Sonoma: Ron Capps Saturday summary

CAPPS IS 10TH IN SONOMA QUALIFYING

SONOMA, Calif. (July 30, 2005) - Ron Capps overcame the hot and windy conditions at Infineon Raceway and qualified No. 10 for the Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals in the Brut Dodge Stratus R/T Funny Car, the last of the three-race Western Swing.

Capps posted a 4.880-second elapsed time a 312.35 mph in the cool Friday night session for that result. He and crew chief Ed "Ace" McCulloch struggled in the other passes, recording an 8.997/88.94, an 11.088/79.36, and a 5.298/196.44 in the last session.

He'll face 13-time champion and second in points John Force in the first round of eliminations on Sunday. Capps, fourth in points, could help himself and his teammate Gary Scelzi, third in points, by defeating Force in that round, which he's already done twice this season.

"Anybody is tough anymore," said the California native. "It's been a torturous weekend. The conditions today were what they probably will be tomorrow (sunny and hot). Anytime you have to face Force early in the round, it's a real challenge. We're right there in the points hunt with him."

"We're just going to go up there and race the race track. We're going to run earlier in the day than we have all weekend long tomorrow, so that will change things a little bit."

As for the qualifying effort: "You're never satisfied," he said. "None of the Brut guys are ever satisfied. Even if you're No. 1 you probably feel like you could have squeezed more out of the car. Nowadays, it's just a matter of being in the show, and once you're in the show it's been proven that you can win the race from anywhere. It doesn't really matter any more."

"On a track like this, lane choice won't make a big difference, which definitely is the case for us in the first round. From then on we'll see what happens."