Consider Funny Car racer Ron Capps to be the reluctant No. 1 qualifier.

Capps, who ran a 3.888-second elapsed time at 332.59 miles per hour to secure the provisional No. 1 spot at the NHRA Midwest Nationals, is grateful for the top spot, but given his druthers would have been satisfied with being second on the qualifying sheet. 

Capps was a fan of second-generation drag racer Bobby Bode, who led qualifying until the final pair with a career-best 3.891 elapsed time. 

"Honestly, there was a big part of me that wanted to see Bode end up number one," Capps admitted. "I would have sacrificed a couple of qualifying points to see Bobby Bode and that Bode family stay number one. Maybe not looking at the end of the year because you could lose a championship by those little points. But Hagan and I got out, and it's like, man, it's a bummer. It's cool he's still in third. But that's a family you want to cheer for, right?"

Capps picked up three bonus points; Matt Hagan snagged two knocking the expansion of his point lead down to one. Capps now leads Hagan by six points. 

Make no mistake, Capps knows every point is crucial as the season winds down.

"I could give you all kinds of great examples, but if you go back and look at, and I can't even tell you what years, but there are several years that I was number two in the world by less than ten points," Capps said. "There's that one year my daughter is hugging me, and I was fine till she started hugging me. But you lose it by less than a round on the last day of the year in Pomona; you start wondering, where could I have made up that one or two or three or four points here and there. And those are the moments we fight for, and it's that one moment it comes crashing down that you realize you lost everything you dreamed about by a few points. 

"You think of not just me; it's my team and everybody involved. It's family, and everybody rides that wave. My daughter, whatever age she was at the time, was a wreck. I was better than her, but it's those moments I'll never forget. I'm sure in her mind, being a teenager, she really won't ever forget that moment. So those are great examples and not so great examples of why those points are so important."

Capps and Hagan staged the money shot run of the night, recording the quickest speeds of the night 332.59 and 332.75, respectfully. They are the top two qualifiers. The run is fitting for a class that has been the most exciting division on drag racing's big stage for all intent and purposes. 

"Funny Car is so fun for the fans right now," Capps said. "For the drivers and the crew and everybody else, it's going to be like old-school Pro Stock. It's going to come down to the wire. That run right there, like I told Hagan at the other end and the TV people, 'I think a lot of that's coming in the next few races."

"We'll take it. I tried to get in as shallow as I could. I took a little longer, but I was trying to bump it in, and that ended up being the difference, getting those three points compared to two. Great job, Guido [Dean Antonelli] and John Medlen. That big speed is what they used to do a lot. They've been fighting a little bit of clutch disc problems. But it looks like they figured it out." 

Capps and St. Louis have history. It was at the track, which is actually located in Fairmont City, Ill., where the NAPA Auto Parts-sponsored driver won his first Funny Car race, joining an elite group of drivers who have won in both nitro categories.

"A lot of really cool moments have gone on [here]," Capps said. "We hope to keep adding to them, but you don't even think about that. Honestly, until [the media] writes it, you just don't think about those moments which are good and bad. I think you stay hungry, and you just kind of come here thinking you never won, and you fight to get that."