Tough Weekend for Team DSR at the AAA FallNationals
ENNIS, TX – Ron Capps has made comebacks before in his drag racing career and after being upset Sunday in the first round near Dallas he is facing one of his most challenging climbs.
A loss in the opening round of the AAA Texas Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex, dropped Capps and his NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T team from second to sixth in the NHRA Countdown for the Championship playoff after two of six events.
After crew chief Rahn Tobler and assistant John Collins produced qualifying times of 4.096 seconds (306.88 mph) and 4.102 (305.22) on Saturday, Capps said they weren’t trying to doing anything radically different.
But Capps’ Dodge Charger R/T lost traction early and lost with a time of 4.537 sec. at 199.61 mph to Tony Pedregon’s 4.241 at a slowing 259.81.
“We weren’t trying to do anything special, just repeat what we did in qualifying,” Capps said. “It looked safer than it was in qualifying but it went out there and smoked the tires. It moved around a little bit before that and tried to go to the inside on me.
“We saw Robert (Hight) run that 4.06 right before us. Tobler wasn’t doing anything other than try to run what we ran in qualifying. You don’t expect it when it goes out there and spins the tires like that. Tony was ahead of us then he slowed up.”
Capps, who qualified fourth for championship eliminations, trails Don Schumacher Racing teammate and points leader Matt Hagan, who lost in the second round, by 102 points heading to Gateway Motorsports Park near St. Louis on Friday.
“This is a huge blow to our championship hopes,” a somber Capps said. “You can’t dwell on it too long. You have to go back out and do the best you can. Hopefully we’ll get our stuff together and go to St. Louis and win there.
“It’s just the way it is.”
– There’s no quit in Antron Brown and he insists there’s no quit in his Matco Tools team.
With four events remaining in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season, the reigning Top Fuel world champion knew defending the title wasn’t going to be easy. And it didn’t get any easier when he lost in the second round of Sunday’s AAA Texas Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas.
Brown qualified 14th for the second race of the six-event Countdown to the Championship playoff, and won his first race against higher seeded Brandon Bernstein despite not having lane choice.
But in the next round he lost to Don Schumacher Racing teammate Spencer Massey, who started the Texas race with the points lead before relinquishing it after losing in the semifinals.
Brown moved up one spot to eighth but trails co-leaders Shawn Langdon and Doug Kalitta by 150 points. Massy is two points behind Langdon and Kalitta, who won his first title of the season on Sunday.
“We’ve just got to move on to the next race and build upon this,” said Brown, who has won two titles this season. “We’ll just have to qualify better at the next race, not see our teammates in the second round and just win rounds.
“There’s a lot of racing left, a lot of racing left. We’ll just have to stay poised, stay after it and get better every race. We’re going to St. Louis next weekend. The weather out there looks like it’s going to be really good. We won that race last year. So we’re going to go out and try to run hard.”
– Matt Hagan may have lost the second leg of the six-race marathon known as the Countdown to the Championship, but he’s still the overall leader in NHRA’s Funny Car category.
Hagan qualified No. 3 after rain shortened the typical four qualifying sessions to two with the Dickie Venables-tuned Freightliner/Mopar/Rocky Boots Funny Car for the AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex.
After an opening round win with a 4.081-second pass, quicker than his best qualifying run of 4.093-seconds, Hagan was paired against DSR teammate and reigning Funny Car champion Jack Beckman.
Hagan’s Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car lost traction at half-track and Beckman went on for the round win, ending Hagan’s day early.
“It’s like anything; you can’t get your head down,” Hagan said. “You win as a team, you lose as a team and you move forward as a team. I’m looking forward to getting to the next race. This one is behind us now and we just have to keep digging deep and working hard.”
Despite the second-round loss, Hagan will take the points lead to the third consecutive NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series race next week near St. Louis. Hagan has had possession of the points lead since the June event at Englishtown, N.J.
“I don’t want it to come off like we are being super positive about losing second round because it’s tough but it’s just another race,” Hagan said. “This is only the second race of the Countdown and there’s a lot of racing left. It’s like anything, sometime you have an off day.
“I still have all the confidence in the world in this group of guys. We will dig our way right back. If you harp on it and worry about it, it won’t do you any good. That’s the thing about this deal, they do a great job and it’s a consistent race car and it’s going to continue to be that way. The book is already written, it’s just a matter of reading and sometimes you don’t like all of the chapters.”
