Ron Capps, the NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger Funny Car driver, already is sort of in the NASCAR family. He's like the long-distance cousin who comes to visit once or twice in the summertime.
 
And he was in Tennessee Friday during the stock-car clan's Irwin Tools Night Race weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, spreading the drag-racing gospel.
 
Like at any family reunion, folks tell stories and remember experiences. Capps recalled one of his first close looks at the NASCAR culture: the first year of Sprint Car Series star Tony Stewart's Prelude To The Dream race at Eldora Speedway.
 
Part of the pre-race pageantry was a parade lap.

Ron Capps, the NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger Funny Car driver, already is sort of in the NASCAR family. He's like the long-distance cousin who comes to visit once or twice in the summertime.
 
And he was in Tennessee Friday during the stock-car clan's Irwin Tools Night Race weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway, spreading the drag-racing gospel.
 
Like at any family reunion, folks tell stories and remember experiences. Capps recalled one of his first close looks at the NASCAR culture: the first year of Sprint Car Series star Tony Stewart's Prelude To The Dream race at Eldora Speedway.
 
Part of the pre-race pageantry was a parade lap.
 
"Kyle Busch had me jump in the truck with him, and he had just started his reign of terror, winning races, and getting booed. And they were throwing stuff  at us and booing," Capps said. "I got an idea of just how different our fans are, how different the fans can be, and how fickle it can be. That's another aspect of racing with those guys. It's an eye-opener. It really is."
 
But the Don Schumacher Racing driver, who will start No. 5 in the NHRA's upcoming Countdown to the Championship, also was impressed with the crowd gathered next door to Bristol Dragway, Bruton Smith's jewel in the hills of East Tennessee.
 
"When you come to a place like this race where I'm at now -- with 180,000 seats filled with a waiting list -- it's a spectacle," Capps said. "And you forget about how really big an engine this NASCAR thing is. It's a machine. It's a big deal out here."
 
He also noticed how the NHRA seems to outdraw NASCAR in other markets -- his native California, for instance.
 
"You go out to the Fontana race, and it's laid back and they've got a lot of empty seats out there. They could take it or leave it," he said. "And you go to our Pomona races and it’s packed. It's what the fans are used to. It's what they likes are. It's a different way of life and different fans, the way they were brought up."
 
Plenty of circle-track fans, he said he has discovered, "have kind of jumped on the bandwagon. It's cool to hear from the fans -- they love their NASCAR and obviously it's not going to go away -- but they've really, really become NHRA fans. I think we opened a lot of eyes. And of course, Bruton has built two of our favorite tracks -- four total -- but when he redid this track and Concord (zMax Dragway at Concord, N.C.), it really opened us up with the NASCAR fans."
 
The Southeast is the cradle of NASCAR, like Southern California has been for drag racing. And the NHRA has raced in the region for years, at Gainesville, Atlanta, and Bristol. Likewise, the IHRA has been a fixture at stock-car hot spots Rockingham, Darlington, Dallas, Commerce, Ga., Lakeland, Fla., and its former headquarters, Bristol.
 
But the opening of the Concord drag-racing palace refreshed memories in the NASCAR-centric motorsports world.
 
"I think the race in Concord definitely made more fans," Capps said. "It was weird the first year. You could hear them as you walked around in the crowd or were on your scooter. You could hear them almost whisper or gasp when they saw you. They couldn't believe they saw you. The y couldn't believe that the driver was walking around the pit area. They're not used to that. The second year racing there it was a bigger crowd and now with the four-wide in March and the Countdown race there -- and Bristol here, it's the same thing.
 
"A lot of them thought they were like at a NASCAR race, where you have to sit in the stands all day," he said. "They didn't realize what came along with their ticket, the pit pass. I think a lot of them couldn't believe that they could leave after they watched this run and come to the pit area and actually mingle with the drivers and crew guys. That first race was strange for not only us but them, as well."
 
At airports and in restaurants, Capps draws attention from the public, fielding questions about the Countdown -- and, he said with a laugh, "They ask if John Force is like he is on TV all the time. They all seem to know that our playoffs are starting."
 
Letting fans in on his routine and his feelings is an area in which Capps is especially skilled.
 
"The late Steve Evans taught me something very valuable when I first started driving: Put the viewer at home in that car with you or in that seat or in your head, to let them know exactly what's going on. That's was the best advice I ever got when I was a rookie," Capps said.
 
"People loved the interviews. I didn’t have to throw a sponsor in and sound like Mark Martin or somebody. People love that. People want to know -- 'Are you nervous?' Well, yeah, you know, I was throwing up because I was nervous. I said that one year in Dallas,  because I wanted to let people at home know what really goes on.
 
"I was trying to give people a glimpse of what goes on when you're in Pomona the final day with a chance at winning your first championship. Talk to these drivers. That's how these drivers are all feeling. It's Sunday at the end of the year, not even [just] Pomona. You want to throw up. You've got those butterflies," he said. "I just happened to say it. Other drivers just won’t say it. It's just something that's not normal. They won’t say it out loud."
 
He said he remembers clearly when friend Tim Wilkerson "was going down to the wire. He's about to win his first championship at Pomona. And people are wondering, 'Are you nervous?' And he goes out and red-lights and lost the championship. He had it won and he red-lit that Sunday at Pomona. Well, guess what -- I knew exactly what was going through his head. And people acted astonished that it happened. I didn't."
 
Capps knows all too well what not winning a championship is like. He has come close three times and knows that being No. 2 stinks.
 
"I feel like it's been ripped away from me a couple of times in my career. I felt like there have been people who have won it who I felt maybe hadn't earned it," he said. "You just go through all these emotions. I've been down there at Pomona and lost by less than 10 points a few years back. Sunday morning you wake up and midway through the day you feel like you still have a chance to win it -- and you don’t. And you feel like somebody punched you right in the solar plexus and stole it from you. I've been through all these emotions."
 
So what will it feel like when he joins the John Forces and the Pedregons?
 
"You'll just have to ask me when we finally win it. I don’t know what that's going to feel like," he said. "I couldn’t tell you. I just know it’s going to be one hell of a party at Pomona that Sunday night whenever we finally get my championship."
 
He clearly wants to win for crew chiefs John Medlen and Ed "The Ace" McCulloch, but for years he has chased the prize with McCulloch and wants to share that moment with him.
 
"It's going to be a relief to walk over and hand that trophy to Ace, because we've been trying to win that trophy for him, and to give John Medlen a hug. It's been so much fun to race with them. They're such great people. I'm the luckiest guy in the world to be able to drive for Don Schumacher, first of all. But  these two crew chiefs -- I can't tell you how I'm going to feel. I don’t even know what that feeling is."
 
He knows how blessed he is, though, to work with the industry's cream of the crop. He has been able to balance the wildly different methods of Medlen and McCulloch, whose personalities would register on opposite ends of the spectrum.  McCulloch is -- and once used to be, literally -- a knock-'em-out kind of guy. Medlen has a more mellow, kill-'em-with-kindness make-up.
 
"It's such a contrast in their styles. They are completely different people," Capps said. "The cool things is I know what John Force felt like having Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly on one car.
 
"My locker is up in the crew chiefs' lounge. I change clothes there. I get out of my firesuit there. I get in my firesuit there. I spend the majority of my day in there. So I listen to what they're talking about getting ready for a run. I listen and watch [as they're] on the computer as they're discussing the last run and their approach to the next run. Complete different thoughts approaching a race car. Close, but different thoughts," Capps said.
 
"It's amazing how sometimes John will look at Ace and say, 'You know what? You're right. That's a better idea.' And Ace conversely will say the same thing. To watch these two legends -- who each obviously could be a hero crew chief on any team by himself -- working together is pretty neat," Capps said. "Especially Ace -- we all know his mannerisms, and we know what he used to be like."
 
Capps said, "The most touching thing I've heard was when he told me a few races back that he wants to make this work -- and he loves working with Medlen -- but he wants to win this championship with me. That's a huge deal."
 
It was a huge deal, too, to get to join pals Martin Truex, Michael Waltrip, Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson, and Carl Edwards at Bristol Friday, even if it was for just a day. It was a huge deal to carry the banner for the sport he so loves. He was ready to board a plane back home to the San Diego area, where he had a noon NAPA-related appearance Saturday.
 
After a few days' layover at his house in Carlsbad, he's due at Indianapolis for testing Thursday.