This year has been one of amazing achievements for Ron Capps.

In his second reign over the Funny Car class, he debuted as a team owner, advanced to the finals in the season-opener, won two races, forged an alliance with Toyota to drive one of its brand-new Supra entries, as the so-called regular season rushes to a close, the defending series champion sits third in points.

And this weekend, the 57-year-old from Carlsbad, Calif., will reach another notable milestone. He’ll compete in his 600th race.

“I don't even know how to react to 600 races. That's like John Force numbers. That's like Doug Kalitta, John Force, Dale Creasy kind of stuff, Capps said. “It blows my mind that I've been lucky enough to do this for that long. I've been blessed to be around super-good people that worked on really good race cars that made me look way better than I am, trust me.

“The fact that I've done that many races, every time we hit a plateau of so many wins, it blows my mind. So many races blows my mind. It's numbers I never in a million years thought I would ever achieve,” he said. “And I was just happy with one race and one Wally [trophy], let alone what we're going to see now. So 600 is a pretty big number. That's old-guy stuff. So, I don't know if I should start feeling like I'm that old or not, but I still can't fathom 600 races. It’s a huge compliment that somebody even keeps track of that, but to represent our sport in that many races is, man, I still can't believe it.”

Along the way, Capps has earned two championships in the past six seasons (2016, 2021) and written his name in the NHRA record books for success beyond the Funny Car category.

With 69 Funny Car victories, he’s second on the class’ all-time list only to 155-time winner John Force. He has one Top Fuel victory, for a career total of 70.       

He’s fifth among all pro racers in elimination round-wins, with 826. (Force has 1,407, Pro Stock’s Greg Anderson has 894 and retired Warren Johnson 874, and Top Fuel’s Tony Schumacher has 859.

Capps leads the sport in career season winning streaks among active drivers, at 14 years with at least one victory per season since 2009. And he’s tied for fourth place with retired three-time Pro Stock champion Jason Line with 17 consecutive top-10 finishes in the standings. (Doug Kalitta and Antron Brown lead with 24, and Tony Schumacher has 21.)

The numbers are impressive, but the story behind those numbers is what satisfies Capps, he said. Sponsor relationships have been the key: “It’s nice when you see that stuff. But for me, the even cooler part is that I’ve been able to sustain it with the sponsors we have.”

He said 600 races “just reminds me I've been in this sport and I've never had to bring a sponsor to somebody. That's been the coolest thing. I've never had to come with a check. I've been hired because they liked the way that I drove. They liked the way that I represented their sponsors and their team. And that is, by far, the biggest compliment you can get out here.”

Moreover, Capps said he takes pride in a perfect-attendance record: “I've never missed a race, which is crazy. Of all those years I've been driving professionally since Roger Primm's days [in the mid-1990s], I've never missed a race. I've been pretty sick at a few races where I questioned getting in the car. But once you're in the car, you're like, ‘I need to be in this car.’ But yeah, it's amazing. I should knock on my Toyota Supra. Yeah, that part's been pretty cool.”

The NAPA Auto Care Toyota Supra driver said no reporter has enough space on a tape recorder to contain all of his cherished stories and memories – because just about everything he has done in the sport, every step of the journey, is a vivid memory and the people with whom he has worked and raced are valued treasures in his life. 

“Man, my biggest takeaways . . . Well, first of all, I remember the day I got my license in the Montana Express A-Fuel car. And I just remember every step of the way. It's happened so fast. I remember John Mitchell having a conversation with me in the staging lanes in Brainerd while I was a crew guy on another dragster, seeing something in me, and then giving me a shot to get my license. And then I'm in that car, and I get a call from Roger Primm and Terry Manzer that they're looking for a driver for their A-Fuel car. And being mentioned with the names of Gary Beck and Gary Scelzi, Rance McDaniel, names that I was in awe of. And to be in the running for that and eventually to get that job, this all happened in a couple of years,” Capps said.

“And then being in Roger Primm's car and getting a phone call from Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme, saying that he's been watching me in that car and how well I've done carrying myself and driving and all that. It's amazing in that short span of time how many good people were on and around me that really, like I said, I don't think I'm as good as I look from the outside. And I kept working hard at it,” he said.

"But what do I remember? I just remember along the way, so many good memories of great people that we've become family and the people that protect me, build the cars I race, help me win. There's great memories – you don't have enough tape in your camera for all the great memories we've had over the years.”

Capps has managed to maintain his sense of humor throughout the entire process of shifting mental gears from hired driver to team owner. And despite compliments to the contrary, Capps insists he has additional grey hair. He said, “My hair cutter's really good at what she does. I'll put it that way.”

He did say that making the transition from his longtime home at Don Schumacher Racing to operating his own organization was challenging beyond what he had imagined. It started last summer, even before the U.S. Nationals zoomed up, and continued through the fall and winter, until preseason testing in late January at Phoenix. 

“I think the months of December and July going into this year definitely aged me,” Capps said. “It was a crash course, and I tell my kids now to go back and study business. No matter what, get your degree in business, because I felt like I should have gone to online night school and learned some of the things I had to learn in a few weeks before Pomona. But I've had a lot of really good people around here that have helped along that way.

“So yes,” he said, “I've aged a lot inside and probably outside in these last few months, but it's been so well worth it, especially that first win [at Las Vegas in the April four-wide race]. And then you get the first win in Bristol for Toyota. All these things have been monumental.”

John Force will be making his 823rd appearance this week, so the Peak Chevy Camaro owner-driver has 177 more events to hit the 1,000-race plateau. Capps has 400 more to go before he would notch 1,000. But he said he’s game to try.

“Oh, well, yeah, I hope I achieve that as an owner. That'd be great as an owner-driver,” Capps said. “But if I can achieve that and stay in this sport, whatever it means, whether I'm just driving or just owning or vice versa, 1,000's a lot.”

What’s top of mind right now, though, is Race No. 600 and trying to hold off Tony Stewart Racing’s Matt Hagan, his closest competitor. Hagan is 228 points out of first place behind class leader Robert Hight while Capps sits third, 294 points back.  But that milestone is meaningful to Capps, and he’s trying to parlay that into yet another achievement.

Capps said, “When I stand back and I think what we've accomplished this year already as a new team, it's been something. You never think as an owner you're going to have that start of an ownership career like we've had so far. So it'd be great to finish it off like we did last year.”

Capps has a chance this weekend at the Menards Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka, in his 600th start, to cement his supremacy as the Countdown to the Championship approaches.

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