"Anybody here seen my old friend Ron? Can you tell me where he's gone?"
 
Seems like a catchy and relevant tune for the National Hot Rod Ass'n. in the aftermath of India-scrap-olis. The haunting music of peace-loving folks and the 40th anniversary of Woodstock could make everything groovy again (although John Force already told a television audience that it's all groovy again).
 
Anyway . . . Whatever became of Ron Capps?
 
Surely you remember him, the driver of the NAPA Auto Parts Dodge. He was at the top of the Funny Car charts for the first 10 races of the season. He delivered hit after hit, winning the first two events of the year, three of the first five, and four of the first nine in five final-round appearances.

"Anybody here seen my old friend Ron? Can you tell me where he's gone?"
 
Seems like a catchy and relevant tune for the National Hot Rod Ass'n. in the aftermath of India-scrap-olis. The haunting music of peace-loving folks and the 40th anniversary of Woodstock could make everything groovy again (although John Force already told a television audience that it's all groovy again).
 
Anyway . . . Whatever became of Ron Capps?
 
Surely you remember him, the driver of the NAPA Auto Parts Dodge. He was at the top of the Funny Car charts for the first 10 races of the season. He delivered hit after hit, winning the first two events of the year, three of the first five, and four of the first nine in five final-round appearances.
 
He won at Denver in July and reached the final at Brainerd in August. However, with Sunday's early exit against Bob Tasca III at the Carolinas Nationals at zMax Dragway at Concord, N.C., Capps has posted three straight first-round losses.
 
Should he be worried?
 
"There were a lot of upsets in the first round (including Tony Pedregon and John Force), and the points have rearranged dramatically in the Countdown," he said. "So it will continue to be a very exciting playoffs for the fans."
 
Notice he said exiting for the fans. He can't be particularly energized by this latest turn of events. He dropped two places in the standings, from second to fourth, although he's only three more points off leader Tony Pedregon's razor-thin pace than he was at the start of this past weekend. He's 33 points back, but that's something he can make up easily if he gets on a roll.
 
By no means is this one disappointing outcome going to keep him from trying to shatter that ceiling that has hung over him. Three times he has been No. 2 at the end of the year.
 
(That's not as frustrating as Tony Pedregon's four runner-up finishes before he won his first championship.  Angelle Sampey, a three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion, also has come in second on four other occasions. Cory McClenathan, Sunday's Top Fuel winner, finished No. 2 four times and still is seeking his first series crown. Warren Johnson came in second six times before he won the first of his six Pro Stock crowns and has been series runner-up eight times in all.)
 
Capps knows how fickle a lead or a distasteful place in the standings can be.
 
"I think we entered last year in seventh place, and it was a breath of fresh air starting the Countdown. The first year of the Countdown, I started in the lead, and that evaporated the first race," he said. " So things can turn around quickly," he said.
 
He said crew chief Ace McCulloch is preparing something positive for the Don Schumacher-owned Dodge.
 
"You have to have patience sometimes when a crew chief has been working on something," Capps said. "I know we've gone out first round the last few races and it may have looked like we lost a little bit of our mojo from early in the season. But Ace has been really working hard on a new setup, and you just have to have patience, as he's been ticking away at it.
 
"He's getting a lot more in tune with the race car," Capps said, "and I can tell the difference in the car."
 
Making every element work together still is easier said than accomplished, particularly in qualifying.
 
"It's like Pro Stock right now with Funny Cars in qualifying, and it's so tight that every little inch is going to matter on Sunday," he said. Moreover, he said Saturday that this first race of the Countdown was "going to be a stressful morning for a lot of drivers."
 
He had said that the new points system, which helped Pro Stock Motorcycle's Hector Arana and Pro Stock's Mike Edwards (new points leaders in their classes) maybe more than anybody this past weekend, was "going to change everybody's strategy a little bit, and within halfway through Sunday, you could very well see the Top-10 shuffle pretty good."
 
He was right about the Charlotte event. But he alluded to the Dallas, Memphis, and Richmond races that come in succession without a weekend's break.
 
"On top of that, you throw in four races we have in a row," he said, "and you're going to take a deep breath and let it out and we are going to be done with Virginia and it's going to be two races left," Capps said.
 
 "And it's going to be quite a bit different than you see the points right now."
 
Before the Carolinas Nationals, Capps said, "I'm sure every driver will tell you, you would love to be celebrating Sunday night in Vegas, knowing you can clinch it, just show up at Pomona but I don't see that happening."
 
"Too bad," he must have been thinking then. Now he's most likely relieved that it's true.
 
Tony Pedregon has a single-point lead over Ashley Force Hood, who passed him Sunday by reaching the semifinal round. While the distance between him and Pedregon is not all that great, neither is his lead over fifth-place Tasca (three points), sixth-place teammate Jack Beckman (12), seventh-place Tim Wilkerson (39), and eighth-place John Force (45).
 
Can qualifying points help him?
 
He earned just one this past weekend. But in general, he said he's optimistic he can add to that.
 
He said he told a skeptical McCulloch, "Hey, I feel pretty comfortable. We qualified well this year."
 
Capps said he thinks the NHRA instituted the new post-Indianapolis points format in response to teams like his.
 
"I think it was brought on by teams, myself included, talking about us testing on Saturdays or testing at races because we could not go test somewhere else," he said. "We had to pull these things out of the trailer that we have been want to go try, and the only time to do that is to get in the show on Friday, know that you're qualified, and then pull out something you're going to try on Saturday.
 
"But I've got a little bit of grief about it, talking about testing all the time on Saturday, and the fact of the matter; every team tests on Saturday. You don't just go back up there and run the same exact run you ran on Friday afternoon, the same conditions," he said. "You are going to try something different, whether it's tire pressure, wheelie bar height, whatever it is. So every team is testing the limits to see how far they can go.
 
"Now with this bonus point, will that team reel it back in, to make sure you get down the track?" Capps asked. "Yeah, and you're going to have some teams that are probably going to step over that edge of their comfort zone and try to be one of those top three in qualifying to gain those points.
 
"So it's going to be fun to watch," he said. "You know what? we may not gain these points. We may not be one of these cars. I feel confident we can be."
 
As for the NHRA decision to start recording 1,000-foot performance marks and granting 20 points to the driver who lowers the elapsed-time standard, Capps -- who set the baseline -- said, "I think it's a good thing. I think it's good that we have something to shoot for."
 
His mission is clearer now that the Countdown has begun. His turnaround time is shorter, though.
 
Several years ago, Capps was so nervous at the notion of fending off the field that he sometimes threw up at the top end of the track during eliminations. He's more used to the pressure now, at least used to knowing what to expect. He's maybe a little more mellow.
 
The whole process, he might say, is outta sight . . .  He just wants to make sure the Funny Car championship isn't.

 

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