Capps, NAPA Dodge clinch top seed for championship playoff; Hagan, Brown advance to final rounds of Brainerd Mello Yello race

BRAINERD, MN – Don Schumacher Racing leaves Brainerd International Raceway in northern Minnesota with two NHRA Wally trophies but none were earned on Sunday in the 17th event of the 24-race Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.

Although DSR’s two-time and reigning Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown and two-time Funny Car
world champ Matt Hagan advanced to the championship rounds Sunday in the NHRA Nationals, Brown and Ron Capps earned the titles at the track on Saturday in the completion of the event that started two weeks ago near Seattle.

The best news for DSR, which has won 16 of a possible 34 event titles this year and 283 since 2003, is that Ron Capps and the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T team led by crew chief Rahn Tobler and assistant Eric Lane clinched the No. 1 seed for the six-race NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoff that begins after the NHRA U.S. Nationals over Labor Day Weekend near Indianapolis.

That ensured that Capps will start the Countdown with a 30-point lead over the second-ranked team in the Countdown when championship points are reset in two weeks after Indy.

He holds a 215-point lead over Courtney Force and is 221 ahead of Del Worsham, who won Sunday’s Brainerd title.

“That’s the perfect position to be in, but we’re not looking at the championship yet,” said Capps, who won the 50th event title of his career Saturday and is seeking his first Mello Yello season championship.

“Indy is so on the forefront and so big for us. Whoever wins Indy has the chance to say that they beat the best because these Funny Cars right now, they are so much fun and so incredible right now.”

In Top Fuel, Brown nearly doubled-up over the weekend. After crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald tuned him to the title on Saturday and No. 1 qualifying position for Sunday, they nearly helped him to his fifth win of the season but her lost to Brittany Force.

The Matco Tools/U.S. Army team was able to extend its points lead to 167 over Doug Kalitta.

This weekend marked the third anniversary of the enclosed canopy for Top Fuel dragsters that was developed by DSR and U.S. Army crew chief Mike Green with assistant Neal Strausbaugh. The four quickest dragsters in qualifying utilized the canopy at Brainerd and Force, the No. 2 qualifier was under glass when she beat Brown for the Brainerd title.

The canopy debuted at Brainerd in 2013 with Tony Schumacher and the U.S. Army team.