Ron Capps, with two wins in 2019, is fourth in the NHRA Funny Car standings.
(Editor’s note: This is the 12th in a series of exclusive Autoweek blogs by NHRA Funny Car driver and 2016 champion Ron Capps. Capps continued his 2019 season this past weekend at Bristol Dragway in Tennessee, where he qualified seventh and advanced to the elimination semifinals before falling to eventual event winner Bob Tasca III. Capps retained his hold on fourth place in the Funny Car season standings. This week, Capps is off to the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Norwalk, Ohio.)
I had forgotten that we had won back to back the last two years in Bristol. Last year, we won, and it was cool because I took the Wally trophy for winning the event and basically treated it like it was the Stanley Cup.
I sent it out to my dad in California, and it developed its own hashtag on social media, and my dad took it around town, took it to breakfast with buddies, took it to people who have never gotten a chance to hold onto one of those. I wanted it to go around and have people pour beer on it, have a drink with it, have breakfast with it, hold onto it, take pictures with it.
Capps struggled in qualifing on Friday, but charged back to qualify seventh with the quickest pass of the third qualifying session.
It was kinda cool. It was a Father’s Day Wally that took on a life of its own. It was fun for like the month and a half after that, and my dad got to keep it. That was cool.
This was another Father’s Day where I didn’t have my dad or my kids out to the race, and that makes it kind of a weird day. It’s Monday as i write this, and I just landed back home in California. We’re getting ready to celebrate Father’s Day. The kids and the family are taking me to a movie, and we’re going to have Father’s Day a day late.
When I’m on the road, I know the kids are tuning in on TV, and this year I got the Father’s Day messages in the morning,
And I called my dad.
Crew chief Rahn Tobler and crew work a little magic.
I know this is not a normal family life. This is my 25th year doing this, and that blows my mind. It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. With the schedule and lifestyle, I’ve missed a lot of really cool stuff with the kids growing up, but they’ve gotten to see a lot of the country they wouldn’t have gotten to see. I for surely have.
The kids have gotten to go to some cool events and go to some really cool things because of the job that I have. To do it for 25 years, I know there’s some things we don’t get to do and some things I miss. But the rest of it makes up for it.
I pinch myself every morning.
2016 NHRA Mello Yello Series Funny Car champion Ron Capps, who turns 54 on June 20, drives the NAPA Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car for Don Schumacher Racing. He has 63 career NHRA victories, including 62 in the Funny Car class.
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