Here’s the scenario for points leader Ron Capps. You get in the field on Friday and test on Saturday and if things go right, you win on Sunday.

After qualifying the Brut "Test Drive" Dodge Charger solidly in the field in No. 5 spot on Friday, Capps and crew chief Ed "Ace" McCulloch held a mini-test session in the final qualifying pass during the heat of the day.

Capps quickest qualifying pass of the weekend, a 4.775/319.90, came Friday night. His other passes produced a 4.971/300.46, a 4.932/305.22, and a tire-smoking 9.757/86.56 in the aforesaid "testing" round.

"We all had a talk," said Capps, who entered this event with a 140-point lead in the standings. "Ace was real conscious about wanting to try to see what the track would hold. One great thing about being in the field is having the chance to do what we did this afternoon.

Here’s the scenario for points leader Ron Capps. You get in the field on Friday and test on Saturday and if things go right, you win on Sunday.

After qualifying the Brut "Test Drive" Dodge Charger solidly in the field in No. 5 spot on Friday, Capps and crew chief Ed "Ace" McCulloch held a mini-test session in the final qualifying pass during the heat of the day.

Capps quickest qualifying pass of the weekend, a 4.775/319.90, came Friday night. His other passes produced a 4.971/300.46, a 4.932/305.22, and a tire-smoking 9.757/86.56 in the aforesaid "testing" round.

"We all had a talk," said Capps, who entered this event with a 140-point lead in the standings. "Ace was real conscious about wanting to try to see what the track would hold. One great thing about being in the field is having the chance to do what we did this afternoon.

"There was probably no chance anybody was going to move up to battle for the top four positions, because of the heat. But one thing we wanted to do was to find out whether at this time of day tomorrow, if we got after the car and the clutch a little bit more than usual, it would hold. It's still a newer car for us, so that's the mindset we were in.

"Having such a great first half of the year gives us this opportunity of being able to try things like that. That's what we did and it didn't make it.

"We know the car is consistent when Ace wants it to go down the track. It will be good for race day. It's nice to be able to have the luxury to try something. They say it's going to be six degrees warmer tomorrow. I always feel great about our team when race days are a bit warmer, especially having Ace as a crew chief."

LOSE EARLY STILL KEEP THE LEAD

Capps retained his points lead, despite being ousted in the opening round by Tim Wilkerson. He is now 123 points ahead of Robert Hight, who was eliminated in the second round.

When you’re next in line behind a track clean-up, drag racing becomes difficult.

"Tommy had that bad fire in front of us and the longer we sat the hotter it got," said Capps, the defending event champion. "You can tell from all the elapsed times that it got very difficult after that. The right lane (Capps was in the left) was actually a little worse because it had big pit marks of concrete that had come up from half-track on, so it was a matter of negotiating. And the left lane seemed a little better, and that's why you saw most of the Fuel cars take the left lane.

"We felt comfortable enough that we were going to go down there and run a mid-4.90, but it locked the clutch up and then it started slowly spinning the tires and then it got worse. And out popped Tim Wilkerson in my side window. He spun the tires pretty good, too, just not as bad as we did.

"It's just one of those deals. We ran Tim twice before this season and we beat him, and I knew sooner or later the odds were going to run out on us.

"No matter what, we are leaving here with the points lead. Right now we're focusing on the rest of the six-race swing coming up. We wanted to repeat as a winner like we did last year, but conditions were unbelievable all weekend."

"The track was pretty tricky for everybody," said crew chief Ed "Ace" McCulloch. "Wilkerson fired a shot at us. He ran really good early and got away with it and it was good enough to get around us. More power to him; he did a good job.

"We ran a lot better than a lot of them did out there, but it wasn't good enough in that round. That's how it goes."