It's hard to not be sentimental about a place where you have more professional wins than any other drag racer.
 
On Sunday afternoon, Ron Capps surpassed Tony Schumacher as the winningest driver at Bristol Dragway during the sanest day at the double-event NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, the seventh stop on the 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series. Despite a two-hour rain delay, Capps found his groove all day, stopping Alexis DeJoria in the final round to pick up his seventh win at the picturesque racing facility carved out of the mountains of east Tennessee. 

Capps drove his NAPA Auto Parts Toyota to a 3.998-second elapsed time at 325 miles per hour to scoop up his first win of the season and 74th of his career. 

"Last year, we were able to give the Toyota GR Supra its first win here in Bristol," Capps said. "Needless to say, I was stoked when I pulled up for the finals, and there were four [Team] Toyota cars in the lanes. It's not surprising when you see all the effort they put into our drag racing out here with tech support. 

"But it's our whole team, from the crew to the public relations to the social media, that makes it all work. And Bristol is a tough track to win at. 
This is probably the most demanding racetrack there is to drive in a Funny Car. I think anybody will tell you that drives one. So I probably cost us a couple of qualifying runs. I just couldn't hang on to the car and keep it in the middle. And thankfully, I got my act together on Sunday, and (crew chief Dean Antonelli) 'Guido' was able to lay it down."

Capps' road to the winner's circle included victories over Dave Richards, 16-time champion John Force, and a surging Chad Green. He got quicker each round, with the quickest, a 3.918, in the semi-finals.

"There's no way of explaining when you get a certain mojo at a time," Capps said. "I've won here with different crew chiefs, different sponsors, different owners, so I can't really pinpoint it. I just know the very first year we ever came here; I did a golf tournament. I met a bunch of people that day that were local Chamber of Commerce. We did a press conference, and people I still talk to today. I met a chiropractor. My back was messed up. He adjusted me. Then I ate dinner at their house that night. They invited me to their house. From the get-go, it's been this love affair with this area."

Capps said he's had a special technique he follows when he gets on a roll, as he did on Sunday.

"I just try not to mess up," Capps admitted. "We got a great race car. Again, just Guido kind of getting in his zone. And again, this is one of the most difficult racetracks, not just as a driver but to tune. It's got a lot of character. This is one of the first tracks that built a place for the fans, and in doing so, it created these tons of bumps, and they've had to come in and (grind) it. But what's cool about it is we go to a lot of tracks, we just go out, and it's just a thousand feet or a quarter-mile of two lanes, and you go out, and you throw down the best you can with the weather you can, whatever the conditions are, and that's it. 

"This place has so much character. I mean, you really got to adjust for it. It brings out the best in everybody on the team."

Apparently, it also brings out the best in his opponents when they run him in trying to find an edge. DeJoria went in and deep-staged, something Capps recognized immediately as out of character for DeJoria.

"She came over and apologized right away, but I gave her a little bit of time because I knew I've done that, and it's crazy," Capps said. "So I wanted to make sure it was a good race by both teams. And thank God I got the jump because they were right there."

Capps' Bristol victory represented Toyota win No. 198, and with team driver Justin Ashley grabbing No. 199 in Top Fuel on Sunday , the milestone 200th win could come with the Funny Car winner in two weeks at Norwalk, Ohio. 

Additionally, Capps is the points leader after wresting the upper hand from Hagan.

"That's huge," Capps said. "It's a long year. It's great. And it's great for NAPA Monday morning to look at Competition Plus or any of our race sites, and when we send them a link and see that we're points leaders, that's great. But it doesn't matter until I can tell you Sunday at Pomona (at the NHRA In-and-Out Burger Finals); I can finally say that we won it on Sunday. We just try to get through wins and just get our consistency down. But this is huge. Great win."