Bristol: Ron Capps Saturday summary

Capps Qualifies 11th at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. (May 1, 2004) -- Ron Capps drove his Skoal Racing Chevy Monte Carlo to the No. 11 qualifying position Saturday at Bristol Dragway as qualifying for the O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals was concluded.

Capps, a 14-time NHRA winner, powered his Don Prudhomme-owned Chevy flopper to a weekend-best effort of 4.870 seconds at 316.90 mph on his fourth and final qualifying attempt. Capps recorded a performance of 6.087 at 156.57 after losing traction on Saturday's first qualifying run.

"We were trying to run a low 4.80 this weekend," Capps said. "We knew that getting into the top half of the field and having lane choice wasn't as big a deal here as a lot of other tracks. Both lanes are pretty good.

"We experimented on Saturday's first run, but we're really happy with the changes we made for our final pass. That run, the car did pretty much what we wanted it to do. It spun the tires at the top end or it would have run 321 or 322 mph. We're happy with things."

Capps, who won the inaugural event at Bristol Dragway in 2001, eyes a second win at Thunder Valley when he begins Funny Car eliminations against Gary Densham at 11 a.m. (ET) on Sunday.

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