It was the type of season that most NHRA competitors dream about.

Funny Car veteran Ron Capps won a class-best five national events in eight final rounds, led the POWERade Series standings after 17 of the circuit's 23 races and earned his sixth top-five finish in the past 10 years. But once the tire smoke of another season had cleared, John Force had won his 14th Funny Car title and Capps could only think of what might have been.

"It's very disappointing to give up what we thought was a pretty good chance to win a championship," Capps said. "Even when we led by as much as (122 points), I kept telling the media who was saying we were going to wrap it up early, 'You can't count out John Force.' And sure enough it came down to that.

Ron Capps battles to another close championship finish

It was the type of season that most NHRA competitors dream about.

Funny Car veteran Ron Capps won a class-best five national events in eight final rounds, led the POWERade Series standings after 17 of the circuit's 23 races and earned his sixth top-five finish in the past 10 years. But once the tire smoke of another season had cleared, John Force had won his 14th Funny Car title and Capps could only think of what might have been.

"It's very disappointing to give up what we thought was a pretty good chance to win a championship," Capps said. "Even when we led by as much as (122 points), I kept telling the media who was saying we were going to wrap it up early, 'You can't count out John Force.' And sure enough it came down to that.

"We're disappointed because if we had run half as good in the second half as we did in the first half, we could have been a little better."

Adding to the disappointment was the fact that this was the second consecutive season that Capps made a strong run at the flopper title. He finished just eight points from the promise land when his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Gary Scelzi snatched the title from Force in 2005. He then seemed to be in position to repeat Scelzi's efforts, only to see a tough three-race stretch late in the season seal his fate.

"Almost winning it and not winning it makes it hurt worse," Capps said. "The eight points was hard to swallow in the off-season (last year). This year, we knew a lot had to happen at Pomona. (Force) had to go out early and we had to win, so the point was moot. It hurts, and it sucks because you want it so bad. But when I look back and see all the times I've been able to finish in the top three, it's amazing.

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"I hope someday I can win a championship and I can look back at the seconds and thirds and those I will be able to swallow a little easier...but not now."

Part of that is the way the season progressed for Capps in 2006. He opened the year with a hole-shot start, winning three of the first six events while advancing to five finals. His only slip up was a semifinal appearance at Phoenix. Capps then won twice more during the next five events and owned a 106-point advantage through the first 11 races.

But then it started to slip away for the Carlsbad, Calif. resident. He suffered first-round losses during four of the next five events and watched Force close the gap to within 48 points by early August. The tough pill to swallow was that Capps suffered those early exits despite piloting his Brut entry to steady runs down the quarter-mile.

"There are going to be times where we might look back and say, 'We should have done better here; we should have done better there,'" Capps said. "We did real well at the beginning of the season, and at that point you start having a target on your back. If seemed like everyone we raced against seemed to be at their very best when we had to race them. It goes back to kind of being the hot gunfighter in town who always has guys trying take him out."

The statistics seem to tell that story.

At Sonoma, Calif., Capps ran a respectable 4.975 in the first round, but lost to Whit Bazemore's 4.902. He then followed that effort with a pretty solid 4.890 at Brainerd, Minn. The problem was that his opponent Bob Gilbertson made one of his better passes of the season and beat Capps with a 4.813.

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Still, he still held a 37-point lead over Force before a three-race stretch where he lost in the first round all but sealed his fate. And again, it included competitors stepping up. Capps made runs of 4.909, 4.891 and 4.866 in first-round match-ups at Reading, Pa., Richmond, Va. and Las Vegas. And in each instance was put back on the trailer when Phil Burkart Jr. beat him with a 4.783 at Reading and Scott Kalitta ended his day at Richmond and Las Vegas with runs of 4.808 and 4.810.

"When you look at a lot of those first rounds, we still went down the track and ran very good," Capps said. "A lot of those runs we lost in the first round would have been good (enough in some of the other match-ups). I lost twice to Scott Kalitta, to Burkart, to Gilbertson. They were guys who were fighting in the top 10 and who were already testing for 2007. They were guys who could throw everything at it, and had nothing to lose. We were fighting for the championship and knew we had to get down the track, and we did. We didn't beat ourselves, and that was the good thing."

The bad thing was that he came to the season finale at Auto Club of Southern California Raceway at Pomona (Calif.) with very little chance of winning the class title.

Force, who had back-to-back runs to the semifinals at Reading and Richmond, brought a 71-point lead to Pomona and could clinch the title by advancing two rounds. That made the blow a little softer for Capps, who watched Force clinch his 14th title by winning last weekend's event.

"This year I was more relaxed because it was out of our control and we could only do what we could do," Capps said. "Last year, it was almost ours to lose. And it turned out we all lost the same round and we barely lost it. But this year, I knew of lot of it was in (Force's) hands. I was little more at ease. But him losing first round wasn't something I was banking on. I didn't think it was going to happen.

"In the long run, he went on to win the race, now looking back, it's OK."

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Force, though, paid homage to his friend and rival, praising Capps for his effort.

"The kid worked hard," Force said. "Maybe I'm getting old and emotional, but it's not just about championships anymore. It's about fighting the fight. I believe if a man fights as hard as you and he doesn't win, I believe he still won. I believe in my heart, Ron Capps won. 

"I've seen what the kids' gone through. I've seen his pain; I know he’s sick; What he's gone through, I've gone through. I've lived it.

"I don't believe what Vince Lombardi said that winning is everything. Ron Capps won this championship. The only difference is that I've got a trophy and a check."

Said Capps: "It doesn't surprise me that he said that. That's just the way he is. He came over (after the second round) and knew I wasn't feeling good. He offered a couple words of wisdom...He's more worried about everyone around him. That's just what kind of guy he is. People are now just getting a peak of John Force through his reality show, but I've known that side of him for a long team. He's just got a huge heart."