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2013 NHRA: Ron Capps NHRA Gatornationals Qualifying Results: No 6
Ron Capps knows he has a tough foe in Sunday's opening round of championship eliminations in the NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.
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Capps not only faces a teammate and friend, but he will meet the team that edged him out by two points for last year's Funny Car world championship in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
Capps qualified sixth in Don Schumacher Racing's NAPA Filters Dodge Charger R/T and that pairs him with Jack Beckman, who qualified 11th.
It also will be against the crew that was with Capps for several years until early last season when he and Beckman switched teams.
"It's always fun when I get to race my old crew and Beckman," Capps said.
The drivers and their teams have been heading in opposite directions early this season.
While Capps and crew chief Rahn Tobler have been the dominant Funny Car team by finishing runner-up in the first event and winning the title at the last one to take the series points lead, Beckman's team lost in the first rounds of those events and struggled in qualifying at Gainesville.
"You never want to race your teammate, especially in the first round," Capps said. "It's been a rough start to the season for them, but I know what that team is capable of."
Capps acknowledges his Dodge has struggled the past two days, but it hasn't been for a lack of power. Only one of the team's four runs ended under full power. The NAPA Filters Dodge's best run was 4.115 seconds at 304.94 mph on Friday afternoon.
The other three, including both on Saturday, resulted in tire smoke after losing traction.
"The track is very tricky, but it's that way every year. When it gets hot like it was today and will be on Sunday it is very demanding on crew chiefs. It was demanding at Phoenix (three weeks ago) and hard to negotiate, but Tobler figured it out.
"I'm glad we ran the 4.11. Our NAPA Filters Dodge is like a thoroughbred: It just wants to run wild in an open field. It just wants to run and Rahn has to keeping pulling it back.
"We'll be fine on Sunday even though it smoked the tires today on both runs it was pretty far down there and Rahn knows why. He'll just pull it back a little more."
The following are Capps' qualifying results from Friday and Saturday heading to Sunday's championship eliminations other notes:
FUNNY CAR
No. 1 qualifier: Cruz Pedregon (Cruz Pedregon Racing) 4.047 sec., 296.05 mph
Ron Capps, NAPA Filters Dodge Charger R/T
Qualifying position: No. 6
First-round opponent: Jack Beckman
FRIDAY
Session 1: 4.589 sec., 176.01 mph
Session 2: 4.115, 304.94
SATURDAY
Session 3: 4.901, 159.95
Session 4: 5.295, 138.53
GOING FOR 200
Sunday at the Gatornationals, Don Schumacher Racing can reach the milestone of getting its 200th NHRA national event title.
DSR drivers Ron Capps and Tony Schumacher won respective Top Fuel and Funny Car titles at the last race near Phoenix to push the total to 198.
Two of the seven DSR teams in the Gatornationals would need to repeat the double-up to reach 200. That isn't farfetched considering DSR has won at least two titles at the same event 35 times since the organization based near Indianapolis began fielding more than one team in 2001.
DSR also is the only organization in NHRA history to have won event titles in each of the series' four pro categories.
GATORNATIONALS NITRO SCHEDULE (All times EDT)
Sunday: 11 a.m., championship eliminations
NHRA ON ESPN2 (All times EDT)
Sunday: 1:30 a.m., 8 a.m. (re-air) qualifying; 7 p.m. eliminations
WEATHER.COM FOR GAINESVILLE
Sunday: High 80; 0 percent chance of rain
PaddockTalk Perspective
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