Redemption.

It has been a long three weeks for Funny Car veteran Ron Capps as the 2016 world champion saw his championship aspirations seemingly go up in smoke with back-to-back first round exits, mostly of his own making.

But on Sunday, Capps shed the weight of those poor outings with one of his best overall weekends of the entire season, placing the NAPA Auto Parts NIGHTVISION Lamps Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car in the winner’s circle for the third time in 2018 at the 11th annual NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway.

“We couldn’t get here fast enough. Going back to St. Louis when we lost in a holeshot first round, it left me sick to my stomach. When that happens I go home and I don’t sleep well, I’m up in the middle of the night. My wife will look over and I’m not in bed and its three in the morning and I’m going frame-by-frame watching that run trying to over-analyze everything. It’s not fun,” Capps said. “Because I live it, I breathe it, I could not wait to get to the next race. We had a really good car at that race and had a chance to make up a lot of ground and I didn’t. I probably aged a year that week. Then we get to Dallas and just got outran by Force.

“When we left Dallas we shook hands, did a little hug like we always do when we leave each and every track, and (Rahn Tobler) said, ‘lets just go win the last three.’ We decided we weren’t going to be shy and we weren’t shy today.”

Capps defeated J.R.Todd in Sunday’s Funny Car final, overcoming a small starting line deficit to take the win. Capps ran a 3.890-second pass at 331.20 mph in earning his 61st career win and third of the season. Todd, in his sixth final of 2018, lost traction early in his run and limped across the stripe with a 4.311 at 214.96 mph.

In picking up the win, Capps jumped three spots in the Countdown to the Championship up to third, but it was his chart-topping passes during eliminations that crew chief Rahn Tobler produced that left Capps most energized following Sunday’s win.

“We had a few great sessions today. We got a little aggressive in Q3 on Saturday trying to push it, but I am glad that we did because it really told (Tobler) a lot about what the car wanted to do in that temperature even though we lost the pole to Tommy Johnson,” Capps said. “Today he really showed me a lot. Two runs over 330 mph in the middle of the day was big for Rahn Tobler. We always talk about race day and adverse conditions, but to throw down those speeds and those E.T.s when we needed it, that was very cool.”

Those runs included a 3.889-second pass at 332.43 mph in round two against current points leader Robert Hight and the 3.890 at 331.20 mph in the final.

Capps added wins over Tim Wilkerson in the semifinals and Dale Creasy Jr. in round one to advance to his sixth final of the year.

Todd had wins over John Force, Cruz Pedregon and Jonnie Lindberg.

“The interesting part of having a great NAPA car is that we always have a target on our back. We have people that are going to pull up and take shots like Cruz did in St. Louis and you know that,” Capps said. “You just have to be up for anything and I am just so glad we came here and did what we talked about doing. Those races might have cost us a championship, but we are going to go down fighting. We have a lot of business left to take care of. I can’t wait to celebrate with the guys and get to the next race.”

While Sunday’s race was certainly a game-changer in the Funny Car category, with Hight losing for the first time in three weeks, and others were able to close the gap, it wasn’t exactly a statement win for Capps. He admits that he doesn’t like to make declarations and likes to let his car and team do the talking for him.

“I don’t feel like we need to make statements. Teams know we are going to be tough,” Capps said. “Rahn and I, we race good together. It is good to get that handshake from Robert Hight and J.R. after both of those runs because I know the admiration I have for them and I know how good they are and I get up to race them as I do everyone else.

“I think we said it enough with the win and the momentum. Tobler has the tuneup now for the cool conditions. He doesn’t care about the green hats, he only cares about the yellow hats and that is what we are going after. Now that he can run both conditions well, that gives me a lot of confidence.”

Capps will try to close the gap even more in two weeks at the Toyota NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas, the penultimate race of the 2018 season.