Tough Afternoon for Toyota Top Fuel Dragsters
ELWOOD, Ill. (May 21, 2023) – Ron Capps drove his GR Supra Funny Car to the final round in Sunday’s NHRA Drag Racing event that returned to the Route 66 Raceway outside of Chicago for the first time since 2019. Capps faced off with race-winner Tim Wilkerson in the final round, but a mechanical issue with the parachute cost the NAPA GR Supra the win.
In Top Fuel dragster competition, while all five Toyotas qualified in the top-half of the ladder, round one proved that a warmer day made for more challenging track conditions and four of the five were eliminated. Doug Kalitta advanced to round two, but fell to Clay Millican.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series
Route 66 Raceway
Race 6 of 21
TOYOTA TOP FUEL FINISHING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Final Result | Round-by-Round |
| Doug Kalitta | Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Round 2 | W. 3.762 vs. 3.822 (Wurtzel) L. 5.363 vs. 3.797 (Millican) |
| Steve Torrence | Capco Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Round 1 | L. 8.456 vs. 3.742 (Pruett) |
| Justin Ashley | Phillips Connect Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Round 1 | L. 4.429 vs. 3.786 (McNeal) |
| Shawn Langdon | AutoDesk Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Round 1 | 4.675 vs. 3.732 (Millican) |
| Antron Brown | Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Round 1 | L. 4.756 vs. 4.390 (Hart) |
TOYOTA FUNNY CAR FINISHING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Final Result | Round-by-Round |
| Ron Capps | NAPA Auto Parts Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | Final Round | W. 4.002 vs. 4.070 (Haddock) W. 3.983 vs. 4.050 (Tasca III) W. 3.985 vs. 4.085 (Green) L. 4.110 vs. 3.966 (Wilkerson) |
| Alexis DeJoria | Bandero Tequila Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | Round 1 | L. 8.060 vs. 4.029 (Pedregon) |
| J.R. Todd | DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | Round 1 | L. 8.320 vs. 4.570 (Tasca III) |
TOYOTA QUOTES
RON CAPPS, NAPA Auto Parts Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Ron Capps Motorsports
Final Result: Final Round
How challenging were track conditions throughout the day and in the final round?
“Everybody struggled here. It was tricky. We’re going to see these kinds of conditions throughout the summer months, so I’m very proud of what our guys did to win the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. That gained us extra points, which was huge. Going to the final round in one of the trickiest days we’ve seen was also huge. Very smart crew chiefs had issues getting down the track for a lot of teams. ‘Guido’ and ‘T-Buck’ and the guys did such a great job all day. Heartache not winning in the final, but I’m very pumped to see these next few races and really get ready for the summer months. It’s going to be a lot of fun with our race team.”
ALEXIS DEJORIA, Bandero Tequila Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, DC Motorsports
Final Result: Round 1
What happened on the starting line with the staging light not getting fully lit and ultimately led to you getting timed out?
“It was the nose of the body and that’s a really crappy way to lose a race. I don’t go out there to try to play games. The first thing that went through my mind when that was happening was that the nose of the body was too far down. This happened to us in Atlanta all weekend and it was plaguing us and I was like, ‘Dammit, here we go again.’ I obviously got timed out because of that, but Cruz (Pedregon) makes a good run and I just wanted to get down here and make sure that he knew that I wasn’t trying to play games. I don’t play games down there. I just want to cut a good light and have a good, fair race. We’ll take it back and get ready for Epping (New Hampshire). But this was definitely not the weekend that we wanted to have. We’ll be prepared for the next one.”