NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

OK, Ron Capps superfan. You think you know his origin story, right? From driving Roger Primm’s Top Fueler to superstardom driving Funny Cars for Don Prudhomme and Don Schumacher, right?

Wrong.

Did you know that he almost chose to drive Eddie Hill’s Top Fueler instead of “the Snake’s” Funny Car? Or that it was Capps who almost was John Force’s second Funny Car driver before Tony Pedregon?

In this never-been-told account, Capps shares with us the coulda-beens of his Hall-of-Fame-worthy career.

Top Alcohol origins

Before we get to all of that, let’s take a step way back in time.

Capps and his brother Jon raced go-karts with their dad and learned the value of hard work and know-how over high-dollar parts. Their mom and dad drag raced, too, and regularly took them to Bakersfield for the famed March Meet, all of which explains their affinity for the straight-line sport.

“I have these flashbacks of being a kid, especially at the March Meet, because that was an event that we went to every year,” he reminisced. “We made trips up north of Fremont [Dragstrip] a lot, too, so I got to spend some time at that track and then down to Orange County [Int'l Raceway]. You dream so big at times, it's like dreaming to be an astronaut and being shot into space; you just don't think it's ever going to happen. I could picture myself driving Don Prudhomme's Funny Car or being ‘Wild Willie’ Borsch at the March Meet driving that thing, and holding on with one arm, and then you fast forward, you're working on your dad's race car.”

From there, Capps found a home as a crewmember of a couple of West Coast Top Alcohol Dragsters. He worked on Alan and Blaine Johnson’s dragster while Alan was still driving, and then for his hometown guy Jim Rizzolli, and later for Darryl Hitchman. He rubbed shoulders with other Top Alcohol greats like Brad Anderson, Pat Austin, Gary Scelzi, Rick Santos, Jay Payne, and Bruce McDowell.

“I would go to these Division 7 races, and it was really cool,” he said. “I mean, it was like a national event anywhere else in the country. There was an unbelievable amount of competition. So there I was, as a crew guy working on Rizzoli’s dragster, and I’d sit in the cockpit to warm it up, dreaming that someday maybe I’d get a chance to make a run.

“I remember Gary Turner put the kid who worked on his car, Bobby Taylor, in his dragster and won the championship, and I thought to myself, ‘If I just keep working on them, and I hang around enough, I just felt like maybe there was a chance that one of these guys would look for somebody younger to put in one of those cars, and that was like a huge dream for me. Back then, I wasn't even dreaming above that, like Don Prudhomme-type of dreams. 

“When I went to work for Hitchman, we hit the road in 1992. Shelly, my wife-to-be, let me go on tour for a full one year, and it was at a divisional race in Brainerd, Minn., that John Mitchell had a conversation with me, and the next day he just said, ‘I enjoyed talking to you.’ I had no idea who he was. We were just shooting the shit in the staging lanes. He had a car that Larry Dixon was driving, and I ended up getting my license later in it, but that weekend, Larry was driving his Montana Express A/Fuel car, and the next day he said, ‘Hey, I’ve got an alcohol car at home if you want to go put it together and get your license, you're more than welcome to,’ and I was just like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me, what's the catch?’

“And that was it, and that was the break, because I got in that car, and then Roger Primm saw me in that car, and [crew chief] Terry Manzer and I would talk here and there, and I had no idea that Terry was putting a bug in Roger's ear to drive his Top Fueler. I watched that list whittle down from 15 of the biggest names I've heard of that were in line to drive his car to being one of the top three, and then getting a call on New Year's Eve from Roger saying, 'You're going to drive our Top Fuel car next year.' ”

Going Top Fuel

At the time, Capps was teaching racquetball at different health clubs to make ends meet, and this was a big decision with a lot of responsibility.

“I talk about it now with the YES Program, about these forks in the road, and they're not always the ones that turn out great. Sometimes they don't work out, but they either teach you a lesson or somehow it works out from even the wrong forks.”

Capps drove for Primm in 1995 and, incredibly, won his first NHRA Wally at the 1995 Seattle event and was runner-up in Atlanta.

“Things were going great with Roger,” he recalled, “and he hired a marketing company, and we were actively looking for a major sponsor. We had two big meetings with a telecommunications company and another beverage company. We were full bore.

“Around that time, I'd gotten a call from ‘Snake’ telling me he’d seen me in Roger’s car and asked me if I’d like to drive his Funny Car. ‘Oh my God, what do I do?’ I told ‘Snake’ I had a commitment with Roger because he took a chance on me. Ironically, that same week, Roger had a meeting with the team, and he said, ‘Look, if we don't get a deal by the Sonoma race this summer, I have to park the car.’ And then ‘Snake’ wanted me to fly back with him at the end of the summer to meet with a sponsor, which turned out to be Copenhagen, but I was very torn. I didn't know what to do, and I was going to pass on ‘Snake’s’ deal just because I felt committed to Roger.

“It was a tough few months, but — unfortunately and fortunately, I guess — we didn't get a deal for Roger. It was a bummer, and we had to park the car, so I decided to follow up with Prudhomme.”

Capps couldn't even afford a suit for the business meeting, let alone an airplane ticket, but Prudhomme’s wife, Lynn, sent him the money, and he flew to meet Prudhomme in Connecticut to meet the Skoal people.

“And kind of the rest is history. But that's kind of what happened. That was one of those major forks, and I didn't have to make a decision. It almost was decided for me.”

But wait, there’s more …

That would all be a neat and tidy story that we all know, but it certainly was not a straight shot from Primm to Prudhomme.

“I’d gotten to know John Force after I won Seattle because we both went to a race in Spokane [Wash.] right after that, and he just took me under his wing,” Capps shared. “Every race, when qualifying was over, I would be down at Force’s pit area and go out to dinner with him and [Bob] Fisher and whoever.

“At the time, Force was looking to have a second Funny Car. I'd been out with him at a bar, and he drew on a napkin a plan for a two-car technology trailer and a two-car team he wanted. Speed Sport [magazine] came out with an article that Force was coming out with a two-car team and that Force had already told me that I was going to be his guy. I think ‘Snake’ also saw the Speed Sport article with my name, and it kind of put me on the radar with him to start watching me. 

“Then my Pennzoil sponsor guy from Houston wanted to put me in Eddie Hill's car and have Eddie just tune because he just had another crash, so I went from nothing to having to ride with Roger to having the Pennzoil guy wanting to put me in Eddie Hill's car — I mean, to the point where we had meetings — and then the ‘Snake’ call happened. The Pennzoil guy called and said they loved me and that it looked like the Eddie Hill thing might happen. 

“I've never really talked about this, but the Eddie Hill thing was crazy, because I had a chance that I was maybe going to be driving that Nuclear Banana car with him tuning, which was a hauling-ass car, and just nuts how that all came together at one time."

And, obviously, Hill was not ready to get out of the seat yet either.

“I took the deal with ‘Snake,’ but the Pennzoil guy asked for a meeting with ‘Snake’ because they wanted to be the primary sponsor on ‘Snake’s’ car, but he'd already gotten the Copenhagen thing signed. I had all these choices, and it could have gone either direction. I could have been a Top Fuel guy driving for Eddie Hill. That's just crazy how life could have gone."

And then on to Schumacher 

Capps' time driving for Prudhomme really put him on the drag racing map with more than a dozen wins, but when tobacco companies could no longer sponsor race teams, it looked like Capps was going to be without a ride heading into 2005.

“I didn't know what I was going to do,” Capps remembered. “Prudhomme ended up letting me out of our contract even though we still had a deal for another year, and when I went to Schumacher’s. I didn't know at the time, but he had a deal working with Zach Brown, who’s obviously F1 now with McLaren, who had a marketing company, Just Marketing, in Indy that brought sponsors to teams, instead of the other way around. They decided where to take the sponsors, and he had Brut cologne for Schumacher. What I also didn't know before I even decided to go to Schumacher was he had already talked to Ed McCulloch, who had been my crew chief with ‘Snake,’ and I was getting reunited with him, so that was a cool thing.”

All by myself ….

Capps scored more than 50 wins and two world championships driving for Schumacher, during which time he became the face of NAPA Auto Parts in NHRA Drag Racing in Schumacher’s car, which ended in 2021, leaving Capps at another fork in the road.

“During COVID, some little things happened here and there, and I could see the writing was on the wall that at my age, I probably wasn't going to be a paid driver forever,” Capps said. “I figured the only way was to go out on my own. I gave Don the heads-up even before Indy that year [2021]. In the meantime, we're winning races, and then all of a sudden, we're leading the points for the championship, and there was a lot going on in my brain. I didn't know what I was going to do. I had already committed to quitting Don's team and going out on my own, but I didn't know who was going to go with me and what was going to happen.

“Don wasn't afraid to let me know that people were trying to bring millions to get in my seat, but NAPA told him, ‘There's not a chance anybody else is driving that car with NAPA on it,’ and if he was gonna put somebody else in it, there was not going to be NAPA on the car. There are a couple of those drivers out there right now that I compete against that I know for a fact tried to get my deal.

“So NAPA was leaving Don's deal for sure, and I was hoping they would just come on as a major associate or something with me, and then the hunt was on. I’ll never forget being in a little smelly hotel — I’ll never forget the smell — in the middle of Kansas with my wife for a NAPA appearance in October, and the president of NAPA called and said, 'Hey, we'd like to be a part of whatever you're doing. Is there a chance that we could be your primary sponsor? Is there a chance we could continue on with you being our NAPA guy?' And I just started crying on the phone. I couldn't believe it. And that was right before Dallas, and we went on and won the championship.”

All of that uncertainty is what made Capps certain that he wouldn’t put his own future driver, Maddi Gordon, through that. When news that Capps was contemplating having a Top Fuel car, he was besieged with inquiries and offers from hopeful driving candidates, but wanted none of that.

“I guess the moral of the story is that you don't know what the future is going to be like, and I saw that ugly part of it, and that kind of went forward to the whole Maddi thing," he admitted. "I've seen it firsthand, and I just didn't want her to go through it again. 

“It’s been a crazy road for me, full of twists and turns and forks in the road. My life and my racing career could have gone so many different ways if I had chosen other forks or if deals had come together that didn’t, but I can’t say that I'm not extremely happy with the way it all turned out.”