NHRA
Denver: Ron Capps preview
CAPPS READY FOR DENVER AND WESTERN SWING CARLSBAD, Calif. (July 7, 2009) - Ron Capps and the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car team are ready to attack the grueling three-race Western Swing, beginning with this weekend's Mopar Mile-High Nationals at ...
Published: Oct 2, 2009, 4:41 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
CAPPS READY FOR DENVER AND WESTERN SWING
CARLSBAD, Calif. (July 7, 2009) - Ron Capps and the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car team are ready to attack the grueling three-race Western Swing, beginning with this weekend's Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway, outside of Denver. In his career 29 national-event wins in 59 final rounds he has never conquered the track carved out of the mountain.
"I just got off the phone with my crew chief, Ace (Ed McCulloch)," said Capps, third in the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle point standings, "and we talked about a lot of things. His last words to me were, 'Get ready because we're going to have a very good Western Swing.' And that excites me. He has his game face on.
"Obviously, you're a mile high in Denver, there's hardly any oxygen and it's very warm there," added Capps, a four-time winner this year whose best results in Denver were runner-ups in 1998 and 2007. "It's very tough for a crew chief to make a car run there and physically for a driver it's one of the most demanding tracks we go to.
"Denver separates the great crew chiefs form the OK crew chiefs. If you don't have your act together as a crew chief in Denver you're going to hurt parts because it's very hard on parts in the first place," said Capps, whose tuner McCulloch won the Funny Car class in Denver in 1990. "And then you have to be ready for the next two weekends in Seattle and Sonoma, Calif., where the conditions will change again dramatically for each of those events. It's a tough three-race swing. It challenges every aspect of your capabilities as a crew chief and a driver.
"We came from very difficult conditions in Norwalk (Ohio) two weeks ago. It was hot and the track surface posed a lot of problems with tire spin. In Denver we're going to have a very good track. It's going to be hot, but we're also going to have two night qualifying sessions on Friday and Saturday, so the fans are going to enjoy seeing the flames coming out of the pipes.
"For us drivers, that's always something cool. It takes you back to being a kid watching these cars race at night."
-credit: dsr
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Denver: Allen Johnson preview
Next article Denver: Del Worsham preview
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Ron Capps
Capps, Torrence, Hines win Southern Nationals in Atlanta
NHRA
NHRA
Atlanta
Capps, Torrence, Hines win Southern Nationals in Atlanta
Capps, Schumacher score their first wins of 2018
NHRA
NHRA
Bristol
Capps, Schumacher score their first wins of 2018
Motorama show offers Canadian fans chance to warm up for race season
NASCAR Canada
NASCAR Canada
Motorama show offers Canadian fans chance to warm up for race season
Latest news
MotoGP Malaysian GP: Marc Marquez takes dominant win to inch closer to title
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Malaysian GP
43 min
MotoGP Malaysian GP: Marc Marquez takes dominant win to inch closer to title
MotoGP riders step up pressure in final bid to avoid Qatar Grand Prix
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Malaysian GP
1 h
MotoGP riders step up pressure in final bid to avoid Qatar Grand Prix
Live: MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix as it happens
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Malaysian GP
1 h
Live: MotoGP Malaysian Grand Prix as it happens
Carson Kvapil gets Rodney Childers a clock and the O'Reilly Chase is wide open now
NASCAR O'Reilly
NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly
Martinsville II
3 h
Carson Kvapil gets Rodney Childers a clock and the O'Reilly Chase is wide open now
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe