3-6, 2005

POMONA, Calif. (Nov. 5, 2005) - Ron Capps and the Brut Dodge Stratus Funny
Car came out of the box strong for this weekend's Automobile Club of
Southern California NHRA Finals, qualifying No. 3 on the first day of
qualifying with a 4.768-second ET at 326.63 mph, then struggled to get back
into the top half of the field in the ensuing rounds.

After the second session, Capps was ninth (11.138/79.81). He held onto No. 9
after the third round (4.808/319.14), then picked it up again in the final
attempt, posting a 4.774/323.04, which earned him the 10th spot in the
quickest Funny Car field in NHRA history, the fourth such feat in the last
five events.

In the tightest NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car championship
chase in history, Capps is now eight points behind his teammate and No. 1
qualifier Gary Scelzi and 24 ahead of John Force.

"We definitely went up there to fire a shot," he said of the last session.
"Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) is looking at the computer to figure out why
it didn't do what we wanted it to do. I know definitely he was shooting for,
if not the pole, then close to it.

"Lane choice for the first round is important. Qualifying is over. It's
Sunday we concentrate on now and we won't have lane choice. If you would
have asked anybody on Friday, the right lane was pretty much junk compared
to the left lane, and yet the right lane came around.

"Hopefully nothing happens during Top Fuel (in first round) and the lanes
stay pretty even like they are because guys are running pretty good in both
lanes."

Capps faces Del Worsham in first round of eliminations on Sunday and is on
the same side of the ladder as Force. Scelzi is on the other side. "Worsham
is definitely not the guy you want to pull," he said, "but you look at any
in the top 16 and there is not one guy in there you'd rather have. Ace and I
talked earlier. All year long, every race we've won it's been hard-fought
and we've had to race the best of them every run, so I'd almost rather have
it this way, I guess."