There’s something about racing on a Tuesday that always seems to excite Ron Capps. Maybe that thrill can be traced to the fact that he’s undefeated on that particular day of the week.

Yes, Capps’ first win came on a Tuesday in Seattle, 1995, when he defeated Cory McClenathan while driving Roger Primm’s Top Fuel dragster.

“There were about 40 people or so in the grandstands to celebrate with me,” Capps recalled.

For Capps, it was all about remaining motivated during a rainout. There’s something about racing on a Tuesday that always seems to excite Ron Capps. Maybe that thrill can be traced to the fact that he’s undefeated on that particular day of the week.

Yes, Capps’ first win came on a Tuesday in Seattle, 1995, when he defeated Cory McClenathan while driving Roger Primm’s Top Fuel dragster.

“There were about 40 people or so in the grandstands to celebrate with me,” Capps recalled.

For Capps, it was all about remaining motivated during a rainout.

The motivation came from the boss’s son Tony Schumacher, who tried to explain to his Don Schumacher Racing teammate to keep his focus and not get caught up in the “we’ve won first round, so we can get out of here” mentality.

“Usually when he comes in there like that, I’ll laugh and tell him to get out of here but this time when he walked away, I felt really motivated,” Capps admitted. “He was right in everything he said. I never knew there was this much pressure on a Tuesday.”

A forty race drought will cause pressure. That pressure can permeate through a driver and into his crew chief.

Capps knew his tuner Ed “Ace” McCulloch was feeling the pressure considering they hadn’t won since Richmond [Va.] of 2007.

What’s a driver to do? If you’re Capps, you go on a tear and lay down impressive runs such as a 4.12 to open the day, then a 4.08 to win the second round and a 4.05 to get to the finals.

That’s the kind of a performance that will swing the pendulum of momentum back to favorable in a hurry.

“I just gave him a hug, it was pretty emotional,” admitted Capps, who conveyed this season the team was in an option year of the contract with NAPA Auto Parts. “There were times he [McCulloch] felt insecure about his job. With the round robin of crew chiefs in this industry, it doesn’t take long for a crew chief to struggle and a team owner say, ‘I’m gonna replace you.”

Capps said that wasn’t the case with his team but when a situation like that transpires, confidence can become shaky.

“You have to just pat them on the butt, and tell them to keep their spirits up,” Capps said.

Beyond that, as a driver, one cannot look past anyone in the field. The 25-time winner learned a long time ago in his career and was given a reminder last summer when he lost a heavily favored race against Tony Bartone.

The potential could have been there as paired on the opposite side of the ladder were the unsponsored racers Jim Head and Gary Densham. First he had to get past low qualifier Robert Hight, a driver for a team that always brings out the best in Capps.

When Head won and reeled off a 4.10, Capps knew if he made the final round, he was in for another tough battle.

“Those are two guys who can run with anybody,” Capps said. “Jim Head is capable of being low elapsed time in any given round. When he ran that 4.10 ahead of us, it justified what I was thinking.”

Capps has known the level of competition in the Funny Car class has been at a crescendo for the last five years, at least.

“I told someone that I relish the day when there will only be 16 Funny Cars at a race,” Capps admitted, referencing the potentially short fields for Top Fuel in 2009. “Then we won’t have all the stress of just having to qualify. There can be 20 cars here and sixteen to eighteen who could legitimately win the race on Sunday. I’ve gotten gray quick over the competition in this class the last few years.”

This weekend added a few more gray hairs to the mix.