Ron Capps Leads off the DSR Qualifying Reports from zMax
CONCORD, NC – Ron Capps understands drama is part of racing, but the driver of the Carlyle Tools/NAPA Funny Car got more than he prefers Saturday on the last day of qualifying for the Carlyle Tools Carolina Nationals presented by NAPA at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte.
After making a respectable pass to open Friday qualifying with a time of 4.191 seconds at a slowing speed of 257.92 mph, Capps and crew chief Rahn Tobler battled with an electrical problem in the next two sessions before their last attempt on Saturday recorded a 4.103 (308.14) that was only worthy of the No. 12 spot in Sunday’s championship eliminations field of 16. But it made them feel better heading to eliminations.
“That was a big confidence booster going down the track in that final session,” Capps said, “especially with Carlyle Tools being the sponsor of the Carolina Nationals and we have a lot of people here with Carlyle and NAPA AUTO PARTS.
“It’s been a tough weekend for us here in the camp. You hear a lot of teams talking about little gremlins here and there. We’ve had little things thrown at us; a tiny little wire breaking in the ignition box, little things like that that will test a team. A lot of times it will take a team a long time to find it and I just told all the guys on the NAPA team including Tobler that it’s just testing us. It’s just an early test.”
Capps and the Carlyle/NAPA team started the first event of the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoff seeded second but lost 12 points during qualifying and trails Don Schumacher Racing teammate and points leader Matt Hagan by 42 after Hagan qualified second near Charlotte.
“It was a big sigh of relief for Rahn Tobler,” Capps said. “It was a great job by the guys to get the car together and finally get it down the track.”
In Sunday’s first round, Capps will face Alexis DeJoria who will have lane choice and is not qualified for the Countdown.
“I’ve said it before: The teams that aren’t in the Countdown are probably the most dangerous teams we are going to have to face because they have nothing to lose,” he said. “It’s going to be a fun day tomorrow.”
– It wasn’t how Jack Beckman and crew chief planned it, but their MTS Mail for Wounded Warriors/Valvoline Dodge Charger R/T team was able make a solid run on their last qualifying attempt Saturday in the Carlyle Tools Carolina Nationals presented by NAPA at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte.
And that’s all that mattered.
Beckman’s time of 4.118 seconds at 308.21 mph wasn’t as good as the team’s first run Friday of 4.099 that earned the No. 11 qualifying spot for Sunday’s championship eliminations, but conditions Saturday will be much closer to what teams will face Sunday.
“We went out there and smoked the tires on our second and third qualifying runs, and I wasn’t feeling very good about it,” said Beckman, the reigning NHRA Funny Car world champion for Don Schumacher Racing.
“You do not want to go into a Countdown race on Sunday with a car that’s smoked the tires on your last qualifying runs. That last run was a get-well run for us. We were fifth quickest of the session but that’s fine. We just needed to get data all the way to the finish line. We know we are going to have to lean on it a little bit harder for the first round tomorrow but it gives us a good baseline. Now I’m feeling confident again. I can’t wait for eliminations.”
Beckman will not have lane choice when he faces the higher qualified Del Worsham in the opening round.
“It’s always good to have lane choice. But a lot of times it’s just one more variable that you can mismanage out there. Sometime it’s a little bit liberating not to have lane choice. Given the opportunity I always would rather have it, but man you watch these crew chiefs anguish over it because a lot of times the lanes are nearly identical. I don’t think it’s going to make any difference for us.”
– If history repeats itself, then it’s good to be Spencer Massey at zMAX Dragway. The winner of the Four-Wide Nationals event held in April at the facility near Charlotte likes his chances in Sunday’s Carlyle Tools Carolina NHRA Nationals presented by NAPA.
“We had a solid qualifying effort,” Massey said of his No. 7 starting position for Sunday’s eliminations which begin at noon (ET). “We ran a 3.79 on Friday night and that put us seventh. That shows you how tough this Top Fuel field is.”
And it’s going to get tougher as the six-race NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoff continues.
“Tomorrow is the first eliminations in the Countdown. It’s game on. There’s no holding back and you can’t afford any first-round losses. You just go out there and give it all you possibly can and we’ve been trying to do that all season long. Now we just have to push it a little further. We’d love to leave here No. 1 in points tomorrow.
“This is it. It’s serious. You can’t have any errors. We just have to go out there and do our job and do what we do well here in Charlotte and that’s go rounds. We’ve been to the finals a few times in the past and we’d love to do it again here tomorrow.”
But it is important for Massey’s Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher dragster team and Don Schumacher Racing crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler to not focus on the extra pressure.
“We need have as many wins and go as many rounds as possible. I’ve won here a few times. We need that momentum to carry us through this four-race stretch. I try not to focus on the extra pressures of the Countdown.
“I focus on my job of driving the car and each one of my guys focuses on their job on the car. There is pressure. Everything is riding on that moment. That moment is every time you get in the car now so it’s a lot of pressure but that’s what we live for.”
Odds of Brown defending Top Fuel world title heightened after not qualifying for Charlotte event ending 110-race streak
– Antron Brown and his Toyota team produced a time on Friday that was one of the 16th quickest in four qualifying sessions of the Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte.
Unfortunately, his best run of the weekend – 3.847 seconds at 317.72 mph – was only 14th quickest after Friday’s two sessions and only the top 12 times carry over to determine the 16 qualifiers for Sunday’s championship eliminations.
Brown and crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald made valiant effort on their last of two runs on Saturday but their time of 3.893 seconds (309.77 mph) fell eight-thousandths of a second short of making the field.
It is the first time Brown has not qualified for eliminations since the NHRA Finals in November 2008. It ended his streak of 110 consecutive appearances in eliminations, which was seventh on the list of active professional drivers.
“You never imagine this kind of thing happening,” said Brown, who dropped from sixth to eighth in the standings.
“We just went out there and were trying to run hard,” he said. “Things just didn’t go our way. That’s how racing can be. You can do all the right things and they still come up wrong. Some days you do all the wrong things and they come up right.”
