For most of his career, NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car driver Ron Capps has been known as a guy who has always been the bridesmaid but never the bride. In his NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger, he has had the luxury of having a race car that can compete for a championship however. With crew chiefs like Roland Leong, Ed ‘The Ace’ McCulloch and the late Dale Armstrong, it’s hard to believe that Capps hasn’t secured an NHRA Mello Yello Championship.
But in 2015, Capps finished strong enough to get the championship jacket and the monster Mello Yello championship trophy. Crew chief Rahn Tobler had the Charger running consistently all year long, making five final-round appearances and snagging two wins during the regular season.
Capps had a solid outing in the Countdown to the Championship, making it to the semifinals in all but one of the six races. Unfortunately fellow Funny Car drivers Del Worsham and ‘‘Fast Jack’ Beckman had much better results. Capps finished the 2015 season fourth in the points, his highest finish since 2012.
This offseason the NAPA team made few changes to the Dodge Charger.
“We just wanted to sort of take everything apart and put everything back together and work on a few things,” Capps said in a teleconference Wednesday.
This approach surely paid off for the team as they entered the 2016 drag racing season.
“Tune up-wise [we] left it alone and sure enough we rolled out of Pomona [as the] No.2 qualifier and ended up winning the race,” Capps also said. “We have a great hot rod now. [Tobler’s] really got consistency in the clutch department which is huge. I’ve got a lot of confidence now as a driver for sure.”
By winning the season-opening race at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Calif., Capps rose to second place in career-wins by a Funny Car driver with 45. Coming into the 47th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals, he and his team look to continue their level of success on a track at which he has won three times in his career including last season.
Something that has become this team’s biggest focus is not just winning races but taking care of the little things.
Performance bonus points are awarded on each qualifying session for low elapse time (three points), second quickest time (two points) and the third quickest of each session (one point). Every single bonus point can make a difference… especially in a tight championship battle.
Capp talked about the difference between last year and what now needs to be done to “seal the deal” in winning a championship.
”The problem was, we weren’t showing up and being No. 1 qualifier and taking all those points,” he said. “We weren’t taking all those little qualifying points in every session. We weren’t setting the record. We were running well but we just weren’t running the big, big numbers like that and that’s a conscious thing that Ron and the guys worked on in the offseason. Look, Pomona, we were No. 2 qualifier; Phoenix, No. 1 qualifier. And we stole a lot of those little points in qualifying that are extra bonus points. So that’s what we didn’t do in the last few years.”
Former UCLA basketball head coach John Wooden once said: “It’s the little details that are vital. Little things makes the big things happen.”
Having a car that can get down the track on every pass is half the battle in drag racing. But it will take the concerted effort of grabbing the small points that will get Ron Capps his first NHRA Championship of his career.