Gainesville: Ron Capps Saturday report

CAPPS EARNS NO. 3 IN GATORS QUALIFYING

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 13, 2010) - Ron Capps pulled out a stellar pass in the final of only three qualifying rounds this weekend (because of rain on Friday) of 4.070-seconds at 306.81 mph and placed the NAPA Filters Dodge Funny Car solidly into No. 3 at the 41st annual NHRA Gatornationals.

His other laps were a 4.110/303.64 (No. 5) on Friday, and a tire-smoking 8.294/77.92 (No. 5) earlier today.

"Great run," Capps said of the second-quickest pass of the session. "Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) worked real hard. The conditions in the right lane were just a little suspect earlier, so we questioned what the left lane was going to give. And, sure enough, all the cars in front of us started making good runs.

"And, right before that run, Ace reached into the timer box and started twisting a lot of knobs and said, 'Hang on.'

"I knew at half-track it was running pretty good. It's really important for us to have lane choice first round and get in the top half of the field. Just a great job by all the NAPA guys."

Capps faces Del Worsham in the opening round of Sunday's eliminations.

-source: dsr