Capps bounced by Bernstein in U.S. Nats opening round

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2007 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 18 of 23
Countdown to Four
U.S. NATIONALS
O'Reilly Raceway Park
Clermont, Ind.
Aug. 31-Sept. 3, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

CAPPS BOUNCED BY BERNSTEIN IN OPENING ROUND OF U.S. NATIONALS

CLERMONT, Ind. (Sept. 3, 2007) - Ron Capps got a taste of how quickly things
can change today. After leading the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny
Car category by as much as 154 points this season, he finds himself fourth
in the Countdown to Four playoffs (which kicked off today) standings
following his first-round loss at the U.S. Nationals.

Capps fell victim to Kenny Bernstein's excellent reaction time (.045) to his
own more-than-respectable .097 (.000 is perfect) and posted the fourth
quickest elapsed time of the round, but lost on a holeshot advantage to
Bernstein. Bernstein's 4.9221/307.16 beat Capps' 4.877/316.82 by a mere four
feet.

With that, and Robert Hight's and Mike Ashley's march into the final round,
Capps fell to fourth in the re-calculated rankings and is just nine points
out of third, and 51 short of regaining the lead.

"Bernstein is one of if not the best at the Christmas Tree in the Funny Car
class," said Capps, who drove the Brut Revolution Dodge Charger R/T this
weekend. "You talk to the other Funny Car drivers and they'll tell you he's
the guy that you have to have your act together for at the starting line.
And it just makes it that much worse when we know how good a run that was
for us. It would have given us lane choice for the second round (against
Robert Hight).

"I have to fix whatever I think is wrong. I really thought I had a good
light. With the way I was staged, I felt like it wasn't a bad light.

"Kenny Bernstein paid me a compliment after Vegas. I beat him him on a
holeshot there, and then he beat me on a holeshot at Norwalk. He told me
that he doesn't sleep very good at night when he's going to race me the next
day. That's a huge compliment. I told him it was the same for me.

"It's very had to put something like that behind you," he continued. "I
wanted to throw up on the return road on the way back, just because of how
good that run was, and after yesterday I felt so confident this morning that
we were gong to have a great day. And we should have. The car ran great,
that's why it's disappointing for the team. I obviously didn't pull my part
of the rope. We'll just have to regroup and go to Memphis."

As for the Countdown to Four battle that will be waged in the next three
races, "When it gets down to like it is, this is as big a pressure as you
are ever going to have as a race car driver," said Capps. "This Countdown is
as big as it gets. I love this pressure. I love the Countdown format and
this is exactly why.

"For a long time we've been the points leader and right now we're not. And
now it's down to the next three races. We're going to have to go to Memphis
with a full head of steam.

"We're staying to test here at O'Reilly Raceway Park on Tuesday with a
brand-new car and it's going to be exciting. We had a brand-new car built by
Murf McKinney. It's a wider-cage car that we had built that the guys just
put together. We're going to make two runs Tuesday morning and try some
different things with the chassis, and then we may run it in Memphis
depending on how Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) likes it.

Next up is the O'Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals in Memphis, Tenn., Sept.
14-16.

COUNTDOWN TO FOUR FUNNY CAR STANDINGS:
1. Robert Hight, 2155 (runner-up today)
2. Mike Ashley, 2134 (winner today)
3. Tony Pedregon, 2113
4. Ron Capps, 2104
5. Jack Beckman, 2086
6. John Force, 2060
7. Gary Scelzi, 2042
8. Jim Head, 2031


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