The Valley of the Sun wasn’t too hot for veteran NHRA owner/driver Ron Capps.
With track temperatures nearing 150 degrees, Capps was unfazed taking the title at the FMP NHRA Arizona Nationals on Sunday.
Capps, driving his NAPA Auto Care nitro Funny Car, clocked a 4.124-second lap at 303.23 mph to upend No. 1 qualifier Spencer Hyde who stopped the timers at 4.326, 259.76.
On Sunday, Capps ousted Jason Rupert, Daniel Wilkerson, Paul Lee en route to toppling Hyde.
Following the second round, Capps was at the top end questioning if it was worth it. After he defeated Hyde it clearly was – especially since winners this season receive a special diamond-edition Wally to commemorate NHRA’s 75th anniversary season.
“This is the coveted one right here,” Capps said as he held up the trophy. “You just think of the legacy and what’s gone into this. This is unbelievable. Thank you to Wally Parks, first of all. Katherine (Wooten) and everyone at NAPA, all the NAPA Auto Care people. We knew this was going to be a battle of attrition and dropped cylinders today. A couple of those runs, there was no way I would imagine that would have got us lane choice, but it did. It was like a bracket car. This win reminded me a lot of my first win in St. Louis [1997] because it was hot, and we had 150-degree track temps there and we dropped cylinders all day but still won the race.”
This was Capps 78th career Wally – and one in Top Fuel in Seattle in 1995. This was Capps first national-event win since Bristol, Tenn., last year, which also was his only victory in 2025. It was 10th win since becoming a team owner in 2022.
“You want to just take these [trophies[ and chop them up into 6,000 pieces for all the different NAPA stores and NAPA Auto Cares,” Capps said. “Carlyle Tools came on board and has done so much fun stuff with Maddi and me. NHRA, 75 years, it’s so awesome to win here. Everybody said I had bad luck, but look, we ended up winning. Monster Energy coming on board has been so much fun. Ron Capps Motorsports, we’re having fun right now.”
Capps now has four career nitro Funny Car wins in Phoenix – 2003, 2009, 2013 and 2026.
“If this place had good weather and we were back here in the Countdown, oh, my gosh, it’d be so much fun,” Capps said. “It is a fast track. And the fans love … The fans have shown up with the heat. I talked to people with the track and they’re like, ‘Yeah, sales were down, but it’s going to be 104 degrees.’ And then every morning you come out of the trailer and it’s packed with people everywhere. It was very cool. So this place deserves to have at least … at least this event, but they deserve it all.”
After losing in the first round of the Gatornationals, the season-opening race earlier this month in Gainesville, Fla., Capps regrouped and moved up to third in the standings, just 23 points behind leader Chad Green.
Crew chief Dean ‘Guido’ Antonelli mastered the third session of qualifying Saturday, guiding Capps to a 4.023, 317.79 to move into the top half of the field in the No. 7 spot. It was also the second-quickest performance of the round, landing Capps two bonus points.
Capps’ race day wasn’t without drama and excitement and consistency.
Capps never trailed in his second-round match against Daniel Wilkerson, winning with a 4.144 to Wilkerson’s 4.157, but just as Capps crossed the finish line, a massive engine explosion split his Funny Car body in half and sent him into the wall. The incident was eerily similar to the one Capps suffered at the same race a year ago, but this time he managed to only scuff the wall and the chassis.
The NAPA Auto Care team thrashed to rebuild the car fitted with a spare body and made it to the ready line just in time for a semifinal race against defending event winner Paul Lee. The drivers left the starting line together before Capps pulled ahead to win with a 4.124-second pass at 303.09 mph.
Capps posted the lowest elapsed time in all four rounds of eliminations.
“Unfortunately, that winner’s check is going to get soaked up by fixing that body,” Capps said. “I told Amanda [Busick of Fox] at the top end that I wasn’t sure it was worth the win light, but now it is. It did a lot of damage. My suit got pretty burned. It burned the windshield right away. I was trying to not hit Daniel and then I touched the wall. Financially, it is going to hurt. At that time, we weren’t sure it was worth it, but when we won the race, it was.
“It was a big explosion and it did a lot of damage. I looked over my pit area and it didn’t look good. They opened the gate, they said get up there [to the finals] and they [Hyde’s team] waited for us. It was crazy. Just fun to relive that later tonight. That win light when we thrashed and didn’t know it was going to start, to win that round, if you could bottle that emotion it is so cool.”
Capps, the NHRA champion in 2016, 2021 and ’022, will return to action at the Winternationals, set for April 10-12 in Pomona, Calif. Capps will also compete in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Funny Car Challenge. As a California native, it’s one of the tracks Capps calls home. He’s won the Winternationals four times, most recently in 2021.
