What a roller-coaster ride of an afternoon for Ron Capps.

In an encapsulation of his season as a whole, Capps watched as the championship slipped through his fingertips in one round, only to gain it back moments later thanks to an assist from another driver. In the end, Capps was able to hold on to earn his second career NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series championship in Funny Car despite an early exit at the Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.

Meanwhile, it was Bob Tasca that was the last driver standing on the day as he drove to his third win of the season and ninth of his career on Sunday.

“This was just typical Pomona,” Capps said. “Coming in was very unique. Being a home track, we had a lot of friends and family and everyone around me wanted to help me keep my mind clear. I wanted to do everything like we did in August when we won the delayed Winternationals.

“Funny Car is so tough. I’ve just had to chug along (in this class) with some great people around me and kind of just do our thing. I’m happy to be No. 2 to (the greatest of all-time, John Force). To have a second championship, it validates a little bit more for me. But I’m still going to wake up on January 1 and think, ‘Let’s go get another one.’”

On a day that saw championship-swinging results in nearly every round, the final round was rather tame as the matchup between Tasca and Alexis DeJoria had little bearing on the title picture.

In a final few saw coming on another unpredictable afternoon of racing in the Funny Car category, Tasca got the job done in a thrilling matchup as the driver of the Ford Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang got away first and drove to a stout 3.955-second pass at 321.65 mph. DeJoria shadowed him throughout, but ultimately fell short in her Bandero Tequila Toyota Camry with a 3.974 at 322.58 mph in her second runner-up finish of the season.

“I’ve been chasing a Pomona Wally for a long time,” Tasca said. “I remember being out here as a kid with my dad after Bob Glidden won walking down that left lane. I’ve always wanted to win Pomona. It is a special race. 56 years ago my grandfather won this race, so this is just a special day for my family for sure.”

Tasca added wins over J.R. Todd, Jim Campbell and John Force to reach his fifth final round of the year.

Before the final, it was a no-holds-barred cage fight for the championship.

In round one, championship hopefuls Cruz Pedregon and J.R. Todd suffered early exits, before a titanic matchup between the top two title contenders in the second round.

Hagan and Capps traded the lead in the championship throughout the Countdown to the Championship, but it was Capps who came into the NHRA season finale with a two-round advantage thanks to back-to-back first round exits for Hagan at the previous two races.

As fate would have it, the pair matched up in the second round on Sunday with Hagan eliminating his Don Schumacher Racing teammate with a 3.948-second pass at 322.34 mph. Capps, in his NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, got away first, but couldn’t keep up in posting a 3.995 at 319.45 mph.

With the win, Hagan kept his championship hopes alive for another round. In the semifinal, however, it was DeJoria playing spoiler as the eventual runner-up simply outdrove the defending Funny Car champion with a 3.940 at 321.04 mph to Hagan’s 3.975 at 317.79 mph, handing the title to Capps.

“We wanted to get the points just above the next cutoff which was 60 points and we were just shy of doing that (coming into the race). But we ended up putting it over the threshold this weekend which probably ended up helping us win the championship,” Capps said. “The fact that we had to meet up in the second round, I knew just what was going to happen. I’ve been here a bunch of times and we have lost a lot of championships by close margins. I figured there was no way it was going to be easy. That team is too good to just get by them and expect them to not put up a fight.”

While it wasn’t the prettiest way to end a season, a championship is still a championship and it was made all the more special for Capps as he celebrated alongside his first-year crew chiefs Dean Antonelli and John Medlen. The duo, which guided Jack Beckman’s car last season, came onboard in the offseason when Capps’ longtime crew chief Rahn Tobler retired.

“Tobler retiring in January was so sudden right before the season started. Luckily, that team with Jack Beckman was kept intact,” Capps said. “Guido (Antonelli) and I go way back to my first year as a Top Fuel driver. We became very fast friends and here we are later on getting to work together finally.

“John Medlen, well we have had some weird stuff going on where John has been feeling Eric’s (Medlen) presence. Today when we lost, we have a couple of pictures of Eric in the lounge and John apologized to Eric and he said the picture talked right back to him and said it is going to be alright. That made me feel better.

“It has just been so fun to work with these guys and this team. And to win another championship, you couldn’t have scripted it any better.”

In all, five different drivers took a turn atop the championship standings, including Capps, Hagan, Todd, Force and Tasca.

For much of the season Tasca looked to be the favorite, leading the standings for much of the first half of the season. But after early exits in four-straight races during the summer months, Tasca slipped from the lead and was never able to recover.

“It is a shame. We ran into clutch problems. You can make excuses all you want, but we just ran out of clutch discs that we liked and we couldn’t get them,” Tasca said. “We had enough to finish this race, so we saved them and we put them in. I knew we were going to have a good weekend because we know how to set the car up. But it was too late as we were snakebit in the playoffs and got behind early and weren’t able to reel it in.

“We have a great team. Everyone is coming back next year so we should be right back in the hunt.”

Now, with a short offseason around the bend, Capps has some things to sort out for 2022 and has hinted at a few announcements coming in December. Until then, the only thing he has to worry about is where to place his second NHRA championship trophy.

“My wife has never let any racing stuff in my house, but we’ve had the world championship trophy next to our TV where we sit and watch in the family room,” Capps said. “And it has just sat there by itself. Every time we sit down to watch TV I am glancing over at it thinking how cool it would be to have another one on the other side of the TV not thinking it would ever happen again.”