Capps lands in quarters in Sonoma, slips to second in points

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2009 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 15 of 24
FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals
Infineon Raceway
Sonoma, Calif.
July 24-26, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

CAPPS LANDS IN QUARTERS IN SONOMA, SLIPS TO SECOND IN POINTS

SONOMA, Calif. (July 26, 2009) - No. 14 qualifier Ron Capps defeated No. 3
qualifier Ashley Force Hood in the opening round of Funny Car eliminations
before exiting in the second round to another John Force Racing team driver,
Robert Hight. With that, and Tony Pedregon's reaching the final round, Capps
slipped to second place, and is 11 points behind Pedregon, who was runner-up
today to Tim Wilkerson.

Driving the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge, Capps eliminated Force Hood, who edged
out Capps at the starting line, with a 4.277-second reaction time at 287.35
mph when she lost traction. The popular daughter of 14-time national
champion John Force slowed to a losing 4.713/192.80 pass.

Facing Hight in the second round, without lane choice, Capps struck the
tires early, coasting to a 6.193/118.71 pass. Hight also smoked the tires,
but it was later in the run and he was able to cross the finish line first
with a 4.627/242.02.

"This weekend things didn't seem to be flowing the way we wanted them to and
going in our direction," said Capps, a five-time season titlist. "You really
have to work a lot harder on just everything. And things kept popping up
that threw us hurdles, but the NAPA team has done a great job all weekend to
get around them.

"To get in the show was a major hurdle in the heat of the day on Saturday
and then, of course, first round against Ashley was pretty good. I saw her
out the window and she was about a car length on me, and then she pulled the
tires loose. We also had problems going on with a cylinder out. So, we felt
that was a lucky win.

"And then we created kind of our own misfortune in the second round because
Robert had problems and so did we. We pulled the tires loose. It's all
hindsight. It's easy to look back and say 'Ah, if we would have gone down
the track we would have beat them.

"Tough conditions. It was very hot and it was a very grueling weekend for a
lot of teams here. We're just looking forward to a couple of weeks' break
before we go to Brainerd."

Next up is the NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minn., Aug. 14-16.

UNOFFICIAL FUNNY CAR POINT STANDINGS, after 15 of 24 events:
1. Tony Pedregon, 1101 (runner-up today)
2. Ron Capps, 1090
3. Ashley Force Hood, 1054
4. Tim Wilkerson, 919 (winner today)
5. Jack Beckman, 889
6. Bob Tasca, 841
7. Del Worsham, 824
8. John Force, 772
9. Mike Neff, 740
10. Cruz Pedregon, 713
11. Matt Hagan, 707
12. Robert Hight, 678

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