Capps barely makes Chicago Funny Car field, qualifies No. 12

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 10 of 23
CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals
Route 66 Raceway
Joliet, Ill.
Race Date: June 9-11, 2006

JOLIET, Ill. (June 10, 2006) - NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car
points leader Ron Capps had three harrowing qualifying attempts for this
weekend's CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway. He finally
made it into the No. 12 spot with a 4.771-second elapsed time at 313.00 mph
in the third round, before NHRA cancelled the fourth and final session.

A long rain delay today caused concern in the Brut Dodge Charger R/T Funny
Car camp, as Capps had not qualified for the quickest Funny Car field in
NHRA history after two runs. His first pass, a 5.326/192.11, was the result
of a parts failure, while the second run produced a 6.087/155.78 pass and a
fire under the body.

That final pass which got him into the field was not trouble-free either.
"It broke a rear-end pump," explained Capps, whose Brut team also receives
support from Knoll Gas-Torco Race Fuels. "It was a piece that came off the
car. Everybody was probably wondering what it was.

"The weekend got started with just stuff that happens with teams where you
have parts breakage," he said. "These things are under so much stress and it
broke a piece of the bottom end of the engine in our first run on Friday.
Then it broke the reverser on our second run.

"Probably what happened was that the first run kind of put a chain of events
into effect where, when it broke what it broke on the first run on Friday,
it created a tremendous amount of vibration and stress on the rest of the
parts. And some of the parts that broke didn't last as long as they would
have normally.

"This Brut Dodge has been so consistent all year that I'm not used to this.
The Brut team has really blessed me with a great car. So having fires and
having it blow up and stuff is strange. I really feel sorry for Ace (crew
chief Ed McCulloch) because he's chasing a gremlin right now.

"We're in the show. That was one of the biggest moments we've had this year.
I'm just happy we're racing on Sunday. I woke up on Saturday morning feeling
like we were not going to have a chance because of rain. It was not looking
good. There are people from Knoll Gas and Torco Fuels here, so it was good
to get into the show."

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