World Wide Technology Raceway is where Ron Capps earned his first Funny Car victory nearly three decades ago. It’s a facility where he’s won four times, more than any other Funny Car driver. And this weekend, it’s where Capps needs to start closing the gap in the Countdown to the Championship.
Capps enters the NAPA Auto Parts NHRA Midwest Nationals third in the Funny Car standings and 106 points behind the leader. The three-time world champion is chasing a fourth title, and with the Countdown reaching its third race, there isn’t much room to give away points.
His Ron Capps Motorsports teammate Maddi Gordon has plenty on the line as well. The Rookie of the Year contender will make her St. Louis Top Fuel debut while carrying a special NAPA Auto Parts primary scheme that will match Capps’ familiar NAPA colors.
Capps gave himself something to build on last weekend at Rockingham. He qualified No. 1 for the fourth time this season, proving his Funny Car has the performance needed to compete at the front of the field. But the Countdown isn’t just about running quick it’s about turning those quick runs into round wins.
Capps is 106 points out of first place, and while the championship contenders are starting to separate themselves, he knows Funny Car remains too competitive to focus exclusively on a handful of drivers.
“It’s a tight battle and we know who we’re going to have to fight for the championship. But that being said, looking back at Rockingham and Michigan, you can’t count anybody out on race day. You don’t even want to not mention them, because you look at the top 12 cars in our class, and any of them are capable of winning on Sunday. We’ve got some good tracks coming up, especially this weekend in St. Louis with the event being sponsored by NAPA. The McKay NAPA group here are such big supporters of ours, and racing, and the track, so it’s only fitting we get to do something special and run matching NAPA liveries with Maddi’s team and our Funny Car. It makes me really proud as a team owner. St. Louis has been a good track for me with a lot of wins, and a lot of great results. Of course, when you have so many NAPA people come out like they are, you want to show off.”
Capps’ history at World Wide Technology Raceway goes all the way back to the beginning of his Funny Car career. In 1997, while driving for drag racing icon Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, Capps earned his first Funny Car victory at the inaugural event at the facility.
A lot has changed since then. Capps is now a three-time world champion, a team owner, and one of the most accomplished Funny Car drivers in the sport. But his ability to succeed at St. Louis hasn’t changed. Capps’ success at World Wide Technology Raceway hasn’t gone unnoticed. He’ll be recognized Friday as one of “Gateway’s Greatest” for his accomplishments at the St. Louis-area facility.
On the other side of the Ron Capps Motorsports pit, Maddi Gordon will experience World Wide Technology Raceway from a very different perspective. Gordon will make her first Top Fuel appearance at the facility, and she’ll do it with a little extra attention on her dragster.
For the first time, NAPA Auto Parts will carry primary branding on a Top Fuel dragster. The NAPA Auto Care Top Fuel machine will give Gordon and Capps matching blue-and-yellow liveries at an event where NAPA is also the title sponsor.
“We’re really excited for the NAPA Auto Parts Midwest Nationals. I know I keep saying excited, but we have some really cool stuff in the works at this weekend’s St. Louis race. This will be the first time in history that NAPA Auto Parts will have primary branding on a Top Fuel dragster, so that’s really cool and our whole team is pumped up to be part of racing history with the NAPA blue and yellow. A NAPA race car at a NAPA race to match Ron Capps’ NAPA Auto Care colors will help give us that extra mojo for race three of the Countdown. We’ll kick off the weekend with a NAPA NHRA customer race with the local dealers, followed by our NAPA store visit. We’re also going to host Kenny Wallce, so, just a lot of fun things happening.”
Gordon enters the third Countdown race tied for seventh in the Top Fuel standings. More importantly, she’s within one competition round of reaching the top five, so that makes every round at St. Louis valuable. The Rookie of the Year contender has already worked her way into the Countdown fight during her first Top Fuel season. Now the challenge is continuing that progress as the championship schedule gets shorter.
There won’t be any question which two race cars belong together when Ron Capps Motorsports rolls into World Wide Technology Raceway. Capps’ Funny Car and Gordon’s Top Fuel dragster will both carry NAPA colors at the NAPA Auto Parts NHRA Midwest Nationals. The colors might match, but Capps and Gordon have their own jobs to do once the engines fire.
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