Brown wins for fifth time this year, Capps advances to final round to help maintain DSR’s torrid pace over four Mello Yello events
NORWALK, OH – Don Schumacher Racing continued its hot summer pace Sunday at Norwalk, Ohio, when Antron Brown and the 
Matco Tools team won its series best fifth event title and teammate Ron Capps advanced to the Funny Car championship round for the second time in four races.
DSR nearly set a record by winning both nitro categories at the same event for the third consecutive NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event. The win by the Matco Tools team was the 231 for DSR and 46th NHRA title for Brown, which includes 30 in Top Fuel since 2008.
Brown’s victory moved him to within 48 points of leader Doug Kalitta, who started from the pole but lost in the second round to DSR teammate Tony Schumacher and the U.S. Army team. Schumacher moved around DSR’s Spencer Massey, who lost in the opening round, to take the fourth spot in points.
In the quarterfinals, DSR’s Schumacher and Beckman eliminated the event’s No. 1 nitro qualifiers from Kalitta Motorsports when Schumacher beat Kalitta in Top Fuel and Beckman beat Del Worsham in Funny Car.
Capps’ third runner-up finish at the Norwalk track in the past four years helped his team led by crew chief Rahn Tobler move up one spot in points to third, which dropped DSR’s Tommy Johnson Jr. and the Make-A-Wish team to fourth by one point.
Capps advanced to his second championship round in the past four NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events but was edged by John Force for his first title at the northern Ohio track. Force’s 4.113 (317.27) slipped past Capps’ 4.135 (305.56).
Beckman and the Valvoline MaxLife Dodge team advanced to the semifinals for only the third time but and first since losing in the first-round the three previous events. The performance led by crew chief Rob Flynn and new assistant Chris Cunningham enabled him to move up to 10th after a two-week hiatus outside the top-10.
The event at Norwalk ended a four-race, four-week swing. The Mello Yello Series is off next weekend and starts the three-race Western Swing July 18-20 with the Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Denver.
