POMONA, Calif. (AP) Ron Capps won his first NHRA Mello Yello Series Funny Car season title Saturday at the Auto Club NHRA Finals.
Capps earned enough points in qualifying in the NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger R/T to build an insurmountable lead over Matt Hagan.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” Capps said. “I almost gave up, not winning a championship, but trying so hard and wishing so hard, and just focused on winning races and all the accolades I’ve gotten this year especially the 50th win, passing some people I really looked up to in the sport. That’s mind boggling to me every time I’m mentioned with those names.
“We got to the Countdown with a big lead and I thought, `OK, now we really got a shot at this.’ We said at the beginning of the year this is the toughest Funny Car class ever. Then it was the 50th anniversary of the Funny Car, which was awesome. It just kept snowballing. We kept digging and digging and digging and Rahn Tobler just had that eye.”
Jack Beckman led Funny Car qualifying with the second-quickest Funny Car pass in NHRA history, a 3.825 at 332.10 in a Dodge Charger R/T. J.R. Todd was the fastest in Top Fuel with a 3.680 at 327.82. Points leader Jason Line topped the Pro Stock field at 6.545 at 211.33 in a Chevrolet Camaro, and Jerry Savoie led in Pro Stock Motorcycle at 6.825 at 194.97 on a Suzuki.