Motor Sports: Funny Car leader Capps takes momentum to Sonoma

SONOMA - Ron Capps' career is paved with success, and back on home turf at Sonoma Raceway this weekend, he is speeding toward his next milestone.

Capps, who secured his 80th career event win on June 28 in Norwalk, Ohio, leads the Funny Car standings rolling into the Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals. The only Funny Car driver with three Wallys this season, Capps rocketed to the top of the ladder in Friday's first round of qualifying before being bumped to No. 4. The top five qualifiers were unchanged after Saturday's first round of qualifying.

John Force Racing's Jordan Vandergriff surged to the top provisional qualifying spot with a 3.849 low ET in the night session. As temperatures dipped into the 60s at one of the fastest tracks on the schedule, the Funny Car rookie went 3.849-seconds at 332.43 mph in his 12,000-horsepower Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS to also collect the $4,000 Deecell After Dark Low Qualifier bonus.

"To be the quickest Funny Car of the year so far is a huge accomplishment, especially with how competitive this class is. And I'm a rookie-I don't even know what I'm doing yet," Vandergriff said. "We fumbled a little in Q1, but I knew we had something figured out. The early numbers looked really good, so I believed we were going to run quick no matter when we went down the track.

"I knew the team wanted to push a little. We've run well this year, we've won a race, we've qualified No. 1 before, but we hadn't really leaned on it. Tonight we did. I knew we were going to run well. I just didn't know we were going to run that good."

Jack Beckman, racing next to Capps in the final pair of the session, unleashed a 3.873 ET at 285.35 mph to take the No. 2 spot. Daniel Wilkerson let loose with a 3.899 run earlier in the night session and finished in the third spot.

The bad news for the Vandergriff and the rest of the Funny Car field, Capps, crew chief Dean "Guido" Antonelli and the NAPA Auto Care Toyota team haven't even hit their stride yet.

"If I didn't see it in print, I wouldn't think we were leading the points like that," said Capps, a four-time winner at Sonoma. "We have not been close to our usual best. When you're running, your car is just flying, and you're in the driver's seat, you just don't want to mess it up. When you've got a great car, and I've had a great car in the past, you know it. Guido will tell you … we're not even close to being where we feel good."

Capps, who started his career driving Top Fuel in 1995, made the move early on to Funny Car. He is second in career wins to only John Force, with 16 NHRA titles and 157 victories over 50 years. Capps will be inducted into the West Coast Motorsports Hall of Fame this year alongside Force.

Ron Capps Motorsports is looking to duplicate the success from Norwalk, where Capps and Top Fuel rookie sensation Maddi Gordon both took home Wallys.

"I see the angst on Guido's face, and the clutch disc isn't perfect, or it's not this or that, but we're leading the points, and we won three Wallys, three unbelievable Diamond Wallys… And then you add Norwalk with Maddi winning, which was just a lifetime thing you don't think will ever happen."

Capps, a San Luis Obispo resident, was eager to have Paso Robles native Gordon, the daughter of past Top Alcohol Funny Car champion Doug Gordon, join his team.

"She is so fun to be around," he said. "I love that even with the success, she's so grounded."

Capps, who at different times earlier in his career drove for legends Don "the Snake" Prudhomme and Don Schumacher, went out on his own in 2021 and won his second NHRA national championship the same year and won again in 2022. Being a businessman can be a headache, but Capps finds his happy place in the driver's seat at Sonoma.

"I've got a bunch of stuff going on in my head about the business, and I've got to run back and get my fire suit on," Capps said. "But a fun part for me is to get the suit on, because I can kind of forget about all of that… During qualifying, I focus on the fun and I'm at my home track. This where I grew up, just south of here on the Central Coast."

Capps is looking for a big weekend to strengthen his lead over a competitive field that includes Matt Hagan, JR Todd, Beckman, Vandergriff, and Chad Green, who has two wins this season.

"Sonoma would be a great place to get the ball rolling," said Todd, who is third in the standings. "In 2018, when we went on to win the championship, it kind of got rolling here. Now is the time of year you hit that halfway point and you need to get your ducks in a row, put your best foot forward and start racking up points."

Capps is locked in to start his run to the championship at Sonoma.

"Our car, I can wait for it to work. When Guido says he's happy with the car and we're ready, it's going to be a lot more fun. But right now, it's a little more fun because I know that we're not there yet, and we're racing these great teams out here. It's a feather in our cap, but they're all coming. I feel it."

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This story was originally published July 18, 2026 at 5:23 AM.