Toyota Racing – Ron Capps


NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Quotes

KENT, Wash. (July 21, 2024) – Ron Capps spoke to broadcast media following his accident during the first round of eliminations of the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways.  

RON CAPPS, NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Ron Capps Motorsports

That was a big wreck, Ron. First off, are you okay and what happened?

“Yeah, I’m fine. Thank God we got all of the new safety stuff in there because four, five, six years ago that probably would have been – who knows – especially the head padding. John Force, I know you are at home watching – what John and his team have done have surely made that less on my body. We were up staging the car and there were some drops, and I was like ‘oh, boy.’ But I thought it wasn’t bad enough that we couldn’t run, and I know that Guido (Dean Antonelli, crew chief) was trying to throw down pretty good. It shook loose. I was trying to pedal it and couldn’t get it going. I heard Gary (Densham) over there and I knew he was a little bit in trouble, but then he started going again. I was looking out of my window and just trying to get it going again – nothing crazy, and as I rolled in, that last pedal – I’ve been there before. The explosion, the concussion and then the body is going. When I’m seeing these trees around the track, it is not a good thing in a Funny Car and then I was just hanging on. I don’t think I’ve ever had an accident like that – hitting walls. It is something I don’t think I’ve ever done in my career that bad. I was just hanging on trying not to hit hard – and then after I hit the right wall, I knew it was going to go left. I was going to go head on into the other wall, so I was able to brace for it. Guido and the guys are great about the padding around my legs. I think they got it from INDYCAR and stuff, and that surely probably kept my legs from getting hurt bad. I just wanted to get out of the car and let my wife know I’m okay. I’m sure she is at home watching on NHRA.com, my family – I love them. I just hate it. NAPA – we’ve finally turned the corner and are running great, and just felt so good about today and how we are doing. It will set us back a bit, but we have great race cars. Precision guys will get working on another car – we have got to get to Sonoma and get through me, but it definitely hurt the budget. The owner in me is really bummed, more than the driver.”