NHRA: Points Battle Heats Up in Dallas
13 October 2000
DALLAS (Oct. 13) – For over half of the 2000 NHRA season, World Wrestling Federation driver Jerry Toliver was the man to beat in the Funny Car class. The savvy driver was rolling over the competition, including nine-time champ John Force, with relative ease and the national media was ready to crown him as the next Funny Car king. "Not so fast," Toliver said at the time. "This is just our first season with this team and there are still plenty of races left on the schedule." Toliver knew the road to the championship would be a tough one. In fact he relished the competition because he knew without it, the title would have less value. His foreshadowing became a reality seven races ago when Force roared back into the points lead. Now, the ebb and flow of the season has brought another contender into the championship picture. Buoyed by one win in seven finals this season, Ron Capps has joined the fray at the top of the points standings and Toliver finds himself battling with the young driver for second place. The next battleground for the 50-year-old Huntington, Calif., resident and the rest of the class is the 15th annual O’Reilly Fall Nationals at the all-concrete Texas Motorplex. With only three races left on the schedule, the race takes on a special air of intensity. "We’re heading into Dallas with only one thing on our mind -- win the race," said a determined Toliver. "We haven’t ended up with the results we have worked so hard for lately and now we find ourselves not only battling for the lead but for second place with Ron Capps. "We hoped to be in front pulling away at this point of the season but we’re not. It just shows the competition level of our division and amplifies the fact that we have to be at our best every race. "Dallas should be favorable to us. We make a ton of horsepower and that is one track that can handle horsepower. I’m ready to race." Toliver is only 16 points (or less than one round of competition) behind Capps for second place in the NHRA Winston championship point standings. The WWF driver wants to quickly regain the runner-up position and take dead aim at the spot he covets the most – No. 1. "We doing all we can to regain second place," Toliver said. "We wish we were battling with Force for the championship instead of Capps for the runner-up spot. But we still have a few races to go and finishing second in our first full season under Dale Armstrong leadership will make us pretty happy. "We have a competitive racecar that’s capable of running 4.80’s on any run. If we can get our ‘Rock’ Pontiac power to the ground we can surely make up the lost ground on Capps and finish the year just like we did last season – on a winning note." Toliver teammate Jim Epler also finds himself locked in an intriguing points battle for fourth place. After holding the fifth spot for most of the season, Epler now finds himself trailing Force teammate Tony Pedregon by just 59 points with three races and 414 points left up for grabs. "We beat Tony in the first round in Memphis and gained a quick 20 on him," said Epler, driver of the WWF Racing ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin Chevrolet Camaro. "But I didn’t capitalize on the situation because I went out in the next round. We have to take advantage of these opportunities and the first thing we have to do is qualify higher to gain a better starting position. That’s our plan heading into Dallas." Either way the WWF Racing team of Toliver and Epler have only three races remaining to determine their own destiny. The Funny Car class battles on a fierce playing field with every team giving it their best every weekend. The high-speed, 300-mph world of drag racing is a world in which the WWF Racing team revels. The 15th annual O’Reilly Fall Nationals Nationals starts on Friday, Oct. 20 with two qualifying runs at 2:30 and 6:30 p.m. CDT. That’s followed by two qualifying rounds on Saturday at noon and 4 p.m. The start of the race will take the green light on Sunday, Oct. 22 at 11 a.m. WWF RACING DRIVER NOTES: Jerry Toliver won his first Funny Car NHRA national event on November 14, 1999 at the Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona, Ca. For all time, Jerry Toliver will be exclusively known as the last NHRA Funny Car winner of the 20th Century. He extended the millennium trend winning the season-opening NHRA AutoZone Winternationals to become the first Funny Car winner of the new century. He continued his winning talents with a major victory at the Gainesville (FL) Raceway's Mac Tools Gatornationals in March. Toliver's quickest elapsed time is 4.831 seconds set on June 4 at the Route 66 Raceway in Chicago. He sped to his fastest mile per hour of 318.39 mph setting the mark at the 2000 O'Reilly Nationals in Houston. The World Wrestling Federation joined Toliver at the beginning of the 1999 season. He finished eighth in the 1999 NHRA Winston Funny Car championship. Jim Epler is most noted for becoming the first Funny Car driver to shatter the 300-mph barrier in October of 1993 at Heartland Park Topeka, while becoming the ninth member of the 300-mph club and 15th member of the Cragar 4-second club for Funny Cars. He has recorded four NHRA National event victories out of 11 final rounds -- the 1992 Winternationals, 1993 Winston Finals in Pomona, Calif., the 2000 SummitRacing.com Nationals at Las Vegas and his career highlight – the 2000 U.S. Nationals title. His career bests are 4.877 seconds and 313.44 mph in qualifying for the 2000 Pontiac Excitement Nationals in Columbus, Ohio.