Capps, Kalitta And Line Win At O’Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals
Written by Josh Katinger · April 30, 2006
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Ron Capps beat drag racing legend John Force by one-hundredth of a second Sunday at Bristol Dragway to extend his Funny Car lead in the POWERade Drag Racing Series championship chase. Capps was joined by Doug Kalitta and Jason Line in the winner’s circle at the $1.5 million O’Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals presented by Q, the sixth of 23 races in the $50 million POWERade Drag Racing Series.
NHRA.com: Sunday Recap
Capps posted a run of 4.793 seconds at 319.52 mph in his Brut Dodge Stratus to beat Force’s quicker 4.788 at 310.13 in his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang. The difference came at the starting line when Capps left in .080-of-a-second in front of Force’s .104-second start.
“I’m in disbelief,” said Capps of his third victory of the season and the 20th of his career. “I got on the radio and said, ‘I can’t believe it, we won again.’ It’s not that I don’t have confidence in my guys, but it’s just so hard to win and when it happens a lot like it has this year it’s sometimes hard to believe. I love the competition and I love this class. This is just a great time to be racing right now.”
In earlier rounds Capps defeated Scott Kalitta, Eric Medlen and teammate Gary Scelzi to advance. It was Capps’ second win at Bristol Dragway, as he defeated Al Hofmann for the win here in 2001.
The final produced a swing of 40 points in the POWERade standings with Capps increasing his lead by 122 points over Force.
Kalitta repeated last year’s Bristol Top Fuel final by beating Rod Fuller once again. This time Fuller’s Valvoline/David Powers Homes dragster lost traction at the hit of the throttle and Kalitta’s Mac Tools dragster powered to a time of 4.537 at a track record speed of 331.53. It was Kalitta’s 25th career victory and third at this event.
“This has been a long time coming,” said Kalitta, whose last victory came eight months ago in Brainerd, Minn. “It seems like forever since we’ve been to the winner’s circle. The guys were just real hungry and they really wanted to win one, plus we’ve always run well here, which had us feeling confident. Rahn [Tobler, crew chief] has the set up for this place and we love being here. All the facilities Bruton Smith owns are first-class and we enjoy racing at his tracks.”
Kalitta’s machine was consistent throughout the day, staying in the mid-4.5-second range to claim round wins over Scott Weis, Brandon Bernstein, and reigning champ Tony Schumacher.
“Getting by Rod a second time in the final here is something,” Kalitta said. “I thought he was going to put us in the right lane but he didn’t and when I saw Capps go down the left lane it made me feel real good. Once you get to the final you really want to go ahead and finish it off and we were able to today.”
Ladders
Final Results
TOP FUEL:
1. Doug Kalitta
2. Rod Fuller
3. David Grubnic
4. Tony Schumacher
5. Brandon Bernstein
6. Melanie Troxel
7. Morgan Lucas
8. Clay Millican
9. Hillary Will
10. Larry Dixon
11. Bob Vandergriff
12. Cory McClenathan
13. Scott Weis
14. Doug Foley
15. David Baca
16. Doug Herbert
FUNNY CAR:
1. Ron Capps, Dodge Stratus
2. John Force, Ford Mustang
3. Whit Bazemore, Dodge Charger
4. Gary Scelzi, Charger
5. Tommy Johnson Jr., Chevy Monte Carlo
6. Eric Medlen, Mustang
7. Phil Burkart, Monte Carlo
8. Jim Head, Stratus
9. Del Worsham, Monte Carlo
10. Gary Densham, Monte Carlo
11. Tim Wilkerson, Monte Carlo
12. Tony Bartone, Monte Carlo
13. Tony Pedregon, Monte Carlo
14. Cruz Pedregon, Monte Carlo
15. Robert Hight, Mustang
16. Scott Kalitta, Monte Carlo
PRO STOCK:
1. Jason Line, Pontiac GTO
2. Greg Anderson, GTO
3. Kurt Johnson, Chevy Cobalt
4. Larry Morgan, Dodge Stratus
5. Erica Enders, Cobalt
6. Richie Stevens, Stratus
7. V. Gaines, Stratus
8. Dave Howard, Cobalt
9. Warren Johnson, GTO
10. Jim Yates, GTO
11. Ron Krisher, Cobalt
12. Greg Stanfield, GTO
13. Allen Johnson, Stratus
14. Dave Northrop, Stratus
15. Mike Edwards, GTO
16. Max Naylor, Stratus
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I am a loyal Capps fan and really love that his team is doing such a wonderful job this year …keep up the good work and I Love You all.