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Amato Capps and Edwards Win Castrol Lone Star Nationals ENNIS, Texas - SUMMIT FastNews - Joe Amato, Ron Capps and Mike Edwards claimed victories Sunday at the second-annual Castrol Lone Star Nationals presented by HiLo/O'Reilly's at the Texas ...

Edited: May 8, 2001, 12:19 PM

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Amato Capps and Edwards Win Castrol Lone Star Nationals

ENNIS, Texas - SUMMIT FastNews - Joe Amato, Ron Capps and Mike Edwards claimed victories Sunday at the second-annual Castrol Lone Star Nationals presented by HiLo/O'Reilly's at the Texas Motorplex.

The $1.7-million events was the seventh stop in the 22-race, $30-million NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series.

Amato and Edwards picked up their first victories of the 1998 season while Capps was collecting his second.

Amato, the five-time Winston champion from Old Forge, Pa., took the Top Fuel victory over Doug Kalitta, a former sprint car champion who replaced his cousin, Scott Kalitta, who retired at the end of the 1997 season.

Amato offset Kalitta's performance advantage with a better reaction time at the starting line for the win. Amato covered the quarter-mile distance in 4.695 seconds at 313.58 mph in the Tenneco Dragster to Kalitta's 4.686 at 312.82.

Amato, driver of the Tenneco Automotive Top Fueler, said he felt like the underdog coming into the final, but that they did not want to beat themselves by going up in smoke. He is excited because he believes "the boys now know how to race on a hot race track."

Capps defeated John Force to keep the seven-time Winston Funny Car champion winless in 1998. Capps had a 4.960 at 292.39 in the Copenhagen Chevrolet to Force's tire-smoking 6.463 at 146.93 in the debut of the Elvis-themed Castrol GTX Mustang.

Capps explained "we got lucky and that's what it takes a lot of times. We ran a 4.94 to get into the show. We then ran the 4.92 in the first round and I knew we could run it again, then it dropped cylinders in the next two rounds. Roland Leong (crew chief) decided to pull out the motor and put in a new one for the finals."

The NHRA Winston Championship points in Funny Car were reshuffled with runner-up John Force taking the lead, and Ron Capps jumping into the number two spot.

Edwards' quicker reaction time offset Kurt Johnson's performance advantage in the Pro Stock final. Edwards had a 7.024 at 195.56 in the KJ Racing Pontiac Firebird to Johnson's 7.018 at 196.89.

Results provided by the FastNews Network, courtesy of Summit Racing Equipment ** http://www.summitracing.com/ **

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