There are halls of fame, there are championship trophies, and then there are places that become part of a racer’s identity.
For Ron Capps, Bristol Dragway is one of those places.
The eight-time Bristol winner was formally announced Friday as the 24th inductee into the Legends of Thunder Valley, joining a group reserved for those who helped define one of drag racing’s most revered facilities. Bristol Dragway president and general manager Jerry Caldwell said the honor was long overdue.
“It’s very rare that we induct an active driver, but you’re in rare company when you’re with Ron Capps,” Caldwell said. “The other two that have been inducted as active drivers are John Force and Tony Schumacher.
“So we are thrilled to be able to induct someone who it’s kind of long overdue, but you’re trying to see how much he’s going to accomplish and how many things he’s going to do. And eventually you have to say, ‘He’s going to keep going, but we need to induct him.'”
The distinction carries extra weight because Capps remains one of the few active competitors whose relationship with Bristol stretches from childhood dreams to racing immortality.
Long before he drove for Don Prudhomme, won championships or became a team owner, Capps was a Southern California kid reading about Thunder Valley in magazines.
“To answer your question, yeah, I read about Larry Carrier, all the history,” Capps said. “For me as a kid, I read more about the Pro Modified, production and Pro Stock history because back in that day that was big out here and that’s all you read about was Grumpy and Glidden and all those guys and this track and the IHRA, NHRA thing.
“But yeah, it was all I read about as a kid. In fact that you hear that they were going to put one on our schedule with something, just be like, ‘Wow, this could be cool,’ which it was.”
Capps admitted the honor felt surreal because the names on Bristol’s grandstands were once the same names hanging on his bedroom wall.
“When I got the call from Anthony, I had to sit down,” Capps said. “I was like, ‘God, I can’t even believe I’m going to be up on that grandstand.’ Because we literally in the cars pull up and when they unhook us to pull up the run, you see that and there’s nothing like that, that grandstand packed and to look up and see those names.
“I would have been really proud to see Snake up there and Wally and everybody.”
The statistics alone justify the recognition.
Capps owns more victories at Bristol than any driver in NHRA history, including John Force. It is a distinction he considers one of the proudest achievements of his career.
“I don’t know how many or where anybody can say they won more than John Force at any track,” Capps said. “So that’s something really weird every year I come here and it’s brought up.
“I will retire and be old in a rocking chair someday watching NHRA and have grandkids running around and be as proud as ever to say, ‘I’m the second winningest to a guy named John Force at everything, right? But I did win more than John at a certain place.’ That’s probably the coolest feather in my cap for sure.”
For a driver who grew up reading about Thunder Valley, the journey from fan to legend still feels difficult to comprehend.
“It’s very surreal,” Capps said. “I’m not sure I can even put it into words.”
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