The NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger Funny Car driven by Ron Capps will be guided by a crew chief by committee at this weekends’ O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston following the headline news that tuner John Medlen has resigned his position as of late last week.

Veteran tuners Tommy Delago, crew chief for Matt Hagan’s Diehard Charger, and Rahn Tobler, crew chief for Jack Beckman’s Valvoline/Aaron’s Charger, will temporarily assume the role of cp-tuning Capps’ machine in addition to their duties with Hagan and Beckman’s teams.

Capps, who has 31 NHRA national event victories to his resume, struggled throughout the latter half of the 2010 season, recording one win in Sonoma in July but only five round wins at the 12 events that followed, concluding the year a disappointing seventh in the Full Throttle Funny Car standings. That trend continued into the beginning of the 2011 season as Capps has recorded just three round wins in the seasons first four races.

Capps will be fitted to drive the same chassis that teammate Hagan drove to a second place finish in the standings last season, and other changes are expected to be made to make his car as similar to those driven by Hagan and Beckman as possible.

Capps discussed the change in a recent rpm2night.com podcast with host John Kernan.

“Rahn and Tommy talk a lot, and their setups are very close,” Capps said. “They come up with great ideas together. They’re getting a car together right now at the shop. It’s going to be tough for Tommy and Rahn to run their own cars and this one, but the setups are going to be so close that it will be like getting another run on their own cars. It’s only going to make our whole team better. If you’re an owner like Don Schumacher, you obviously want everybody on the same page.

“Working with John Medlen has been unbelievable. Being at Don Schumacher Racing for six years, I’ve only had two crew chiefs: Ed McCulloch and John Medlen. It’s a bummer the way it went down. The positive way of looking at it is that we’re going to Houston with a car that’s identical to Tommy DeLago’s and Rahn Tobler’s. To me, that’s a great thing right now. Everyone on the team is excited.”