Ron Capps has won a lot of races in a lot of different places.

He is the second-winningest Funny Car driver in NHRA history, he has nearly 600 round wins to his credit, he has contended in nearly 100 finals. But of all of those wins, Summit Motorsports Park in northern Ohio was not on that list.

On Sunday, Capps finally broke that barrier, collecting his first-ever win at Summit Motorsports Park at the 10th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, besting Courtney Force in the final by four-thousandths of a second. It was a thrilling finish to a wild day as Capps earned his third win in the last four races and extended his points lead to 130 points clear of Force.

“It feels awesome. We were talking down at the other end, this is one of the few tracks I haven’t won at on the circuit, and I thought this one was going to elude me again,” Capps said. “Every year we come here and it is just a great place to race. I was here all week doing media, got to do the parade downtown with the Cavaliers, got to throw out the first pitch, I felt like I belonged in Cleveland.

“It was a whole week of fun leading up to this race. And, lo-and-behold, it led to a win.”

Every single run by Capps in the NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger R/T dipped into the three-second zone over the three-day event, an improbable feat considering the high temperatures and greasy conditions. But Capps, led by crew chief Rahn Tobler, navigated the tricky track to collect the win, his fourth of the season.

“What Rahn Tobler is doing right now is just old-fashioned hard work,” Capps said. “It is not bolt-on, this guy has been working his tail off. Eric, his assistant crew chief, and these NAPA guys, they give him a perfect car. It is so much fun to race with him and I love it when he points at me through the windshield before a run. It gives me all the confidence in the world.”

After posting bracket-like numbers most of the afternoon, Capps saved his best for last, running a 3.956 at 317.49 mph to hold off Force in the final with the track temperatures approaching 130 degrees. Force, who finished runner-up at Norwalk for the second year in a row, finished with a 4.010 at 314.17 mph.

“In the final I tried to roll it in and do the same thing I had done every time,” Capps said. “The most important thing to me was trying to go shallow because I wanted Tobler to have the recognition of eight runs in the three-second zone. If you think about it, four qualifying runs and four runs in eliminations, all three seconds, considering how hot it was today, I didn’t want to roll in deep and have it be a four-flat and lose that distinction.

“In that last run, I never heard her. I never saw her. My win light came on, and that is all that counts.”

Capps, who qualified second Friday night behind Del Worsham’s track record run, added wins over Robert Hight, Cruz Pedregon and Jeff Diehl to reach his fourth final in a row and fifth total in 2016. The win was the 49th of his career, tying him with Don “The Snake” Prudhomme for second-most in Funny Car history.

“This is by far the best race car I have had. This is one you dream of,” Capps said. “When you have a car where you go to the starting line and everyone is just shaking their head saying, ‘my gosh, what are they doing over there.’ That is what it feels like right now.

“I’ve never had one of my teammates ever apologize for whipping us in the past, or having a car that runs this good. Look at Jimmy Prock’s car and the streak they went on last year. I have been around this long enough to know it is not going to last forever, but it sure is fun right now.”

The only bump in an otherwise perfect weekend for Capps came in the third round of qualifying when Capps’ session-best 3.977-second pass was disallowed by NHRA for having an “unapproved aerodynamic device.” No matter the result, Capps’ car was fast in all conditions and in all setups, something he is very excited about as he approaches the second half of the season.

“The good thing for us is that we have all these runs in our computer,” Capps said. “Later in the year, everybody might catch up to where we are at, but we have a lot of data and that is going to help us. That is the real exciting part for me.”

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