Snake Racing Sheds Ron Capps
“Skoal Green” driver resigns from Don Prudhomme’s organization after eight seasons
by Susan Wade; Photos by Roger Richards, James Drew & Brian Wood

Don Prudhomme Racing made official Wedesday afternoon what the drag-racing world had known or suspected for at least a couple of months: Ron Capps is leaving the organization.

Prudhomme said in a prepared statement, "Our plan is to continue racing with Tommy Johnson Jr. and Larry Dixon next season, while also considering other opportunities that would allow us to field either an additional Top Fuel dragster or Funny Car in 2005."

The press release did not indicate Capps’ plans for next season and beyond. He is believed to be joining Don Schumacher Racing, with sponsor Brut cologne.

However, neither Capps nor Schumacher Racing has announced it or confirmed any such plans.

Tom LoBosco, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company senior director of 1-on-1 marketing, said in a late-Wednesday press release, "We value the eight-year relationship we had with Ron and wish him continued success in his future endeavors. We also remain steadfast in our belief that NHRA Drag Racing remains one of the most exhilarating sports in the nation. As an official NHRA sponsor and our continued support of Tommy Johnson, Jr., we look forward to the 2005 season and the continued growth of drag racing."

Capps resigned from Snake Racing. However, it is unknown whether Capps was forced to do so because of a performance clause in his contact with Skoal. UST spokesman Jon Schwartz said late Wednesday, "Ron decided to move on on his own." He added that UST’s contract is with Snake Racing and that terms are not disclosed.

When asked last Sunday morning whether he had to meet terms of such a clause, Capps grinned uncomfortably and wagged his index finger in an "I’m-not-going-there" gesture.

Teammate Johnson said he has no idea if he is being held to a specific performance yardstick.

"I don’t know. That’s between Snake and them and not between me," Johnson said. Furthermore, he said, "I don’t want to know that. That’s just added pressure I don’t need to know about. I do the best I can. If there’s problems like that, it’s none of my business. I’ve got enough things to think about without that stuff. That doesn’t drive you any harder. It’s irrelevant, really. You want to win every week."

Whether that was an issue has become irrelevant, too. What was most important to Capps is that everyone understood has no venom toward Snake Racing. No matter whatever happened, he said, he is grateful for his association with Don Prudhomme and Skoal and the opportunities he had had with them since he switched from the Top Fuel class in 1997.

"My relationship with Snake is like a father-son relationship," Capps said. "I hope that stays that way forever."

The feeling appears to be mutual. "My relationship with Ron is more than just a driver/owner relationship," Prudhomme said in his statement. "More importantly, we are very close friends and will remain that. I wish Ron all the success at whatever venture he decides to pursue."

Together they won 13 races, finished as runner-up 15 times, and earned six No. 1 qualifier awards. In addition, they were three-time champions of the $100,000-to-win Budweiser Shootout Funny Car specialty race (known now as the Skoal Showdown) in six appearances.

Prudhomme never held back Capps from racing in other venues or from promotional opportunities outside NHRA Funny car competition.

"He’s the best. He’s just a racer at heart," Capps said fondly of Prudhomme.

He allowed Capps to become the first drag racer ever to drive IROC car, testing at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway in 2003. This past August, Capps won the 15-lap Skip Barber Formula Dodge race at the Mid-Ohio road course after qualifying on the pole -- a real departure from straight-line drag racing with the track’s 15-turn, 2.4-mile layout. He drove a Danny Lasoski-owned midget car in the annual O’Reilly’s Chili Bowl in January at Tulsa, Okla., with NASCAR driver Ken Schrader as his other teammate. Capps also has driven Busch Series cars and SCRA sprinters.

Through his position with Skoal Racing, Capps was invited to fly with the Blue Angels, and he met numerous celebrities at and away from the track.

"There have been times in the past I’ve had offers that would be a dream for anybody," Capps said. "But I was in the best place that I could imagine I could be in -- with Don Prudhomme. I couldn’t imagine a better owner. I still can’t. It was very much a compliment to be able to do the IROC race, the Formula race, all that stuff. Offers came up in the past, but you feel like you’re in the best place."

Capps didn’t elaborate, but he indicated during the Auto Club of Southern California NHRA Finals that he had several career options for 2005.

"I’m friends with Tony Stewart. I’m real good friends with Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon and those guys, and to have somebody pay you a compliment, somebody who’s the best the in the world at being a race car driver, and have those guys even consider you, it’s pretty amazing, not only to turn down stuff but to . . . You know, it’s tough."

He was evasive about the type of opportunity he had, saying, "I had an offer to go over there somewhere. But drag racing’s my love."

He said he had faith that his situation would improve.

"I always feel like no matter what, when we pull to the starting line, I have a shot at winning the race. I really feel that way, no matter how bad we’re struggling," Capps said minutes before he posted his 17th opening-round defeat. "Things just for some reason didn’t click. It’s part of drag racing, part of any competitive sport. The higher the level of competition, the more disappointment you’re going to go through."

He used Formula One racers as an example. They spend, he said, "millions upon millions of dollars on a team that is not even a top 10 team -- they’re still out there, running around the track and getting lapped by Michael Schumacher. . . . They think they can still win or they wouldn’t be out there. With Skoal, we have the best and we want to win for them. I never felt like we were out of it."

He said he kept thinking at each stop on the 23-race series this year that the Skoal Racing fortunes would spin around.

They never did. He didn’t crack the top 10 all year long. He failed to qualify at Denver and the fall Chicago race. He had the fewest round-wins (with a 6-21 record) in his Funny Car career. And he hasn’t won since the 2003 Phoenix event, 44 races ago.

"It’s very hard to watch Snake and watch his last few years, having even the success the dragster had and still wanting the Funny Cars to do better and having the aggravation and not being able to enjoy the championship with the Miller team as much as he could have. He wants so hard for all of his teams to do well. And it’s hard to watch that, especially for somebody who’s as competitive as Snake."

Capps said that aside from being 100 percent attentive to his driving duties, he figured the best way to help was to remain positive during the tough times. "I’ve always been there and just kind of tried to go with whatever came along and make the best out of . . . our situation and not make it worse," he said, a bit cryptically. "Snake has gone through some things with his wife, some health issues, that puts everything in perspective. I’ve gone through things this year with family that just kind of puts things in perspective. At times you have to stand back and say, ‘We do this for a living, but what comes first is family and friends.’ You have to keep it that way."

Capps said his tenure with Prudhomme was like living a fantasy. "I really feel like I was born about 20 years too late," the 39-year-old Capps said. "I’d love to jump into a nostalgia Funny Car and race with those guys [including the young Snake and his nemesis Tom McEwen, "The Mongoose"]."

He and brother Jon used to play with their Snake and Mongoose Hot Wheels toys as grade-schoolers in San Luis Obispo, Calif. "Hearing Snake talk about all those guys and the old days, I love hearing that."

Skoal, an official NHRA sponsor, will remain involved in NHRA POWERade Drag Racing and the Skoal Showdown, as well as the NHRA Summit Sport Compact Drag Racing Series. It will continue to sponsor Funny Car driver Tommy Johnson, Jr.

Johnson said the speculation about Capps’ future didn’t affect him at all. "You wouldn’t even know it," he said. "Nothing’s changed at all."

Johnson said Prudhomme has been "as upset as anybody" about the course of the past season. "He's got more pressure than I do, and I've got enough on me. It's been real trying for everybody. We have a business relationship and we know what each other wants. He doesn't have to tell me what I need to do. I know, as far as driving the car to everything that goes with the team, I know what needs to happen."

He said Prudhomme has told him, "Man, I'm sorry. We're trying." Johnson replied, "Hey, don't be sorry. I'm part of the team. I'm trying, too. He's frustrated. It's real personal to him. He's as torn up about it as anybody."

But Johnson, trying to shake his own share of struggles, said his Skoal-sponsored Chevrolet Monte Carlo crew "is working down a route now that’s pretty close" to success. He said they have considered testing during the winter at perhaps Gainesville or Houston.

"We’re ready to go. We’re not going to change our whole program," he said. "We just need to fine-tune it. We need runs [to] try this, try that, try this, that."

Johnson said ideally they’d like to make four runs a day for as many days as they can afford to stay. "That’s the trouble with drag racing," he said. "Testing is so critical but it’s so hard to do and it’s very expensive." He said the cost is in the neighborhood of $8,000-$10,000 a pass.

"It’s well over $5,000 a pass. That’s why you’ve got to be ‘on’ every time," he said. "There’s nothing to simulate it. There’s nothing you can do to match what it’s like."

That was a factor as he started to get his program working, only to have rules changes set the team back. He had DNQs at Las Vegas (where he earned his last victory 89 races ago in April 2001) and Chicago -- ugly surprises, considering he qualified for all 23 events the year before but questionable because in both cases, qualifying was shortened by rain. "It wasn’t like we had all four runs and just totally couldn’t get our act together," he said.

On the whole, Johnson said, "We’re plenty capable. We just don’t have the consistency."

Finally he set his career-best elapsed time (4.765) and speed (324.90) at St. Louis. But that was where Top Fuel driver Darrell Russell was killed, and immediately NHRA instituted new rules for the sake of safety, including the nitro methane limit from 90 percent of the fuel to 85. "We struggled with that," he said.

The end of the 2004 season had its flashes of progress. They front-halved the car just before the Las Vegas race. "It helped. Nothing like new tubing," Johnson said. "A lot of things are headed the right direction."

So the 2005 season is even more hopeful for Johnson. He said he and crew chief Mike Green have a way of communicating that is necessary for success. "We don’t ever have to really talk. I can actually look at him and tell what he’s thinking. He looks at me and just nods his head, like ‘I know what you mean.’ You’ve got to have that.

"I’ve never really had that," he said, pondering his past. "Never had a crew chief long enough to have that. You’ve got to be able to build on something." Green is returning in 2005, and Johnson said, "Everything’s good."

Snake racing teammate Larry Dixon, meanwhile, finished sixth in the Top Fuel standings with the Miller Lite Dragster. He won at Englishtown for his third straight Father's Day victory and at Memphis, which had used him up in the past. Although he certainly didn’t perform like he did in the previous two seasons, when he recorded back-to-back series championships, Dixon understood the cycle of racing.

"I’ve had seasons when I wish I had it this good. Oh, God, yeah," he said. "We just have some work to do."

Perhaps Johnson spoke for all three Snake racing teams when he said, "I’ve been on the other side of the fence. And this is a whole lot better. Even runnin’ bad is better than sittin’ out there watchin’."

Added Johnson, "I’ve really got a good group of guys, a really good team. There are days you want to try to build the morale and there’s nothing you can say. But give ’em a day or two. That tells you what a good group you’ve got when they pick up their own morale and get going. If we can start making headway, it’ll be a tough team to reckon with. If they’re this good during the tough times, just think how good we’ll be when it starts coming our way."

Snake Racing competitors had better look out. And that includes Ron Capps now.