Ron Capps can tell lots of tales about drag racing – about times before he ever sat in a Top Fuel dragster or Funny Car. He and brother Jon followed all the heroes of their childhood and watched both of their parents race, at coastal California dragstrips at Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo.
 
“I grew up around the sport of drag racing,” Ron Capps said. “I probably was conceived at a racetrack. It’s been everything in my life.
 
And it’s about to become even more intense, according to his colleagues.
 
“All the details are going to run through his mind,” longtime independent Funny Car owner-driver Cruz Pedregon said.
 
“You want to be effective. You want to make things better. You want to make a good work environment. You want employees to come back every year. So there’s different levels of challenges. It’s not anymore about just cutting a light. Now it’s so much more,” he said.
 
“Driving the car isn’t easy,” Pedregon said, “but in the big picture, it’s the easier part. You can put your helmet on and have fun. The part that I don’t like so much is Monday through Thursday. You’re in the office – there are no fans. It’s just work. I really enjoy when I get out to the track. It’s my escape. I can’t wait to get to the track to relax. I don’t know any owner who likes paying the bills, who likes seeing all the invoices come through.”
 
Funny Car owner-driver Bob Bode said, “The big change from where I sat in the driver’s seat to going to the owner part is all the headaches that follow the car: the parts, the maintenance, the crew, the crew guy who doesn’t like the other crew guy and getting them to be friends. He has probably worked on some of that as a driver, but all of a sudden, it’s all on him,” Bode said. “I always liked that part, being the owner. The driver part was only a few seconds. The owner part is every day, keeping the pieces moving.”
 
Capps has 68 victories and a hunger for more. Bode has one Wally trophy. So their experiences might be different. But Bode, who has stepped aside to help launch teenage college-student son Bobby’s career, said, “My friends would say, ‘Bob, why do you race? You can’t win.’ And I’d say, ‘Well, you don’t understand how rewarding it is to be able to field this car, put it all together, and drag it to the racetrack and make it work. For me, that’s a win.’
 
“That is what Ron is going to be up against, learning that when that trailer shows up and all his people and parts and pieces are there, it happened because he did it for himself. Don Schumacher didn’t do it for him. And that’s a real rewarding thing – but a lot of work,” Bode said. “There’s so many little things that go on in the background that nobody knows about.”
 
Actually, Capps does understand that a host of people behind the scenes, besides the crew, are the ones keeping the logistics and administrative tasks in order. However, he might be in for some surprises, learning about new hurdles constantly.
 
For example, Pedregon said, “I don’t know that that [he] even know[s] what the details are yet. There are so many little details.”
 
Capps co-crew chief Dean Antonelli knows his new boss might not be aware of every detail that will arise, but he understood why Capps made his decision to step up to ownership right now.
 
“The pandemic made him think about where he is in his life. And he thought, ‘If we don’t do it right now, we’ll never get to do it,’” Antonelli said, reminding that it isn’t a matter of simply deciding to start a team: “Everything has to align. You have to have sponsors who are ready to commit for long term. You cannot get into it for a one- or two-year deal.”
 
NAPA has started this venture with Capps on a three-year agreement that surely has roll-over options. They have been partners since 2008.
 
Antonelli said, “He actually had something else brewing when he made this decision that was going to allow him to do it, and he was somewhat crushed because it wouldn’t include a NAPA logo. It was a tough decision. Then all of this unfolded with Don’s [Schumacher’s] help.”
 
He said he expects Capps to bring “enthusiasm as a team owner, maybe fear of being a team owner. He’s going to get a life lesson of running a business. It’s the first time he’s ever done that. It’s a big risk for him. He’s been a paid shoe – very successful, great social-media following, great spokesman for his sponsors. Now he’s not going to be paid shoe.
 
“It’s kind of an evolution of many kids out here,” Antonelli said. “Ron, when he was a kid, wanted to be a crew person. Then he got to be a crew person, and he wanted to be a driver. The next portion of evolution would be an owner.”
 
For now, Capps will have his hands full fielding a one-car team, but Antonelli guessed that he one day will have “aspirations to grow to a multiple-car team, probably a two-car team, in the next few years, not right away.”
 
Capps said, “Early on with Don Prudhomme, I loved the fact that he was always watching these younger drivers. There’s thousands of kids, teenagers, who probably never will get a chance like I did. I was a crew member wanting to drive. So I was the ultimate dream kid and got to race professionally in drag racing for 27 years. That just doesn’t happen.”
 
It would be no surprise if Capps were to pluck some talent from the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series ranks someday.
 
“He was one of those kids,” Antonelli said. “So there’s a soft spot to be able maybe to give somebody someday an opportunity, whether it’s maybe some superstar in a Jr. Dragster or someone in Comp or A/Fuel or Top Alcohol Dragster. You don’t know. Only God knows the future.”
 
As for being on the same ownership plane as Prudhomme and Schumacher, Capps said, “I always thought about it. I just thought it was so out of touch [out of reach]. I never thought it was ever going to really happen.
 
“But again, to have people around me like we did at DSR and at Don Prudhomme’s. I was able to take notes and was able to be around two of the best,” he said. “What’s been the coolest is the people who have reached out to me – competitors: ‘Open book. Whatever you need. How can I help?’ They just don’t want to let me fail. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
 
It will be. And Capps honestly doesn’t seem to worry about the hidden aggravations and costs (like he could hear from Pedregon, who just had his parking lot re-sealed and has been sorting through quotes for painting his building and preparing to file his taxes).
 
“I haven’t been used to the ownership part, but I’ve got a lot of people to lean on,” Capps said.
 
Since 2019, everyone knows that Antron Brown had been planning a move toward team ownership independent of Don Schumacher Racing. And Tony Stewart has started a drag-racing team that has taken his wife, Leah Pruett, and three-time Funny Car champion Matt Hagan from DSR. So despite all the new teams popping up, the class will have the same faces, the same competitors, but the landscape and allocation of resources will be different.
 
Pedregon said, “Don Schumacher built an empire that we all could only admire and strive to do. And maybe nobody will ever do it at that level again. He brought so much to the sport that we’re going to miss him. My category, my class, he won’t be competing. When they had that four-headed monster with T.J. [Tommy Johnson Jr.], [Jack] Beckman, Matt, and Capps, man, that was pretty formidable operation and tough to beat on the track.
 
“But I’m happy the sport is getting a new [look],” he said. “And I’ve told NHRA this: The futures of the car owners is not going to be the Don Schumachers and the Connie Kalittas, unfortunately. Those guys are legends, and the day’s going to come they’re going to want to step away from it and retire. And the owners are going to be guys like me. I said this 10 years ago, and here we are.
 
“What I’m excited about is that the sponsors look at the drivers as the front man. He’s the pitcher. He’s the quarterback,” Pedregon said. “And these guys [Brown, Stewart, Capps] are seasoned enough. They’ve been around the block and know their way around and how the sport works. So I wish them all nothing but success.”
 
As for Capps, Pedregon said, “Looking forward to beating him, that’s for sure.”