Dallas: Ron Capps Saturday summary

Capps Qualifies 11TH At Dallas ENNIS, Texas. (Sept. 25, 2004) -- Ron Capps, who debuted a new Murf McKinney chassis at the O'Reilly Fall Nationals this weekend, raced his green Skoal RacingSM Chevy Monte Carlo to the No. 11 qualifying position ...

Capps Qualifies 11TH At Dallas

ENNIS, Texas. (Sept. 25, 2004) -- Ron Capps, who debuted a new Murf McKinney chassis at the O'Reilly Fall Nationals this weekend, raced his green Skoal RacingSM Chevy Monte Carlo to the No. 11 qualifying position Saturday at the Texas Motorplex.

Capps, who won at the Motorplex in 1998, posted his best qualifying performance on Saturday's first effort when he used a tune-up from veteran crew chief Roland Leong to power his Don Prudhomme-owned Chevy flopper to a run of 4.892 seconds at 313.44 mph, placing him 11th out of the 19 cars that attempted to make the cut this weekend. Capps finished qualifying with a pass of 5.294 at 204.54.

"We're happy with how the car performed," Capps said. "The guys are really finding that they can get after it quite a bit more with the new car. Obviously, we're not fighting for the championship, so we're trying things that we can work on for next season. The only way you're going to get ahead in the Funny Car class is to try new things. The car is great to drive and it seems like we can run the numbers we want to run with it."

The 14-time NHRA winner aims to earn his second career victory at the Texas Motorplex on Sunday when he battles No. 6 qualifier Cruz Pedregon in the first round of eliminations at 11 a.m. (CT). Capps has a 7-5 career mark against Pedregon.