Hi, Everyone

We are kicking off a two-week break in the NHRA racing schedule and I know that most teams welcome the break, especially after the grueling Western Swing. We had a great last three races ourselves and I am kinda bummed that we can’t keep going, but I think carrying the momentum into the start of the Countdown is going to be a whole bunch of fun for the NAPA team.

We unloaded on Friday in Denver to a very green race track and after some much-needed rubber was put down we made a great run on Friday night that put us way up into the fourth position. Saturday rolled around to a little cooler temps (was ONLY close to the 90s –grin-), but it did cool off for the final session of qualifying and John Medlen and the NAPA team made a great call once again that put us fifth in the final order of qualifying.

We beat Tony Pedregon in the first round with a great 4.20-second run at almost 300 mph and we then had a tough race in the quarterfinals against Robert Hight. John and the NAPA team put a great tune-up in the car and we ran low ET of the round, but Robert got a jump on me at the starting line and we lost a close race by about a fender. Tough way to lose. I will tell you, though, even though we did lose, I like that most people felt that we had the car to beat and it is a compliment that whenever we race anyone they feel like they have to be at their best to beat the NAPA Charger. The good side is that it is a huge compliment; the down side is that you have to race every run with a sort of target on your back and be your absolute best on every run. Trust me, that is the way we want it. You want to know that it didn’t come easy.

We want to have to race the best to get the trophy on any given race weekend, like the win in Sonoma, for example. When you looked at the eliminations ladder on Sunday morning you said to yourself, Man, gonna have to beat the best today because there will be no easy ones.

We have one more race of the regular season in Brainerd, Minn., in a couple of weeks. We are going to make the trip from California to Brainerd in the bus with a couple of surprise stops on the way for the kids. I kinda dig making up plans for trips like that. I usually spend the day driving with the kids and Shelley taking turns sitting up front with me. And, if it was up to them, we would make stops at restaurants to sit down to eat. Not this kid. I like to power through and drive as long as I can during the day so it gives us more time at the next stop I have planned. And one of the stops that is a surprise to the kids is a place we have stayed at before that I have talked about in my blog the last few years. It has something to do with a wolf and a lodge (hint-hint) and the kids are gonna freak out when they see we are there again, for sure. We even saved their “wands” from last time.

I know the people from The Power Lodge of Brainerd will be teaming up with the NAPA team again in Brainerd. I have an appearance at their dealership on Friday after qualifying and when we get to Brainerd on Thursday their guys are gonna take us on a fishing excursion again out on Gull Lake like last year and the best part is that we will be cruising “the zoo” in some of the coolest Polaris ATVs there are. They are huge supporters of NAPA and the NAPA team as well as the track, so we look forward to hanging out again.

I know that we still have a lot of racing left to do this 2010 season, but Mary Mathis said there are a few more spots available for the “Cruisin with Capps” trip http://www.suntravelcruises.com/RonCappsCruise.html after the season ends. Spots are going fast if you wanna join other NAPA Racing fans for this year’s trip.

I want to say thanks to everyone last weekend in Denver as well. Brad Shaffer and everyone in attendance are as sharp about drag racing as they come, and it was cool to hang out with them again at the track.

Gotta run. Caden has challenged me to a game of Halo on the Xbox 360, which is his new favorite game to play. I am at a major disadvantage as I took a serious whuppin’ last night. So, I need all the luck I can get. Talk to you next week.

RC

Hi, everyone,

I guess if there is one down side to the win last weekend, it is that the NAPA team only gets to enjoy it for a few days before we are back on the track in Denver this weekend.

We are approaching the third and final race of the “Western Swing” and the NAPA team is also going into this weekend’s race as the defending champions after winning the race last year in pretty dominant fashion. We set the track record in qualifying, were No. 1 qualifier and won the race. Pretty much a sweep in my book. And hopefully we can do the same thing this weekend.

Getting the NAPA car into the winner’s circle in Sonoma last weekend was long overdue for both the team and everyone associated with NAPA AUTO PARTS. We moved up a few more spots in the standings (fifth), and we clinched a spot in the “Countdown” that starts after these next two races. John Medlen and Ace and the NAPA team are working together like a well-oiled machine. It is something that is what we all shoot to achieve. Every team will tell you that, whether it is drag racing, NASCAR, football, or any team sport for that matter. Getting that many talented people to work together for a common goal is what got us our win last weekend and it really puts a little bit of added pressure on a driver when you know that you have the car to beat. So, I found myself really digging deep on Sunday to do the best job I could in the seat.

I didn’t get to do much celebrating with the team after the winner’s circle. If you read my update on the NAPA team’s Facebook site, you’ll know that right after the winner’s circle celebration we packed up the motor home and I had to get Taylor back home for her cheerleading camp kickoff on Monday at noon. We knew it was gonna be about nine hours’ drive, so we left the track and drove until about 3 a.m., when I finally pulled over somewhere just north of Los Angeles and parked and slept for 2-1/2 hours before getting back up and trying to beat the L.A. traffic.

It worked out great, as we rolled in front of the house about 8:30 a.m. and, after unloading some of the stuff from the motor home, I laid down for a much-needed nap while Taylor was at cheer camp. It’s amazing how much is taken out of you on a Sunday when you go four rounds of competition. I guess that’s when those days in the gym start paying off.

Well, hopefully we can keep up the momentum this weekend. I will talk to you next week.

RC

Hi, everyone

It has been a tough last couple of days, as we lost a good friend last weekend in Seattle. Mark Niver was someone who, if I needed a smile at the race track, all I had to do was get on my scooter and go find his pit area to see him and his group. He was truly, truly a guy who made me constantly shake my head at the talent that he had and his lust for the fun that life brought us and we will miss him.

We are in the middle of the “Western Swing” part of our schedule, and I am home for a few hours to unpack and repack and head up to Sonoma for this weekend’s race. Gonna drive up to San Luis Obispo and jump in the motor home and drive up to the track and get parked and settled in. It is usually a pretty busy race off the track as well, and this year is no exception. We have a NAPA dinner on Thursday night at a wonderful winery in Napa Valley with some very special guests of NAPA AUTO PARTS, which reminds me: our good friend Jim Norman who owns Norman Vineyards down where we camped a couple of weeks ago in Paso Robles has shirts that he had made that read “NAPA is for auto parts, Paso Robles is for wine.” It is kind of funny because before I even knew him, I would see those shirts on people in various parts of the country and never knew who made them.

Anyway, back to this weekend. We have the dinner and then we are gonna rocket over to another winery (I see another trend forming) with Paul Mecca driving us over to the Eric Medlen Nitro Night Charity Dinner http://www.infineonraceway.com/media/news/574908.html that will be near the track. It has always been in San Francisco, but was moved this year and I surely don’t want to miss it this year. We will then kick off qualifying on Friday and Saturday (with a special DSR autograph session in the winner’s circle at 11 a.m. on Saturday) and then we get to go the the FRAM dinner on Saturday night with all of the DSR drivers and then get ready for race day on Sunday. And, after last weekend, I feel pretty good about our chances.
I just found out that we will be getting to go to the next couple of UFC events coming up right after our Denver race. We always have an open invitation from the great people who work for Dana White, and Donna, the Vice President of Event Operations, always takes such great care of us. So, we are looking forward to hitting the August 1st event in San Diego and then going up to Oakland for UFC 117 on August 7th, which is gonna be a great night, for sure.
The plan right now is to leave the next day with everyone piled into the motor home and make the trek to Brainerd while seeing the country. Really looking forward to that trip as I might have to sneak a stop at one of the “Great Wolf Lodges” so the kids (ahem…I mean me…lol) can see if I can finish our quest that we started last time, although Caden got pretty far and might be tough to beat.

Have to run. Driving up to Mom and Dad’s house in SLO tonight and have to finish packing.

Have a great weekend!

RC

Hi, everyone,

I hope you all had a great Fourth of July weekend and got to enjoy the time off as much as I did. Last time I wrote on here I was headed West in our coach and on a mission to get to the RV resort by Thursday night and it was mission accomplished, as I pulled into “The Wine Country RV Resort” right at 6 p.m.

Right across the street is a great water park called “The Ravine Water Park” and we spent the next five days there during the day and on the Fourth we drove to Morro Bay as guests of our good friends Craig and Lisa at their family’s house that overlooks the bay and watched a great fireworks show that night. And, although it was great, I think they could all take a lesson from the Bader family and the Norwalk track’s fireworks.

I packed up the coach this morning and took it to our friend Steve Levy’s ranch outside of Paso Robles and left it there until next week when Taylor, Shelley and I will drive up there and jump in it and drive up to Infineon Raceway for our race there next weekend. The racers possibly have the best parking spot on the tour there for the motor homes, which is on the hill above the track and there is not a better race track to wake up to then that one, when you wake up to a view of the Napa valley and the smell of nitro. Right?

I drove up here to Oakland and got a room at the airport to fly to Seattle in the morning as I have a couple of appearances for NAPA on Thursday and then Friday we start qualifying. We are on what is considered the West Coast Swing part of our NHRA circuit and, believe it or not, there are only four races left before we start the “Countdown” and the points are reset for the run for the championship.

It has been well documented that you don’t have to be the best car all year long, nor the best car during the first half of the year. Heck, the NAPA team has proved that by winning five races last year and not winning the championship. In fact, in the last two years, the championship was won by teams that weren’t even in the top five in the points when the “Countdown” started. So, I guess my point is that we are finding a good time to start peaking and we are about to have three races in a row on the West Coast, a small break in the schedule again, and then one more race in Minnesota. And then it is gonna be a six-race run for the championship. So, strap in with us and hang on for the next month and enjoy the ride.

Talk to you next week.
RC

Hey, everyone

It has been a pretty busy week and I finally got a moment to sit down and do an updated blog. I will back up to last weekend’s race in Norwalk, Ohio. It was for obvious reasons a very emotional weekend on a couple of fronts, the first being that Don had moved my longtime crew chief Ed McCulloch to a different role in the team and, secondly, he appointed John Medlen as our new crew chief on the NAPA Dodge. Anyone who follows our sport knows both of those names and knows that both have been very successful as well as respected by their peers in the pit area.

It seems like a new page is turning in my career and the cool part is that Ace is still in the NAPA pit area to help John with anything he needs, so I feel like our team has gotten much stronger in the brain trust area.

We started the weekend off in a great way with 4.06-second run that put us No. 1 qualifier at the time and when qualifying was over we ended up in the No. 5 position. We won our first round match-up on a very hot and tricky track and that put us up against THE hottest team so far this season and we lost a very close race to Robert Hight.

Our team has the talent and crew to win any race we show up to and I really feel great about the rest of the season and we can concentrate on moving up in the standings and get our NAPA car ready for the Countdown to 1 that will start in September.

After we lost on Sunday I jumped in our Monaco coach and the plan was for me to drive it from Ohio to Paso Robles, Calif., which is close to where I grew up, and we are gonna be at an RV resort there that is across the street from a great water park. I think you see where I am going with this (grin). The kids are out of school and every year we try to conjure up ways for us to spend time as a family through the summer and we have to pepper that in with the races I have in the summer. So, I always kind of look forward to being the activity planner. We will be there until next week when I have to travel up to our race in Seattle. We will then also have the whole family at the Sonoma race and then after the Denver race we are going to all travel to the Brainerd, Minn., race in the Monaco so the kids can see the country again, as well as spending time with our family that is in Minnesota.

I just stopped in Las Vegas to get our friends from “The RV Doctor” RV repair shop in Vegas to fix a few things for us. Apparently the coach needed new batteries, so we hit the NAPA AUTO PARTS store down the street from them and bought six batteries. The guys at the store were great, as usual, and I got back on the road and headed to California.

Thursday was Caden’s ninth birthday and there was an abundance of Nerf guns, LEGOs and Star Wars stuff to fill a toy store, so I was plenty busy with that plus cheering for Martin Truex on Saturday night in Daytona!

Talk to you next week.

RC

Hi, everyone

I am in the Atlanta airport (sounds familiar, huh?) waiting to hop on the last flight to San Diego tonight. I am hoping to get back in time to spend a few hours with the family on this Father’s day and my 23rd (grin) birthday.

We had a tough weekend in Bristol. We qualified in the 10th spot and had to run Bob Tasca first round, who has one of the better running cars right now. It was a pretty close race until our NAPA car just slightly started spinning the tires near the finish line and that was all it took and our Sunday was over.

I always brag at the track about all of the great people who run the DSR hospitality areas. It is a vast amount of tents and awnings that they have to take care of, and anyone reading this who has been a guest of NAPA’s and/or DSR’s knows how awesome the food is and how incredible the people are. They surprised me this morning with a birthday cake. They nicknamed me “five-dollar Ron” last year and, yes, it was on the cake this morning as well (grin).

I know, I know. Let me back up and explain the nickname as I am sure you are curious. In Dallas every year DRAW (Drag Racing Association of Women), which is a great organization that was started by some wives of racers years ago to help with injured racers and their families, has an auction/fundraiser. We try to help them in any way that we can to raise money throughout the year for a great cause. And, after qualifying was over, I went over to donate some items and some of our girls who work in our DSR hospitality were donating their time and helping with the auction. One of them asked me if she could borrow $5 for something, and since I was still in my NAPA uniform and had come straight from our pit area, I didn’t have my wallet (good excuse, right?), and I told her that I didn’t have any money. Well, not even 15 minutes later, NHRA announcer Bob Frey was up on stage for the auction and somehow there was mention of a girl in the front row and her pink girly sweat pants and Bob said that he would wear them for the right price, and of course for a great cause. So, I raised my hand in the back of the room and said that I would donate several thousand dollars if Bob wore those sweats the next morning throughout the drivers’ introduction ceremony in which he announces. Well, of course he said that he would and I had my wife Shelley send a check from home. But you should have seen the look on the faces of the DSR girls who had just asked me for $5. Well, man oh man, they let me have it the next morning in our NAPA pit area, and I have been “five-dollar Ron” now since then.

So, now you can see the humor when you picture my B-Day cake Sunday morning.

The kids are out of school for the summer now, so we are gonna go see “Toy Story 3” in IMAX 3D tomorrow. It is gonna be a short few days home and then off to Norwalk for the race and then I am gonna be driving our coach straight out to California to spend some time at a great RV resort on the Central Coast near where I grew up. We are gonna spend a week there, hit the waterslides again and spend the 4th of July weekend with family and friends before heading up to our Seattle race and the start of our West Coast swing of races (Seattle, Sonoma and Denver). Have to run, plane is loading, talk to you soon.

RC

Hi, everyone,

We are in Indy this week to race in the Prelude to the Dream dirt race on Wednesday night at Eldora’s famous one-half-mile dirt track. The PPV will start at 7 p.m. Eastern time and they just told us that SPEED Channel is going to have a one-hour special prior to the race as well at 6 p.m. ET. So tune in on Wednesday night if you can. Should be a great event to watch and all the proceeds go to a great cause.

We had a bit of a disappointing weekend in Chicago. Rain storms were constantly moving through the area, so it was really putting a lot of pressure on the teams to make every run count as we only ended up getting one run on Friday night. By the time we ran it was almost 11 p.m. The conditions were great, but the big topic in the pit area with all of the crew chiefs was that NHRA was changing the track prep procedure a little bit and, while they usually spray the sticky stuff down on the track pretty frequently, on Friday night they didn’t spray any of it down during the Funny Car session. It is probably something that we are going to see in the future, especially since in cool conditions you have to remember that NHRA has a tough position to make sure the track is safe as well as being as good as our Nitro cars need it to be. It is an especially tricky spot for the track prep people to be in because Pro Stock cars and the Sportsman cars are still running the full quarter-mile track, which needs to be sprayed the full quarter-mile for them. That first session on Friday night only had three Funny Cars make it to the finish line under power, so there was even a little more pressure for a lot of the teams because the forecast was for rain all day on Saturday.

The communication on small things like that between the NHRA and the crew chiefs only make for a better show for the fans and I will put the NHRA’s Safety Safari up against any track prep and safety crew in any other form of motorsports. After the rain that we got over and over last weekend, they worked their tails off to get the cars back on the track as soon as they could. We woke up on Saturday and, even though it was overcast, the intermittent sprinkles stayed away long enough to get both of our runs in and the crew chiefs knew what to expect with the track prep and made necessary adjustments. And, while the last session of qualifying was pretty dramatic for a lot of the teams trying to get in the show for Sunday, Ace and the NAPA team did a great job and put us sixth in the qualifying order. So, considering what the weather forecast was, it was a great day.

And just to give you an idea of the what the difference in prep meant, after the torrential rain came before the semifinals, they sprayed and prepped the track like they usually do before the semifinals and again before the finals and, as you saw, both records were broken in Top Fuel and in the Funny Car class.

On Sunday we saw the sun actually come out and we missed the tune-up a little and, when our clutch tried to lock up at half-track, it was too much and it spun the tires and we lost a close race. Our teammates made great runs in front of us.

It is always great for any of our DSR teammates to get a win, but Matt Hagan and I have become pretty close and we were sure proud of his team. Did I mention that in winning, they also took the national elapsed-time record away from our NAPA team? I can already see the extra fire in Ace’s eyes and that is a good thing for the NAPA team. It is also what is great about having teammates, because it really pushes each of us to get better.

We are headed to Englishtown, N.J., this weekend. It is a race that is on one of the more historic tracks on our schedule and we always look forward to racing there. It has been run by a great family with a bunch of passion for our sport and we always have great crowds there, so we are looking forward to it. Hopefully you will tune into the Prelude on Wednesday night and cheer for our NAPA car. If not, then I’ll see you in Englishtown.

RC

RON CAPPS BLOG – June 8, 2010
Hi, everyone,

We are in Indy this week to race in the Prelude to the Dream dirt race on Wednesday night at Eldora’s famous one-half-mile dirt track. The PPV will start at 7 p.m. Eastern time and they just told us that SPEED Channel is going to have a one-hour special prior to the race as well at 6 p.m. ET. So tune in on Wednesday night if you can. Should be a great event to watch and all the proceeds go to a great cause.

We had a bit of a disappointing weekend in Chicago. Rain storms were constantly moving through the area, so it was really putting a lot of pressure on the teams to make every run count as we only ended up getting one run on Friday night. By the time we ran it was almost 11 p.m. The conditions were great, but the big topic in the pit area with all of the crew chiefs was that NHRA was changing the track prep procedure a little bit and, while they usually spray the sticky stuff down on the track pretty frequently, on Friday night they didn’t spray any of it down during the Funny Car session. It is probably something that we are going to see in the future, especially since in cool conditions you have to remember that NHRA has a tough position to make sure the track is safe as well as being as good as our Nitro cars need it to be. It is an especially tricky spot for the track prep people to be in because Pro Stock cars and the Sportsman cars are still running the full quarter-mile track, which needs to be sprayed the full quarter-mile for them. That first session on Friday night only had three Funny Cars make it to the finish line under power, so there was even a little more pressure for a lot of the teams because the forecast was for rain all day on Saturday.

The communication on small things like that between the NHRA and the crew chiefs only make for a better show for the fans and I will put the NHRA’s Safety Safari up against any track prep and safety crew in any other form of motorsports. After the rain that we got over and over last weekend, they worked their tails off to get the cars back on the track as soon as they could. We woke up on Saturday and, even though it was overcast, the intermittent sprinkles stayed away long enough to get both of our runs in and the crew chiefs knew what to expect with the track prep and made necessary adjustments. And, while the last session of qualifying was pretty dramatic for a lot of the teams trying to get in the show for Sunday, Ace and the NAPA team did a great job and put us sixth in the qualifying order. So, considering what the weather forecast was, it was a great day.

And just to give you and idea of the what the difference in prep meant, after the torrential rain came before the semifinals, they sprayed and prepped the track like they usually do before the semifinals and again before the finals and, as you saw, both records were broken in Top Fuel and in the Funny Car class.

On Sunday we saw the sun actually come out and we missed the tune-up a little and, when our clutch tried to lock up at half-track, it was too much and it spun the tires and we lost a close race. Our teammates made great runs in front of us.

It is always great for any of our DSR teammates to get a win, but Matt Hagan and I have become pretty close and we were sure proud of his team. Did I mention that in winning, they also took the national elapsed-time record away from our NAPA team? I can already see the extra fire in Ace’s eyes and that is a good thing for the NAPA team. It is also what is great about having teammates, because it really pushes each of us to get better.

We are headed to Englishtown, N.J., this weekend. It is a race that is on one of the more historic tracks on our schedule and we always look forward to racing there. It has been run by a great family with a bunch of passion for our sport and we always have great crowds there, so we are looking forward to it. Hopefully you will tune into the Prelude on Wednesday night and cheer for our NAPA car. If not, then I’ll see you in Englishtown.

RC

Hi, everyone

Looking forward to a weekend off for Memorial Day. Gonna enjoy the weekend watching the Indy 500 and then cheering Truex and everyone at MWR to victory in the Coke 600 on Sunday night.

We are going to have a party at the house for the UFC fight on Saturday night. We have a fun group of neighbors and friends who make it fun to have a get-together. We watch the PPV and then afterward we all make fools of ourselves playing Rockband at level 11. Good thing there is no video of the Rockband concerts we put on, trust me (grin).

The NAPA team had a great, and I mean GREAT, weekend in Topeka. I have been telling all of you of the changes that we have made in the setup of the car to make our NAPA car a better hot rod, especially when the Countdown comes in September, but I feel a victory circle celebration is on the horizon and we are gonna have a busy bunch of races coming up here in the next month or so. So, a trip to the winner’s circle will be perfect timing.

We had a great car last weekend, and on Sunday Ace showed that, even though he is still massaging the new tune-up, the NAPA car could run with anyone on Sunday.

We were informed that the “Cruising with Capps” cruise has been been finalized for early December.

http://www.suntravelcruises.com/RonCappsCruise.html

It is gonna be a blast, so come join us if you can!

We will be in Chicago for our next race on June 4-6. It is also a track where the NAPA team has been in the winner’s circle. Let’s hope that we can do it again this year.

Talk to you next week,
RC

Hi, everyone,

We are on a quick turnaround between races this week as our schedule has us in Atlanta last weekend and in Topeka, Kansas, this coming weekend.

We are going to the Kansas race as defending champions and I can tell you that last year’s victory at that race was well earned by Ace and the NAPA guys. The temperatures were high and the competition was tough all day. We expect to see the same conditions this year, although the weatherman is saying that temperatures will be a little cooler than last year.

We had another good NAPA hot rod last weekend in Atlanta. Ace and the guys put a great qualifying run down on Friday night that put us No. 3 in qualifying. We made another good run in the opening round and it actually spun the tires real hard on that run and that lost us lane choice for the quarterfinal round. But Ace and the NAPA guys were pretty confident that we could still negotiate the other lane. We had a chance to get the win but the driver made a mental mistake when the tree came down. Sometimes when you’re at the starting line you are so keyed into watching those bulbs that your right foot says “time to go,” and your brain tries to stop it (grin). I was lucky that the red light didn’t come on, but when I let go of the handbrake, slightly ahead of my right foot mashing the throttle, it affects the setting that the crew chief makes. It might not be much, but sometimes it is enough to cause the car to not run the same…and it didn’t. My opponent had a terrible light and we really had a chance to win that round, but we will have to put it behind us and focus on the next race.

We are going to finish our qualifying on Saturday and then tune in and cheer for our NAPA guys in Charlotte for the NASCAR Showdown race and then focus on trying to get another win in Kansas. Talk to you next week.

RC