Ron Capps almost saw his Funny Car season flash before his eyes – from the oddest angle, as he lay on the ground at Maple Grove Raceway, near Reading, Pa., about three weeks ago.

It turns out he has a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee. He’s wearing a knee brace as he drives the Don Schumacher Racing-owned NAPA Dodge Charger  this weekend at the Texas Motorplex and will begin physical therapy near the close of the season. His injury will not require surgery, he said. The incident occurred at the top end of the racetrack, as an opponents’ team member accidentally struck him with a tow vehicle.

“It was the semis after we lost to JR [Todd] in Maple Grove. He and I were shaking hands after the run. They beat us, and all of a sudden I was on the ground,” Capps said. “At the time I didn’t realize it. Their tow vehicle . . . and nobody’s at fault. The kid driving their tow vehicle felt terrible, of course. I thought when it hit me, because they hit me pretty hard and it hit me right at my left knee on the outside. Still had my helmet and stuff on. so that was good, because I went to the ground. I thought it was broken for sure. Anyway, so Maple Grove down there, it’s only two roads in the grass, and of course, it had been raining, so when tow vehicles have to pull out, it was difficult to get around. And on top of that, everybody’s rushing teams from NHRA. Everybody’s just in a hurry. It was nobody’s fault.

“At first we thought it was broken. They sent the ambulance,” Capps said. “The doctors from NHRA looked at me. For sure it wasn’t broken. We put a brace, actually one of the NHRA guys had a brace, so I went right to the Philadelphia airport, flew home [to Carlsbad, Calif, near San Diego] the next morning, got x-rayed and then got an MRI. X-rays were okay, MRI showed a Grade 2 MCL tear. So they made me a brace, which I wore in St. Louis, and I still have to wear it. We’ll just see [how long]. So it didn’t tear it off the bone.”

Capps said he had some hoops to jump through for clearance to compete in NHRA races.

“The thing with NHRA now is you have to have a release signed by a doctor. I was just getting my MRI done, and I got a text from Josh Peterson at NHRA saying make sure you get a signed release from the doctor saying that you can compete in NHRA competition without any restrictions,” Capps said. “And so obviously the doctor that worked on me, Dr. Loren at CORE, and they work on a lot of athletes in the San Diego area, a lot of UFC fighters, surfers, skateboarders in that area. They’re the ones that repaired my tricep a few years ago and they reattached it. He signed that off.

“The brace worked great in St. Louis. The lucky thing is the clutch, [crew chief Rahn] Tobler and the crew made sure the clutch was something I could push in easily. The push in motion isn’t bad for pain, I’ve got to be careful not to twist it when I walk or do anything. Just unfortunate,” he said.

“No surgery. But I can start rehab right after Pomona, actually hopefully before Pomona. I thought my season was over. I mean laying on the ground there, it was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve got such a great race car. We’re so competitive.’ We were up in the lounge with the paramedics there. It’s like I’m looking at Tobler like I can’t believe this just happened. Something out of my control. So anyway that’s kind of where it’s at. So I’ve just been kind of taking care of it. You know, I usually pack my own chutes, so some of the crew guys help me with any chores I’ve got to do outside the car. I can’t bend down with it very easily,” he said.

“But driving the car was fine. I was really surprised,” Capps said. “Taking my foot actually off the clutch made me think about it a little bit the first couple of qualifying runs, but race day had nothing to do with anything on the car, driving-wise. I actually drove great all through qualifying.

“There’s still pain there,” he said. “I’ve got to be careful twisting and turning. I don’t want to aggravate it, because I did tear it. I just don’t want to re-tear it. So this brace I have is much like you see with the football players where it’s got the carbon fiber on each side of it to keep it stable. And then I can push forward. And again, our clutches in these nitro cars are centrifugal clutch pedals. So luckily it’s nothing like a road race car would be or a Pro Stock car would be, where you really have to use the clutch a lot.”

He said he felt odd, knowing fans saw him in the airports at Philadelphia and Detroit in a wheelchair.

“The next morning I’m at the Philly airport at like 5 in the morning, the first flight out to get home to San Diego, and I had to be wheel-chaired to my gate. I saw some fans and I watched social media and was watching people post stuff about seeing me in a wheelchair. And then I ran into a couple of Steve Torrence’s crew guys at my gate, and the one guy just looked over and gave me the look like, ‘What are you doing?’ So it was strange. I connected in Detroit, saw some more fans as I was getting off in a wheelchair. And I just wanted to get home and get it checked. I couldn’t even move it that night at the hotel.

“It’s just one of those things. It’s strange,” Capps said. “You’d think after running 325 miles per hour that all the danger stuff is over with.”

He said that “with the NHRA rushing everybody as much as they were with everything that was going on and combined with that shutdown area not being as open as some race tracks, it just created a little bit of chaos down there. I’m thankful [the knee or leg]  wasn’t broken, because I would definitely be out.”