Capps makes it into No. 12 in Reading qualifying

DON SCHUMACHER RACING
2009 NHRA FULL THROTTLE DRAG RACING SERIES
Round 17 of 24
25th annual NHRA NATIONALS
Maple Grove Raceway
Mohnton, Pa.
Aug. 21-23, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

CAPPS MAKES IT INTO NO. 12 IN READING QUALIFYING

MOHNTON, Pa. (Aug. 22, 2009) - Because of an early rain delay, additional
time-outs to sop up water seeping through the crevices on the track surface,
and finally another rain shower, only one qualifying round was completed
today, making it a total of two for the weekend. Fridayıs action also
suffered from a rain delay.

Ron Capps, in the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car, failed to make the field
in Friday's only qualifying session and was hoping to have a chance to get
at least one more shot today. It was an iffy day, but in that one pass he
was able to pull out a 4.208-second pass at 289.57 mph to vault himself into
the 12th spot for Sunday's eliminations. He will face Bob Tasca III in the
opening round.

"We got very lucky," said Capps, who is seeking to regain the class points
lead this weekend. He's second, 28 points behind Tony Pedregon. "NHRA did a
great job getting the track ready. We had water seeping up when the sun came
up. There was so much rain last night, and when I left the pit area last
night there was a 92-percent chance of rain all day today, so it wasn't
looking promising. To be on the outside of the show looking in with a chance
not to race on Sunday was intimidating. We've got one of the longest
qualifying streaks in Funny Car (56 straight events), and we wanted to keep
that going.

"It would have been heartbreaking if we hadn't been able to race on Sunday,
but we got the session in and we made the field. The NAPA guys did a great
job. They always give Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) a great car and it was a
very conservative run, because we needed to just get down the track. And I
don't think lane choice should be a big deal on Sunday. We've seen what Ace
can do on race day, no matter what the car's done before eliminations.

"I feel good about improving on that 4.20 (-second elapsed time).²

***