The road to a third consecutive NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series national event title has been a bumpy road for Funny Car points leader Ron Capps, literally. The road to a third consecutive NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series national event title has been a bumpy road for Funny Car points leader Ron Capps, literally.

Capps concluded qualifying at the NHRA Gatornationals as sixth but not before making a few runs where his NAPA Auto Parts Funny Car darted around the finish line and dangerously close to the guard wall on occasion.

"There are a lot of bumps out there," said Capps at the top end after his final qualifying attempt. "It did it again. It pulled a hard left. If you look at every run, the guys are all over the place. It's just demanding out here right now. The track temperature is over 115 degrees. I saw I was pretty close out the window and I thought I'd better throw her sideways.

"This race can easily turn into a battle of attrition and the little bit of heat and humidity we saw today took a lot of teams by surprise," added Capps, who will face Tony Pedregon in first round of eliminations on Sunday. "We fully expected to run a 4.09 or 4.10 in the final session, but when it hit the bumps it put a cylinder out. Sometimes you can't help that; you just have to try to go through there.”