Ron Capps, the reigning NHRA nitro Funny Car world champion, isn’t about to surrender his title to his competition without a fight.

The veteran brought the fight to his fellow drivers and walked away as the winner of the Texas NHRA FallNationals at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas Sunday.

Capps clocked a 3.911-second elapsed time at 327.18 mph to edge Matt Hagan’s 3.93-second lap at 331.32 mph.

“We all talked about getting those little points coming in, and we failed a little bit at that,” Capps said. “Not that we weren't trying. The car smoked the tires the first Q1 on Friday, and you're thinking that $15,000 that Billy and Christie (Meyer) put up, Stampede of Speed, and you want to take that money Friday night. And so, you want to go down the first run, and we didn't. But Guido (Capps crew chief Dean Antonelli), typical fashion, only a couple pair in, we were moved way up at the front for Friday night, and he threw down a 3.86. And I got to sit in the saddle for quite a while till Hagan around that 82. But we gained a few points here and there, but we lost overall a little bit to Robert. I think we lost two or three overall qualifying, so we didn't accomplish that goal. That was a goal for us to get ahead of him, at least gain some on him. So, it went from 46 to 50. And you don't want to have to rely on somebody else to do, I guess, your dirty work and hope that somebody takes out whoever you're battling for a world championship.

“I've been part of that, on both sides of it, in the past many times. We wanted to take care of business. We didn't in St. Louis in the final, and that was my fault. And so, I wanted retribution, and we got it.”

Capps won his 73rd career Wally and fifth this season. He’s now 6-5 against Hagan in final rounds. The victory also moved Capps to second place in the points standings – just 10 points behind Robert Hight.

There are just two races remaining in the season – Las Vegas (Oct. 27-30) and Pomona, Calif., (Nov. 10-13).

On Sunday, Capps defeated Jeff Diehl, legendary John Force, points leader Hight and then Hagan.

"I just was trying to keep it within ourselves and not make a mistake,” Capps said. “Guido just kept throwing 80s in the car. 336, 335. So, every run obviously getting Robert (Hight) in the semis, that was what we wanted, and that was huge, and we had lane choice. I'm not sure it didn't matter, but I didn't see that he didn't make it so that was a huge win. That's instantly 20 points knocked off right away. I got back and Guido and I and Medlen, we just said, ‘All right, now it's icing on a cake. Whatever we could do from here on out.’ Then you got Matt Hagan on that team. So obviously they threw down an 82. The conditions were as good as that night. So, I'm sure Guido tuned it up. He said it slowed down, and I think it put a cylinder out down there. But they also ran just a tad slower, and I'm not sure what the lights were. I don't even care. I just know backing up from the burnout, I was looking in the grandstands, and the lights were barely coming on. I'm thinking, Billy Meyer is loving this. This is under the lights, flames up. I know Hagan and I could barely see. But that's what it was like back in the '70s. A Funny Car final round, and it was four rows of flames both just hauling the mail down there, and it had to have been awesome. I can't wait to watch it again. But that was typical old school, and that's what Billy deserved final round. That's what the fans deserve that stuck around. So epic day.”

In his second round win over Force, Capps overcame Force’s .003 light. Capps clocked a 3.885-second run to outrun Force’s 4.045-second run.

“Yeah, those runs that you lose on holeshots on paper,” Capps said. “You go down, and all of a sudden there's John, and his car runs decent and close to yours, and he does that, and it just makes it look like it's a holeshot. You can try to explain it to your sponsors and people that don't understand, but that comes across as a big holeshot. He's going to try something. I've been racing him a long time. He did it to Cruz first round, and Cruz has raced him many more times, I'm sure, than I have. So, the good and the bad thing about the Toyota GR Supra is the fact that the vision is so good, and unfortunately, I can see out the side windows better than I could ever see out of a Funny Car body. So, I can actually see the nose of my opponent, which can be good, and it can be bad.

"When it's Force, I know the top light's coming off, but out of the corner of my eye, in my peripheral, I see his nose go forward. I just see it keep going, and I'm already in with my brake on. I'm like, you son of a gun, you're going to do it to me right here. So, there's so much going on that little fraction of a second before the tree comes down that your brain's going, oh my god, he did it. And then you see the top light off, and then you're like, don't look, don't look. And it's crazy. I wish you could slow that down and pinpoint all the electrodes in your brain going off at that moment that any driver has to race John Force, because it's mass confusion. Would that be the right side or the left side? I think it's the right side of the brain. Well, now that I say it, now that I'm talking, my left side's talking, I think, about the right side, but however that works. Yeah, typical John Force.”

After beating Force, Capps said there was very little exchange between the drivers.

“Every time lately when we race and we beat him, he looks like I beat his dog up or something,” Capps said. “He's got this look, and he says, ‘Great job, Cappsy." And I pat him on the butt and walk off. And he always comes by later and says something. He's great. He's still great. And anytime you beat him, and I've joked about it, but it's no joke, it's rental car back to the hotel back in the day. If you can beat John Force at anything, you've done something. So big win.”

Although Capps did get a huge win over Hight, he wasn’t about to produce any bulletin board material in his post-race interview about talking about his crew chiefs and Hight’s tuner Jimmy Prock.

“I don't want to get that going,” Capps said. “It's a unique relationship with all those guys. They've all worked at John Force. They've all worked at DSR. They all know each other, and they've all got different ways they approach their tune-up. And they all worked around Austin Coil, and that is the biggest thing. Trust me, Guido's proudest moment tonight will be a phone call from Austin Coil. All those guys, they all were (tutored by Coil), that was their thing. They still talk about, ‘Well, Austin did this,’ and I hear this all the time from Guido. And they're so proud that they've gotten to be around him and that the stories about things that he did and what they do and the old school things that they do, I love being around that.

“So, with that being said, those three, they're like three kids. They're like Austin's kids, and they're all got this way of approaching it, and it's all something they learned from Austin Coil. So, it is a true battle. When we've got to race them, I'm like, oh my God, don't smoke the tires. Because I know he gets up for a race, Guido does, and I know Jimmy does, and I know Dickie (Venables, Matt Hagan’s crew chief) does. It's a lot of fun, but it can be stressful when you get down to the last two races for a championship, and you know that we're going to have to meet those guys. And you don't want to meet them early in the day, but certainly if you've got to take care of it and move up with the points, you've got to do what we did today.”

This is Capps first year as a team owner and he’s enjoying the ride.

“It is a lot of fun right now,” he said. “I can't tell you how much fun it is to step on the gas and have that car blast down there with a front-end dancing around and flames out the window and have a win light come on next to one of those cars that you know you've got to beat for a championship. (Top Fuel points leader) Justin (Ashley) and I were just talking. Justin's got a pad on points lead, but I guarantee you he's probably more nervous having that. And I've been in that position, so I'm not sure what's better, either to be chased or the chaser. It certainly is nicer with 2016 to have the points, a little bit of a pad we had going in. We never left. And I joked about it with National Dragster, and I love the articles that come out, and I love reading the Tricky Tipster and all that and five things we've learned. I love that the Funny Car class is so all over the place. I'm waiting for a breakout from J.R.Todd and Tim Wilkerson and Alexis, and it's coming. And all these other teams, they're going to show up here pretty soon in a big way. It's just going to cause havoc these last two races. We just want to stay within ourselves, so we can go to Vegas and leave there where we're at right now or even gain a little bit, it'd be huge.”

Capps is a drag race historian and old-school night racing was something he welcomed Sunday.

“It wasn't many years ago that I went up there, and there was Richard Tharp and Raymond Beadle when he was alive and Snake and Mongoose,” Capps said. “I would get weekly calls from Mongoose. So, I love that old school stuff. I love the fact that I've got to live through those guys, and that was everything to me as a kid. So that final round was really cool for me because I knew Billy (Meyer) was up there.

“When I worked for Snake and even with (Rahn) Tobler and Ace (Ed McCulloch) as my crew chief, Raymond Beadle would just come bebopping in the trailer. And I was like, ‘Oh my god, it's Raymond Beadle. He'd talk to me for a while, and he'd walk away, and I'd have to act all cool about it. It was funny because backing up from the burnout, I just looked, and I go, ‘this is cool, man. The lights aren't even on all the way, and I would be complaining about how dark it is. But I was like, this is the '70s all over again. It doesn't even matter it's not lit up, but there's going to be a bitching show for the fans. And it was.”

Capps, who made his NHRA debut in 1995 driving Roger Primm’s Top Fuel Dragster, talked about the journey that got him to this point in his career.

“Just great people around me from the get-go. I don't even know,” Capps said. (I) get emotional it. I'm living a dream. I grew up in the sport. I love the sport. I idolized these heroes, Wild Willie Borsch and Beadle and Snake and Mongoose. So, to be able to, even that first one in Seattle (in 1995) was like, oh my God, I could go away and lose, just go disappear and go to a normal job and be okay. I've got a Wally, right? And then it just kept going, and then hired by Don Prudhomme and just unbelievable. (It is like being a) high school quarterback having Joe Montana walk on the field and want to coach him. It was like, ‘Wow!’ So, it's just been that way, and I've just had great people around me, Roland Leong, who I can't wait to call, my first guy that really taught me how to drive a Funny Car.

“Of course, it just goes down the list to Snake and Ace. I've had all these old school guys that slapped you around if you didn't do anything right. And if they didn't say anything, you did something right. And I love that. So, it's just been crazy to hear these numbers. Every time a Wally comes up, I'm running out of spots. I literally have them as door stops at home, I swear to you. And it's the coolest thing to walk in the kids' room, and my son's got it as a doorstop. We've got one in the office. Force used to joke about this big house he had where he's got bathrooms he never used in his house. And I'm like, I've got Wallys holding doors open in my house. That is the coolest thing ever.”

Before leaving the press room, he did comment about the future of one his crew chiefs – John Medlen – which may add a different wrinkle in this championship chase.

“Yeah, Medlen's retiring, and I might be in trouble for saying that” Capps said. “He's at a cabin in Georgia up in the mountains. He dreamt about doing it. He looks at pictures of it all day in the trailer, and he's deserved to finally go off into the sunset. And I think we'll have him back once in a while just to hang out and work on special projects. But him and Martha, they deserve to go off, and he's lived a great drag racing life, and he's so excited just to go up in the mountains and hang out in his cabin.”