Capps out in first round in Pomona, ends season fourth in points

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2007 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES
Final Round of Countdown to One
Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals
Pomona (Calif.) Raceway
Nov. 1-4, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

CAPPS OUT IN FIRST ROUND IN POMONA, FINISHES SEASON FOURTH IN POINTS

POMONA, Calif. (Nov. 4, 2007) - Ron Capps came into today's Funny Car
eliminations at the Auto Club NHRA Finals with a chance of claiming second
place in the 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.

The driver of the Brut Revolution Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car instead will
take home a fourth-place trophy after he was defeated in the opening round
by Phil Burkart Jr., driving the John Force Racing entry.

Also exiting in the first round were No. 1 in points Tony Pedregon and No. 2
Gary Scelzi. Pedregon, however, clinched the championship when No. 3 Robert
Hight made it into the final round without establishing a national
elapsed-time national record for 20 bonus points. With only the final round
available to produce a record run and a back-up, the 2007 season
championship chase was over.

Capps faced Burkart in the first stanza with a car he knew was right on
after struggling during qualifying. But a .110 reaction time to Burkart's
.052 was Capps' demise, as his stout 4.822-second run at 323.35 mph was for
naught. Burkart outran Capps by nine feet to take the victory with a slower
4.861/317.57.

"As a driver, I just flat out made a rookie mistake," said a disappointed
Capps, who has yet to win a Funny Car championship. "He was in deep, my
stage light had come on, and out of the corner of my eye I saw his top light
blink. When we left the starting line I kind of said to myself, Good try,
Phil. He's got to do what he's got to do in that car. Apparently it did bug
me, because my light was a .110 and that's pretty sub-par for me. It's a
little better than I was in qualifying. I was pretty consistent qualifying
at .120s. Race day is a different deal for all the drivers. And everybody
knows the game up there. I never let those things get to me. I've really
worked hard on never letting them get to me, but obviously it happened and
it's just something you can't do.

"It's terrible to end the year this way. We really were fighting to finish
with a No. 2 on the car and, to be honest with you, Ace (crew chief Ed
McCulloch) worked so hard overnight on what plagued us on Saturday. The car
was just shaking the tires loose and it barely made it on Friday. He then
kind of went in both directions in the tune-up to fix it and on Saturday
neither of them helped. So he was a little bit baffled. And I tell you, as
usual, and I've said it time and time again, he did his homework and fixed
what was plaguing us. We had a great car Sunday morning, and the driver just
didn't do his job. 

"Ace is a great leader. I hate to let him and the Brut Dodge crew guys down
with a holeshot loss. The good part is I have great guys around me and we're
a great team. We work great together and we're real excited about next year.
I just really wanted to give Brut Revolution a win on their way out as a
major sponsor and it just didn't happen this time."

Capps wrapped up the 2007 season: "I would wrap it up by saying it was a
learning experience. I know you learn every year, but being the first year
of the Countdown to the Championship points system, I felt like we really,
really showed a lot of brilliance in the beginning of the year. Obviously,
we learned that we're not going to back off and try to test. We had such a
great points lead (by as much as 154) that we decided to test, and I think
that affected our mindset in a lot of ways.

"I think there are going to be a lot of teams that are going to sit back and
really approach the Countdown differently next year. We really thought we
had a great game plan. We didn't want do the last-minute effort to make it
into the Countdown to One like we did in Richmond. We don't want to have to
do that next year.

"I think NHRA is going to make some adjustments to the Countdown format and
we're going to have to adjust our mindset to it. But, overall, I think more
than anything it was a learning experience. I think it was a learning
experience for everyone, the NHRA and the teams. I think it's just going to
get better and better every year. I think the fans really got more
excitement, and with HD Partners coming in, it's a great time to be in in
NHRA right now. I'm really proud to be involved with the sport right now."

For those interested in how this championship season would have turned out
for Capps under the previous points format, Capps would have ended up second
to Robert Hight, winner today, by 15 points, but ahead of newly-crowned
champion Tony Pedregon by 20 points.

RON CAPPS 2007 SEASON WRAP-UP:
* Fourth in the final point standings
* Three wins in seven final rounds
* Two semifinal finishes
* Four quarterfinal finishes
* Nine first rounds
* One DNQ
* 32-19 round win-loss record

FINAL 2007 FUNNY CAR POINT STANDINGS:
1. Tony Pedregon, 3178 (champion)
2. Robert Hight, 3159 (winner today)
3. Gary Scelzi, 3092
4. Ron Capps, 3067
5. Jack Beckman, 2358
6. Mike Ashley, 2337
7. John Force, 2191
8. Jim Head, 2153
9. Del Worsham, 1050
10. Ashley Force, 960

***