Ron Capps And Maddi Gordon Look To Rebound At NHRA Nationals At The Rock

There isn’t much time to dwell on a bad weekend when the first three races of the NHRA Countdown to the Championship happen on consecutive weekends, and that might be exactly what Ron Capps and Maddi Gordon need.

Ron Capps Motorsports heads to Rockingham Dragway for the inaugural NHRA Nationals at The Rock, looking to put the opening Countdown race in Michigan behind it. Capps enters the weekend fourth in the Funny Car standings, while Gordon sits eighth in Top Fuel during her first trip through the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series playoffs.

Neither driver got the start to the Countdown they wanted at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, but Rockingham gives them an immediate opportunity to change the direction of their championship runs.

Capps entered the six-race Countdown as the No. 2 seed, but the three-time Funny Car world champion heads to Rockingham fourth in the standings and 63 points behind the leader. With five playoff races remaining, getting back to the late rounds at The Rock would go a long way toward closing that gap.

There was also a significant positive to take away from Michigan. Capps recorded a new career-best speed of 339.37 mph, showing that his Funny Car has plenty of performance as the Countdown moves forward.

Now the objective is turning that performance into round wins.

“It’s funny how time flies and if you paid attention to any of the talk with the drivers and the teams whenever we spoke about the NHRA playoffs, we all discussed how quickly things can happen with a three-in-a-row to start the Countdown to the Championship. We saw everything thrown at us at our first race in Michigan, but low and behold, here we are coming up on the second of three. We’re headed out to Rockingham, North Carolina, which has a great amount of NHRA history, as well as history for me, personally. The first time I drove there was during my rookie year with Don Prudhomme. It’s such an iconic race, and it kind of feels like everything’s coming full circle. The weather is going to be great this weekend, and obviously no one’s been on that track in quite some time in a nitro car.

“We didn’t start things off quite like we had hoped last weekend, so we’re looking forward to getting back on track to where both teams had been all season long. We’ve got a lot of things happening around us, which keeps us busy in our Ron Capps Motorsports pit area. We’ve got a couple of brand-new partners joining us for the weekend with NAPA Auto Parts, and some great store owners who will bring customers to spend the weekend with us. It usually bodes well for our teams when we’re able to show off in front of our NAPA and Carlyle partners.”

Gordon finds herself in a similar situation.

The Rookie of the Year contender enters the second Countdown race eighth in the Top Fuel standings and is within two competition rounds of breaking into the top five. Michigan didn’t provide the start Gordon and the Carlyle Tools team wanted. After qualifying further down the field than planned, Gordon’s weekend ended in the opening round.

Instead of having two weeks to think about it, she gets to climb right back into her Top Fuel dragster at Rockingham.

“After a weekend like Martin, where we didn’t qualify as well as we had wanted and went out first round, I’m so glad we’re able to quickly put that race behind us and go straight into Rockingham this weekend. Hopefully, two days from now, it’ll be like Martin never even happened and we can start with a clean slate. I’ve been in Indy since we left Michigan, spending time at the shop and signing our new diecast cars, which I’m really excited about.

“I actually got to go to Rockingham earlier this year for a media tour, and let me tell you, on Saturday, when the dragsters run first, I’ll be hustling to the grandstands right after because they have the coolest stands right next to the race track. I will be there to watch race cars go down the race track, I can promise you that!

“We’re going to take the data from last weekend – the ‘dos and the do-not dos,’ and transfer it to this weekend, and hopefully, we’ll be further ahead. I go into every race with confidence, feeling like we have a shot to win because our Carlyle Tools team truly is amazing, we just missed it last weekend. We’re going to go out there this weekend and do what we’ve been doing, which is to put our heads down and go to work.”

The six-race Countdown doesn’t give anybody much time to recover from mistakes, and opening the playoffs with three consecutive events makes that reality even more apparent.

Capps has five remaining to erase a 63-point deficit and work his way back toward the top of the Funny Car standings. Gordon has five races to make her move during her rookie Top Fuel playoff campaign, and the top five remains within two competition rounds. Michigan didn’t go according to plan for either Ron Capps Motorsports entry, but the schedule provides no time to look backward. The Rock is next, and for Capps and Gordon, that’s exactly where the focus needs to be.