Capps races to quarters in Memphis, falls to second in points

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 17 of 23
O'REILLY NHRA MID-SOUTH NATIONALS
Memphis (Tenn.) Motorsports Park
Race Date: Aug. 18-20, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

CAPPS RACES TO QUARTERFINALS IN MEMPHIS; FALLS TO SECOND IN POINTS

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Aug. 21, 2006) - Ron Capps returned to Memphis Motorsports
Park this morning following Sunday's rain-out after the near completion of
only one round of eliminations at the O'Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals. He
easily defeated Cruz Pedregon in that Funny Car opening round on Sunday with
a solid 5.058-second elapsed time at 292.08 mph under hot and humid
conditions. Unfortunately, before the noon bell rang today, he was on the
sidelines, and by 12:30 p.m. he was out of the points lead. He's now second
in the rankings, 17 markers behind today's winner John Force.

The driver of the Brut Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car faced Tony Pedregon in
the quarterfinal on another warm yet cloudy and damp morning in Memphis, but
the result was not what he had hoped for, as Tony Pedregon outran him to the
finish line with a 4.892-second elapsed time at 313.44 mph. Capps, who also
receives support from Knoll Gas-Torco Race Fuels, lost the contest by .0781
of a second as he crossed the stripe in 4.941 seconds at 302.89 mph.

"The conditions were tough, and it was the same for everybody," said Capps,
who had lane choice over Pedregon. "I don't feel like lane choice was any
factor at all. The Brut Dodge ran great to half track and Ace (crew chief Ed
McCulloch) is pretty upset with himself because he did some things to make
sure it made it to the finish line at the other end, as there are a few
bumps here. He probably backed it down more than he wanted to, in hindsight.
That's when Tony came around me. We had great numbers early.

"It didn't put cylinders out and it didn't do anything weird. It didn't hurt
the motor, it just didn't run as hard to the finish line as it should've.

"We had the car to beat yesterday in the heat and adapting is the biggest
part of the whole thing. And we didn't adapt as well that round. It was
funny. (Teammate Whit) Bazemore had his fire (also in the quarters today)
and it was a pretty long clean-up and the sun started peeking through and I
said, 'Oh, no,' because we set it up to go up there in (somewhat) cool
conditions. Then I thought to myself, 'Hey, we ran by far the best ET in the
heat yesterday, so come on out, sun.' As soon as I thought that, the sun hid
again, went back in behind the clouds. It's just a part of it all."

As for the Funny Car championship chase, "It's going to be fun to the end of
the year, no question. I'm going to get in my motor home and drive to Indy
today because we're testing this week and I'm going to match race the
nostalgia car next weekend in Cordova, Ill. (at The World Series of Drag
Racing). 

"There's so many big things happening in Indy right now. I've been excited
about actually getting past the Memphis race and looking at all the new
stuff that Brut's coming out with. The fans are going to be excited about
what happens in Indy and from here on out. I can't wait."

Capps gave the Memphis fans much credit for enduring the extreme heat here
to watch the NHRA races this weekend. "You hear a lot of drivers complain
about the heat," he said, "but the fans are the ones paying a lot of money
to come into the gate. Hopefully NHRA makes a mental note to do something
with this race (re-schedule it, for example), because it's too bad that it's
so hot out here."

Next up is the prestigious U.S. Nationals at O'Reilly Raceway Park in
Cleremont, Ind., Aug. 30-Sept. 4.

FUNNY CAR POINT STANDINGS:
1. John Force, 1243 (winner today)
2. Ron Capps, 1226
3. Tony Pedregon, 1079 (runner-up today)
4. Eric Medlen, 1060
5. Robert Hight, 1024
6. Tommy Johnson Jr., 972
7. Gary Scelzi, 968
8. Whit Bazemore, 861
9. Del Worsham, 717
10. Cruz Pedregon, 707

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