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Indianapolis Sunday Recap

CLERMONT IN - SUMMIT FastNews - First the success story - Ron Capps repeated as the Big Bud Shootout at Indianapolis winner. Danny Sullivan came famous as the "spin and win" driver, but Capps may become known as the "burn 'em down and win" ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

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CLERMONT IN - SUMMIT FastNews - First the success story - Ron Capps repeated as the Big Bud Shootout at Indianapolis winner. Danny Sullivan came famous as the "spin and win" driver, but Capps may become known as the "burn 'em down and win" driver. Capps' Copenhagen Camaro went up in flames in his first-round victory over a tire-smoking Dean Skuza and Capps had to sneak out of the medical center early to make the call for the second round. Meanwhile, his team, aided by a large crew of volunteers, rebui lt the charred car, put on the spare body, and Capps met Del Worsham in the semifinals. Once again Capps won over a tire-smoking opponent and once again his car kicked out some connecting rods and caught on fire. This time the fire was small and Capps put it out with the onboard extinguishers. In the finals, Tony Pedregon, who made two four-second runs in the first two rounds, looked like an easy winner and had a substantial lead at half track. But then Pedregon had engine problems of his own and Capps sailed by for the win, shutting the engine down as he went by Pedregon to make sure he didn't have a third fire. The win put $100,000 in Capps' account, with a potential for another $50,000 bonus if he can also win the U.S. Nationals Monday. The final day of qualifying for the 45th annual U.S.Nationals proved to be a brutal one, the heat and humidity making life difficult for those trying to get into the already quick fields and even tougher for those who were bumped out during the day and tried to get back in. Though the top of each of the four fields remained the same, there was a lot going on around the bump spot in each category. Ask Kenny Bernstein. Before qualifying started, Bernstein was on the short list of likely winners since he was second in the points and had just missed winning several times already this year. Bernstein was shuffled down to the bump spot in the first of two qualifying sessions Sunday and then was bumped by youngster Andrew Cowin in the second session. Running later in the session, with the track shaded by the stands, Bernstein came up short of the U.S. Nationals quickest bump spot ever, Cowin's 4.707. Or ask Larry Dixon. Hot off the Top Fuel win at Brainerd two weeks ago, Dixon was never able to break into the field, coming up with a best of 4.782 against the 4.707 bump. Ask John Force. Force squeaked into the field in the first session Sunday and made his only four-second run of the event in the final session to move away from the bump spot for the quickest Funny Car field ever. Ask Al Hofmann and Cruz Pedregon, who could not get in and Chuck Etchells, on the bump spot at 5.081 seconds. Ask Dale Creasy Jr., who sacrificed his body in a vain attempt to get into the field. Well, at least he sacrificed the body of his '99 Firebird, which sailed high in the air when Creasy had a huge engine explosion as the car neared the finish line. In Pro Stock, ask Steve Schmidt and Darrell Alderman, who matched the bump ET of 7.001 but had speeds too slow to make the field. And in Pro Stock Motorcycle, ask Brian Ayers, who made one of the quickest passes of the final session at 7.544, too slow to make it in past the 7.532 bump time. The heat and humidity took their toll on the Pro Stock Truck racers too, seven of the top eight qualifiers falling in the first two round of eliminations. The only survivor from the top eight is sixth-qualifier Greg Stanfield. The number three and four qualifiers, Randy Daniels and Brad Jeter, went down in the first round. The others, including number one qualifier Mark Osborne and number two qualifier Bob Panella, fell in the second. Final eliminations Monday are predicted to be under different weather conditions, about ten degrees cooler with a chance of rain. Pray for cooler, but not wetter. Results provided by the FastNews Network, courtesy of Summit Racing Equipment ** http://www.summitracing.com/ **

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