Ron Capps racked his brain on Wednesday afternoon, trying to find the answer to a question. Still, he couldn’t,  as he drove his motorcoach to Sonoma Raceway for this weekend’s Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals. 

Was there another crash he’d experienced as bad as last week’s mayhem at the Northwest Nationals outside of Seattle?

“Probably the one closest to that was going into the net in Indy was when the ‘chutes failed and went in upside down, but that wasn’t necessarily a hard hit either,” Capps said. “This was the highest speed at which I thought for sure several times it was going to go over and upside down and actually touch both walls. I grazed the right one pretty good and then ended up grazing the left one at the end there. I don’t think I’ve ever had something to that extent. I’ve had some pretty good ones. I’ve had some good blow-ups and some good fires, but that was the first of one of those high-speed sort of incidents.”

Capps learned long ago that violence in a Funny Car is not a matter of if but when. So many of these brutal crashes have a way of desensitizing those close to the situation, such as Capps.

John Force’s NHRA Virginia Nationals crash in June was the first incident with significant injuries in the Mission Foods Funny Car scene since 2018, when Robert Hight exploded an engine and impacted the wall, suffering a broken collarbone. 

Capps believes the Funny Car community’s willingness to work together to prevent fatalities or injuries has made a difference. Even dating back to 2007, Eric Medlen’s accident in testing, in which he succumbed to his injuries, has gone a long way to save dozens of lives. 

Count Capps as one of those who walked away uninjured because of Medlen’s sacrifice. 

“The sport goes along like that for a long time, it seems, and then something happens, and it changes. Unfortunately, we’ve lost drivers, but from those incidents, the best thing you can do out of those incidents is learn from them and hope it saves others down the road. 

“So when I made the comment I made about John Force, it started with the Eric Medlen incident that day, which prompted the whole sport to go back and look at all of the padding in the cockpits, especially around the head.

“Then, not soon thereafter, was the really bad [2007] John Force incident. Eric’s accident saved John’s life with the cockpit and what they did around that. What happened with John [in Virginia] forced a lot of teams to go back and look at why John’s happened and just address little things. So, as it’s gone on, you look at Darrell Russell and the roll cage enhancements. So, the worst-case scenario would be either losing a driver or somebody getting hurt and not learning from it.

“Obviously, we’ve had a pretty good run here lately of cars exploding and catching fire and things like that, but nothing to the extent of John’s in Richmond. So that was definitely an eye-opener, and it really sent everybody back to the drawing board again. NHRA, PRO and our teams have had several crew chief meetings [with NHRA] discussing John’s deal, with good input from every crew chief regarding their thoughts and what they’ve done already.”

Capps added that he’s proud of crew chief Dean Antonelli's efforts to go the extra mile to ensure his safety. 

“I’ve always bragged about Guido and the fact that he and our guys have always looked at the safety aspect. I’ve got a lot of padding around my legs that not everybody had; I didn’t have, I don’t know how many years ago, but it’s sort of stuff we took from IndyCar and maybe Formula One to protect the legs in incidents like that,” Capps explained. “A lot of little things, but my point is as long as we’ve learned from them, I think we’ll just keep going forward as far as the sport’s concerned.”

As proud as Capps is of Antonelli, he’s equally proud of the strides the drag racing community has made in brushing aside egos and competitive nature to ensure drag racing is safer for all. It’s been the collaboration on everything from Funny Car cockpit safety to one of the first major initiatives to ensure the removal of openings in the guard walls at facilities. 

“That’s why I’m proud to be a part of PRO,” Capps said. “But what’s ironic is I was really good friends with Blaine Johnson, standing behind his car when [the fatal crash] happened. The walls and the openings that we’d had for years before that were ridiculous to look back at. And I look back at footage of older, especially older Indy footage, but just a lot of tracks. You look back now and go, ‘My gosh, how did they even run knowing those openings were like that?” 

“It just took an accident like Blaine’s to take everybody to stop and fix it. Unfortunately, we lost Blaine over it, but little things like that.

“It wasn’t long ago that we had the roll bar padding that I still see; gosh, I’ve seen it in some sportsman cars and Junior Dragsters even a few years back. It was just the old roll bar padding that everybody used. That was the real hard stuff. 

“Now, looking back [at my crash], it beat me around pretty good with the car bouncing back and forth, and the headers probably kept it from going over. For sure, had we still had that old roll bar padding in it, it would’ve definitely probably done some more damage to my head and neck for sure. Yet, I got out and walked out, and I’m good this week, with no problems at all and no side effects.

“I’m not sure how much can be learned from ours. Ours was me just pedaling too much. You can’t abuse these engines like that. You can get away with it once in a while. And I’m lucky enough I got a tuneup like Guido’s that I’ve done that plenty of times and won races, but it was one too many, probably two too many pedals down there just trying to catch Gary Densham. And we wouldn’t be having this discussion had I not made that last couple of pedals. Not that we wanted to test everything, but it surely did its job."

There’s a phrase most drag racers are not keen to repeat, and it suggests the rulebook is printed in the blood of those who sacrificed their lives to make it safer. While the NHRA has drawn ire in the past for what some perceive as kneejerk reactions, Capps proudly points out that the NHRA’s willingness to listen to the racers and collaborate in safety initiatives has made a world of difference.

“The rule book is as it should be; it’s something that should be changed on an incident basis,” Capps said. “And I’m glad. There’s a lot of things I’m glad for. These last couple of years, I’ve seen NHRA do some pretty cool things that may not have happened a decade ago. Little things: We see a storm coming, and they move the sessions up to ensure the fans get to see or the race gets finished. Little things happen; right away, things are addressed and changed in the rule book, and on we go. 

“It’s been a really good thing to see NHRA do what they do, and they haven’t made a kneejerk reaction to what happened with John’s car. But I can tell you behind the scenes, there’s a lot of work going on with the crew chiefs who have put all their egos aside and gone over and explained what each of them was doing.”

Looking back on the incident, Capps admits there was one primary concern as his fiery Funny Car careened down the track. 

“When it happened, I got sprayed with oil, so I couldn’t see real well, but my primary concern was Gary Densham,” Capps revealed. “I didn’t know where he was, and he’s a hero of mine. He’s a guy who certainly can’t afford to have anything happen with his car. I can’t either, but he certainly can’t. I was very worried about going into his lane. That’s why when it finally broke up, something in the front end and shot left at the end; I mean, I had as much brake as I could, not knowing where he was at.”

In the past, not that he hasn’t cared, Capps, as a driver, could walk away from an incident and prepare for the next run or race. Now that he’s in the dual role of driver and team owner, the scenario is different. 

“I fired the driver on Sunday night,” Capps joked. “Well, we’re going to bring him back on for Sonoma. I think we’ll give him another chance. Our backup car is a car we won the 2022 championship, Indy, and all the races we won last year. So it’s got a pretty decent resume. Unfortunately, we’re bringing it out, but fortunately, it’s got a pretty decent resume. So I’m excited for us to unload that thing and see what we can do in Sonoma.”