NHRA

Pomona Ron Capps at Winternationals Review

POMONA, Calif. - Ron Capps was involved in one of the closest Funny Car finishes Sunday, but the win light went to Gary Densham in the first round of the season-opening AutoZone Winternationals at Pomona Raceway. Capps, beginning his ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

POMONA, Calif. - Ron Capps was involved in one of the closest Funny Car finishes Sunday, but the win light went to Gary Densham in the first round of the season-opening AutoZone Winternationals at Pomona Raceway.

Capps, beginning his fourth season at the controls of Don "The Snake" Prudhomme's U.S. Tobacco Co. Camaro Funny Car, was ahead until the final 300 feet. That's when the car's rear tires lost traction and Densham was able to gain the advantage, winning by seven-thousandths of a second. Densham won with a 5.166-second, 292.46-mph time to Capps' 5.163 at 278.40.

"The car left the starting line great and was running good," Capps recalled, "and was probably on a high 4.90-second run when, for some reason, it struck the tires real hard about three seconds into the run. It doesn't do that too often that far down-track. I gave the throttle a quick pedal and that saved it but Densham was right next to me. Then he nosed ahead of me and beat us. It was heartbreaking.

"We'd tested so well at Phoenix (three weeks ago) and were pretty excited about coming here but we got stuck behind the 8-ball," continued Capps. "We had to replace the fuel pump before Saturday's qualifying and that's like starting all over again, and we didn't get down the track on either run."

Capps lauded crew chief Ed "Ace" McCulloch, who "made a really good call" in getting the car ready for Densham. "The incremental times had us ahead by seven-hundredths (of a second) at half-track and almost four-hundredths at 1000 feet, before the tires started smoking."

    The next event, the Checkers-Schucks-Kragen Nationals, takes place
Feb.  25-27 at Phoenix.

Qualified: Sixth, 5.016 seconds at 296.24 mph. First round: Gary Densham def. Capps.

Pro winners: Gary Scelzi, Top Fuel; Jerry Toliver, Funny Car; Jeg Coughlin Jr., Pro Stock

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

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Pomona Pro Stock Truck Qualifying Final Order

Next article Pomona Chevy S-10 Race Report

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

NASCAR VP explains Carson Hocevar, Josh Berry penalties

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Martinsville II

8 h

NASCAR VP explains Carson Hocevar, Josh Berry penalties

Colton Herta to run Cadillac FP1 in Brazil as FIA superlicense quest continues

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Mexican GP

8 h

Colton Herta to run Cadillac FP1 in Brazil as FIA superlicense quest continues

NASCAR issues penalties to Carson Hocevar and Josh Berry for Martinsville brake-checks

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Martinsville II

9 h

NASCAR issues penalties to Carson Hocevar and Josh Berry for Martinsville brake-checks

NASCAR making progress with short track show but drivers still want more

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Martinsville II

10 h

NASCAR making progress with short track show but drivers still want more

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