He stood there off to the side, looking on intently.

For drag racing team owner Don Schumacher, watching Ron Capps spread his wings Friday afternoon as a counterpart in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series – the eager, new boss of Ron Capps Motorsports and continuing marketing partner with NAPA Auto Parts – surely was a bittersweet moment.

After all, Leah Pruett had said earlier this fall that “Don has raised all these kids” who are going out on their own. Capps shared his plans for 2022 and beyond at the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) Show at Indianapolis, joining the off-season exodus from Don Schumacher Racing (DSR). He followed Antron Brown, Matt Hagan, and Pruett. Since the 2020 Camping World Drag Racing Series season finale, the DSR megateam has lost all six of its drivers.

Tony Schumacher, who has made part-time appearances since missing the 2019 season following the U.S. Army’s sponsorship pullout, will return full-time in 2022, with financial backing from philanthropists Joe and Cathi Maynard and a national-brand, non-automotive sponsor he plans to announce Dec. 21. That gives DSR a single entry when the Winternationals at Pomona, Calif., kick off the new season in February.

Three-time Funny Car champion Matt Hagan and nine-time Top Fuel winner Pruett have joined Tony Stewart Racing’s new drag-racing team. (Pruett and Stewart were married in late November.) Antron Brown made his long-expected departure from DSR Dec. 1, forming his own team. Jack Beckman and Tommy Johnson Jr. lost their full-time driving jobs because of vanishing sponsorship after helping DSR sweep every Funny Car event on the 2020 schedule.

It’s probably been the worst-kept secret out there. It’s hard to keep something secret that you’re so excited about. You just want to shout it from the rooftop! But I’m so thrilled that it’s finally out there.

But Dean “Guido” Antonelli, who along with co-crew chief John Medlen and the entire 2021 Funny Car championship team is going to Ron Capps Motorsports, acknowledged that “it’s kind of like your children leaving home.” But Antonelli said, “In this case, [Schumacher] has mentored him to where Ron felt, from what he has learned from working here, that he can go to the next level. And with the support of Don, he can continue. So it’s not really leaving the roost. It’s kind of like going to college.”

The Ron Capps Motorsports team will continue to operate out of the DSR shop at Brownsburg, Ind., where they fashioned a championship run this year with two victories in five final-round appearances and four No. 1 qualifying positions.

Antonelli said he expects Capps to bring “enthusiasm as a team owner, maybe fear of being a team owner, but he’s going to get a life lesson of running a business. It’s the first time he’s ever done that. It’s a big risk for him. He’s been a paid shoe…very successful, great social-media following, great spokesman for his sponsors. Now he’s not going to be just a paid shoe.”

Back in October, when Capps was ironing out details of his new deal, he told Dragzine, “I’m a loyal guy.” Not only will he be in the same hauler with his team headquartered in the same location it has been for the past 17 years, but he showed the same respect Friday for Schumacher that he always has.

“Team ownership has been a lifelong dream,” the 68-time winner from Carlsbad, Calif., said. “I’ve been in the sport for almost 30 years as a driver, and being able to race for legends like Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme, and then Don Schumacher, it’s obviously been an incredible experience. I’ve been very lucky I’ve gotten to drive for two of the elite motorsports owners. I’ve been very fortunate to compete at a high level all these years and be successful, and it feels like the right time to take this next step.

“I always thought about it. I just thought it was so out of touch. I didn’t think it was ever going to happen,” Capps said. He said he was lucky “to have people around me, like we’ve had at DSR, Don Prudhomme, the way I was able to take notes, and be around two of the best. I’ve always kept my eyes and ears open and paid attention to these great team owners that I’ve worked for.”

As he seeks back-to-back titles and a third overall, Capps will enter a three-year contract extension with longtime supporter NAPA Auto Parts. The 2022 season will mark their 15th year together with NAPA as his primary marketing partner. Since they began their relationship in 2007, Capps and NAPA have shared 43 victories and championships in 2016 and 2021.

Capps with Katherine Wooten, NAPA’s director of partnership strategy and activation, at the PRI Show.

For the immediate future, Ron Capps Motorsports will be a single Funny Car team. But Antonelli said he thinks Capps “has aspirations to grow to a multiple-car team, probably a two-car team in the next few years.”

Joking about his role in hinting to fans and the media in previous weeks that an announcement was on the horizon, Capps said, “It’s probably been the worst-kept secret out there. It’s hard to keep something secret that you’re so excited about. You just want to shout it from the rooftop! But I’m so thrilled that it’s finally out there.”

Marti Walsh, vice-president of marketing for NAPA, said, “We have built a winning partnership over the years, so it is natural for NAPA Auto Parts to continue working with Ron through Ron Capps Motorsports. Ron is part of the NAPA family, and the sport of NHRA drag racing is in our DNA. We are excited to partner with Ron as he takes on the dual role of owner-driver.”

Capps said, “I wake up thinking I’m a NAPA employee. I approach it that way.”

Co-crew chief John Medlen

And for that, Katherine Wooten, NAPA’s director of partnership strategy and activation, said Friday that “he has been an incredible ambassador for NAPA Auto Parts. It’s just been a really special relationship. Napa is thrilled to be in a position that we can come along for this next step, that we can be part of Ron Capps Motorsports as they write this new chapter.”

Capps broke into the professional ranks in 1995 and 1996, driving Roger Primm’s Top Fuel dragster for a total of 20 events. He joined Don Prudhomme Racing in 1997 and was named recipient of the Auto Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award as NHRA’s top rookie.