Denver Chevy Final Notes

CHEVROLET NOTES AND QUOTES MOPAR PARTS MILE-HIGH NATIONALS NHRA WINSTON DRAG RACING SERIES BANDIMERE SPEEDWAY SUNDAY, JULY 19, 1998

FUNNY CAR -- CAMARO Z28

FINALS NOTE

RON CAPPS, COPENHAGEN CAMARO Z28, made his seventh Funny Car final-around appearance today, facing off against Tony Pedregon. It was close, very close, but it was Pedregon first by inches at the finish line, winning on a holeshot advantage with an e.t. of 5.417 seconds, at 282.30 mph, to Ron's 5.399/279.93 (reaction times: .476 for Pedregon, .500 for Capps.) Ron has won two Funny Car titles this season, and two last year.

CAPPS: "When we left the starting line I saw him and then I didn't. About half track I could see from my peripheral vision his car starting to fade, and I started gaining. I figured if he started to haze the tires I knew the Camaro would be planted really well to the finish. I thought I had him and then his fender caught my eye. At the finish line it was so close I knew I'd either lost or I'd won. When the camera guys go to the other car it's a bad sign."

"It broke a header about 800 feet, sparks were flying inside the Camaro. It probably affected some of the e.t. The car is dragging on the ground, it rubbed the whole bottom of the header down. It doesn't matter, we had a great weekend. We gained 40 points on John Force and we have the same body on the car. If you can leave Denver with the same body, you're doing good. We hardly hurt any parts, probably just one piston. We probably hurt more pistons in the box we shipped from the shop in Vista (Calif.) to the shop in Indianapolis."

"We're going to Sonoma, where we won last year, we were one of the most consistent cars all weekend, and we were one of the few cars to get down the right lane in qualifying. We're happy, but when you come that close to winning you don't want to lose."

Points:

FUNNY CAR John Force (Ford) 869 Chuck Etchells (Chevy) 868 Ron Capps (Chevy) 817 Cruz Pedregon (Pontiac) 736