Points leader Capps lands in No. 4 in Houston qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 4 of 23
O'REILLY NHRA SPRING NATIONALS
Houston Raceway
Race Date: March 31-April 2, 2006


BAYTOWN, Texas (April 1, 2006) - Funny Car points leader Ron Capps overcame
mechanical glitches and different weather and track conditions so far this
season at this fourth event of the 2006 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, to
qualify a solid No. 4 at the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston
Raceway.

The driver of the Brut Dodge Charger R/T saved the best for last, posting a
4.766-second elapsed time at 319.14 mph in the final qualifying round today
in warm and humid air, which followed a 10.320/81.87 (DNQ), a 4.800/322.65
(No. 8), and a 6.398/140.17 (remained in No. 8) earlier in the weekend.

"You look at my teammate Gary Scelzi not qualifying, and it reminds you of
how finicky these cars are and how hard it is to just qualify at one of
these events," said Capps. "And it wasn't just us, but everybody was having
problems.

"We may have won the last race, but you have to show up the next event and
you have to adapt to what's going on. We have completely different
conditions this weekend, with more humidity, and a different track. Some
guys adapted right to it, but it took some guys some hard work. For us, we
worked at it. 

"It was a good time to do it, at the end of the day," he said of the final
pass. "This afternoon's conditions will be similar to Sunday's and I hope we
can go a few rounds. We just feel like we finally got a handle on
everything.

"We exploded the fuel tank for some odd reason in the Friday night run after
the shut-down area, which was strange, so we had to find another fuel tank.
A lot of little things are testing us and adversity is being thrown at us
and the guys are doing a great job.

"The .76 was great, because we needed to move up in the Skoal Showdown, and
we did that, and it gave us lane choice first round and that's the two
things we worried about."

Capps faces Frank Pedregon in first round of eliminations on Sunday.