Ron Capps had to change the way he used to think. The veteran Funny Car driver didn’t believe that qualifying No. 1 always worked out as a positive.

He’s since had a change of heart.

"For a while, No. 1 always felt like you were a little bit jinxed going into Sunday and it didn’t really matter as long as you were top four and you had lane choice," said Capps in the post-qualifying press conference at the NHRA O'Reilly Midwest Nationals in St. Louis.

Capps used a 4.111 elapsed time at 297.02 miles per hour run in the first session to nail down his ninth career No. 1 qualifying effort and second of 2009.

Ron Capps had to change the way he used to think. The veteran Funny Car driver didn’t believe that qualifying No. 1 always worked out as a positive.

He’s since had a change of heart.

"For a while, No. 1 always felt like you were a little bit jinxed going into Sunday and it didn’t really matter as long as you were top four and you had lane choice," said Capps in the post-qualifying press conference at the NHRA O'Reilly Midwest Nationals in St. Louis.

Capps used a 4.111 elapsed time at 297.02 miles per hour run in the first session to nail down his ninth career No. 1 qualifying effort and second of 2009.

The competition should beware because Capps and his newly aggressive crew chief Ed McCulloch are consistently going for the throat.

"The more impressive thing was to be rained out yesterday and then have (crew chief) Ed McCulloch put me in a car that ran 4.11 in both lanes. The left lane (in the second session) has a slightly bigger bump and they're pretty equal. I was astounded when they told me on the radio I ran another .11. That was pretty neat.”

Back-to-back 4.11s didn’t provide a comfort zone for Capps on Saturday.

"I thought for sure Ashley (Force Hood) was going to drop an .08 or an .07 on us (she's No. 7 with a 4.162/294.95). And when all those cars were running .14s and .15s (in the final session) it showed me how good that run was in the first session." 

Advertisement