FINISHES FOURTH IN NEXTEL PRELUDE TO THE WORLD IN

ELDORA

Ron Capps, who drove the new Brut Revolution Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car to the semifinals at the prestigious NHRA U.S. Nationals at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Clermont, Ind., on Monday, and took back the points lead, made a diversion from the quarter-mile and headed to Eldora Speedway on Wednesday.

Capps competed in the NEXTEL Prelude to The World - originally the NEXTEL
Prelude to The Dream, which was rained out on June 7 - in a Brian
Ruhlman-owned Late Model for the second straight year. He squared off
against 17 NASCAR, USAC and dirt-racing stars on the half-mile clay
high-banked oval, including Matt Kenseth, Tony Stewart, JJ Yeley, Kenny
Wallace, Denny Hamlin, Bill Elliot, Red Farmer, Bobby Labonte, Levi Jones,
Dave Blaney, Mike Wallace, Ken Schrader, Ryan Newman, Mark Martin, Kurt
Busch and Josh Wise.

After qualifying sixth with a 16.1-second lap time (Stewart set best time at
15.457 seconds), Capps finished second in his 10-lap heat to Blaney,
qualifying for the 25-lap A-main. In that event, he ran as high as third and
had an exciting back-and-forth rally with Schrader, but failed to hold off a
hard-charging Stewart, who came from the back row to pass Capps and two
others to take the victory. Capps captured fourth place, behind Stewart,
Blaney and Mike Wallace. Schrader ended up 11th.

"We had two laps of qualifying and then the main event was set up as a
full-blown race," said Capps. "I was third for a long time in the A-main.
Tony Stewart came by me from the back row with about five laps to go. I had
been thinking I could finish third. He was coming fast. But I finished ahead
of Kenny Schrader and some other guys, like Bill Elliott, Mark Martin, Ryan
Newman, Kurt Busch, and others.

"It was awesome. Last year I felt like I was in over my head and was out
there trying not to wreck or do anything dumb and just finish the race,
which I did, and I finished well (ninth). This year, with five laps to go, I
thought, Man I got a shot to finish in the top three.

"Brian Ruhlman and his guys set up the car and every time I'd come in and
told them what I thought it was doing, they made it better and better.

"It was a long night. It raised a lot of money for Kyle Petty and the
Victory Junction Gang. It was packed again. There were about 28,000 people
there. It was pretty wild."

The straight-line racer actually impressed other car owners at Eldora, who
offered him Late Model rides in the future. "It was cool," said Capps.

Capps is scheduled to drive a midget and a modified race car at Bakersfield
(Calif.) Speedway this Saturday, Sept. 9. Check www.bakersfieldspeedway.com
for additional information.