World champ Capps wins fourth straight with Tobler, NAPA Dodge, combines with Matco’s Brown to sweep Topeka nitro titles for DSR

TOPEKA, KS – The Funny Car final round Sunday in the NHRA Heartland Nationals was going to be “déjà vu all over again” for Don Schumacher Racing’s Ron Capps or Matt Hagan.

Hagan was trying to replicate what he did a year ago at Topeka, Kan., when he set both NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series world records and concluded his visit to Heartland Park by winning the Wally Trophy.

Instead, Capps and the NAPA AUTO PARTS 2017 Dodge Charger R/T Powered by Pennzoil won their fourth consecutive event title to ruin his teammate’s perfect weekend.

And DSR teammate Antron Brown with the Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster team kept Steve Torrence from reliving his recent winning history when the three-time world champion defeated Torrence, who arrived at Topeka riding a two-race winning streak.

The wins by Capps’ NAPA AUTO PARTS team led by crew chief Rahn Tobler and assistant Eric Lane along with the effort by Brown and the Matco Tools team with crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald enabled DSR to sweep both nitro titles at the same Mello Yello event for the fifth time in eight races this year and for the 66th time since 2004.

DSR also swept the No. 1 qualifying positions when eight-time world champ Tony Schumacher and the U.S. Army team, which lost in the second round, joined Hagan as pole winners marking the third time the seven-team operation has done it in eight Mello Yello events this season and the 31 times since 2002.

The 54th Funny Car win by reigning world champion Capps enabled him to extend his points lead to 119 over Hagan.

“Unbelievable,” said Capps, whose top speed of the weekend was 325 that paled compared to 338-mph runs by teammate Hagan, Courtney Force and Robert Hight. “We couldn’t go toe to toe with those guys in qualifying but no one is better that (crew chief) Rahn Tobler on race day.”

Capps, who qualified seventh, was surprised when he arrived at the track Sunday morning and Tobler was having his NAPA AutoCare crew change the fuel pump.

“To change a fuel pump on Sunday is incredible,” he said. “It took a lot of guts for him to do that and look what happened.”

Brown’s second win of the year and 63rd of his career, which includes 47 in Top Fuel, is his first at Topeka and leaves only the travel in Bristol, Tenn., where he has not been in the winner’s circle.

“It was just an incredible race, and I’ve got to hand it to my team,” Brown said. “They worked so hard. It just feels so good to get back in the winner’s circle again.

“That was absolutely great. I’ll tell you what, the competition’s been so tight that you have to run these cars on the edge every lap. My hat’s off to our whole team, we just kept our heads down and kept our poise. We went out there and we raced our hearts out and it feels really good to get a win here at Topeka. We’ve been wanting to win this race for so long. We weren’t really thinking about not having won it. We just went out and attacked every round like we do every weekend.”

Brown and the Matco team were able to move up one spot to third in points and within 41 of teammate and points leader Leah Pritchett and the Papa John’s Pizza dragster that they beat in the semifinals.

In addition to winning the 305th and 306th Mello Yello titles for DSR, Hagan and the Mopar Express Lane team reclaimed the world records they lost early in the weekend when the team led by Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen posted at time Saturday of 3.802 at 338.85.

“Obviously boss man (Don Schumacher) is happy when two of his cars go to the finals,” said Hagan, who raced in his third final in which he has won twice. “Hats off to NAPA and those guys, Ron Capps and Tobler, they’re killing it man. Four-in-a-row – how do you not respect that? They laid the hammer down and they’re getting it done.”

The Mello Yello Series will be off next weekend to honor Memorial Day and returns the following week to begin the four-race Eastern Swing in June that begins at Epping with races following at Englishtown, N.J., Bristol, Tenn., and Norwalk.