Capps keeps on testing, takes No. 6 in Seattle qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2209 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 14 of 24
NHRA NORTHWEST NATIONALS
Pacific Raceways
Kent, Wash.
July 17-19, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

CAPPS KEEPS ON TESTING, TAKES NO. 6 IN SEATTLE QUALIFYING

KENT, Wash. (July 18, 2009) - Funny Car class points leader Ron Capps and
legendary crew chief Ed "Ace" McCulloch once again took advantage of certain
atmospheric and track surface conditions to test components on the NAPA AUTO
PARTS Dodge Funny Car during qualifying for the NHRA Northwest Nationals. As
a result, Capps qualified No. 6 for the event and will face Cruz Pedregon in
the opening round of Sunday's eliminations.

Capps' quickest lap of 4.245 seconds at 274.94 mph came in today's third
session, which followed two tire-smoking runs of 7.038/90.24 and 6.953/91.15
on Friday. The final session produced a similar 6.882/90.42.

"Qualifying was, to say the least, interesting for us," he said. "We came
off the win in Denver and Ace had been planning on doing some testing here
for sure in Seattle and Sonoma on some pretty significant things with the
NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge. And he was pretty impressed with what he saw in
Friday qualifying.

"Even though the car didn't go down the track - and what you learn out here
through trial and error sometimes is that these things don't actually work -
he's real happy with what he¹s learned.

"So, he left those components on for Saturday, and, of course, qualifying
No. 6 was good because we needed lane choice. On top of that it just showed
that he's getting a handle on everything.

"We're trying to gear up for the Countdown (the playoffs held in the final
six races of the year), but at the same time we want to win races for NAPA.
It's a tough position to be in. To be able to start from No. 6 is a great
effort by Ace and the NAPA guys.

"These two lanes here are very, very tricky and very demanding on a crew
chief and very demanding on a driver. So, everybody's got to be on his
game."

***