Even after three decades in the NHRA, Ron Capps is still getting a handle on things
If there’s anyone who knows how to handle a funny car, it’s Ron Capps.
Capps has won 75 NHRA Funny Car events, the most by any active driver. You would think that 30 years into his career, he knows everything there is to know about his cars. But you’d be wrong.
“There's nothing on the planet like a funny car. It’s so unpredictable. It's the most evil-handling race car there is,” Capps said. “That engine, it’s literally a foot in front of my feet. It could go off like a bomb in a matter of seconds, or it could catapult me 330-plus miles an hour.”
Even with three decades of racing under his belt, Capps still gets a jolt of adrenaline every time he gets behind the wheel. The fastest he’s ever gone in a race was 339 mph back in 2019. Needless to say, that level of speed is never easy to handle.
“It's 13,000 horsepower more than anything in any other race car,” Capps said. “It's crazy, even though I get to do it on a weekly basis, sometimes biweekly, to strap into a car that's going to catapult 0 to 100 mph in less than one second. There’s more G forces than anything on the planet but a fighter pilot.”
And yet Capps still finds a way to get back behind the wheel week in and week out. This weekend he’s racing at the Route 66 Raceway in Joliet. He’s won in Joliet twice and also tallied five runner-up finishes. He thinks a friendly crowd might be one of the reasons why.
“Most of the team members, if not all of them, live in Indy (Indianapolis), so their wives, the kids, the family, the moms and dads, pick this race to come to,” Capps said. “I’ve always felt like there's a little extra mojo. I just felt like it was almost like a home game of sorts.”
But even with the track record of success, and with his decorated resume, Capps isn’t taking anything for granted this weekend. Unlike other racing leagues, the NHRA does not have automatic qualifying slots, meaning you have to qualify for every race, every week. For Capps, who’s still trying to solve the most unpredictable car in racing, that’s just the way he likes it.
“You've got to earn it every single weekend. And that's our first goal, always, to qualify,” Capps said. “And then the rest hopefully takes care of itself on Sunday.”