DESPITE MISSING NHRA EVENTS, CAPPS SAYS FORCE STILL IMPACTING DRIVERS

Mon, 2020-09-14 10:34

 

 

Despite all of the wins, despite the 2016 championship and the more than 750 round wins, the one - and possibly only - thing still missing from Ron Capps’ career resume in Funny Car is a trophy from the biggest drag race of them all.

Capps has collected 65 trophies in all during his decorated career, a career that has spanned more than two decades, but he has never held one at the U.S. Nationals. He has one runner-up, coming here in 2017, but a win has eluded him.

That all changed - sort of - four weeks ago when Capps collected his first career win at Lucas Oil Raceway. While it wasn’t the big one, Capps finally got a taste of victory in Indianapolis.

Still, it paled in comparison to the Big Go.

“I thought (that win) might change the way we came into this weekend, but it didn’t. When I drove in the gate, it was like a different planet compared to what it had been around here,” Capps said. “Driving in that gate and seeing all of the cars, the alcohol Funny Cars and dragsters and sportsmen, it made the hairs stand up on my neck. I know this is the U.S. Nationals, but it just reminded me that this one is different. Those other races here were nice, but this is the big one.

“It reminded me of the day I came here as a crew guy in 1992. I came here for the first time working on an alcohol dragster and went in that same gate and was blown away.”

While Capps' teammate, Jack Beckman, went on to win the event at the expense of Capps in a round two matchup, Capps admitted that any win from this past weekend comes with an asterisk, as defending race winner John Force and reigning class Robert Hight were not in competition. The COVID-19 pandemic forced John Force Racing to shutter for the season, leaving two of the winningest and most popular drivers missing from the field.

“I can tell you, in the Funny Car pit area, there is definitely an asterisk because Robert and Jimmy (Prock) and John aren’t here,” Capps said. “Robert and Jimmy, they have been the class car to beat over the last few years and we always get up to race them. (Rahn) Tobler, being friends with Jimmy, it brings out a little bit more. And racing Robert, you better be at your best because he is not going to make a mistake. And, of course, Force is Force.”

Still, even without the JFR team in the pits, they have still had an impact on Ron. Following his win at the Dodge Nationals last month, Capps had one particular message out of the hundreds he received following that win that truly stood out to him.

“I had 193 text messages and even more voicemails that night and the coolest one I got was from John Force. He left me a really cool voicemail which I kept where he talked to me about how emotional it was that I gave the trophy to my wife and he watched it,” Capps said.

So, exactly how much did not having the JFR cars on the property enter Capps' mind during his win?

“There are so many tough cars here. On race day a few weeks ago, I forgot they weren’t here as we were going rounds. You just get so caught up, you can’t focus on who is not here,” Capps said. “Instead, I was thinking there is (Tim) Wilkerson. There are my teammates. There are the Kalitta cars. There are so many tough cars in Funny Car and you never even think twice about it until, at the end of the day, you think, wow, there is no Robert and John here."

 

 

 

 
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