Ron Capps’ repeat a rarity as NHRA competition stiffens

Repeat after me.

A directive that once was the rule rather than the exception is back in play again in the NHRA after Ron Capps last year became the first Funny Car back-to-back champion since the legendary John Force capped an unprecedented run of 10 consecutive titles in 2002.

It was a dream season for Capps, who won five races and the title by three points over rival Robert Hight in his first go-round as a team owner.

“Robert Hight’s team won eight races – one of the best years you ever could have in today’s Funny Car world. And they didn’t win a championship. That tells you how tight it was,” Capps said about the parity in Funny Car and the Nitro classes in general.

“To be the first to do it back-to-back (since) Force is a crazy thing. The way it went down was so awesome, and it still amazes me we were able to pull that off.”

Capps qualified fourth ahead of Sunday’s Four-Wide Nationals final eliminations at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

New rules designed to trim costs and promote competition, combined with an unpredictable playoff system, have dramatically narrowed the gap between the usual pacesetters and the upstarts trying to catch them.

“The rules are so tight (since) the days of Force,” said Matt Hagan, who, like Capps, is a three-time Funny Car champion. “Those guys outworked and outspent everybody. You could innovate and do whatever you wanted, and now you can’t touch (the cars).

“The years of somebody coming out here and dominating? I don’t think you’re gonna see that.”

The competition in Top Fuel also has been more intense since Tony Schumacher won six straight titles from 2004-09. That streak was followed by Steve Torrence’s run of four that Brittany Force halted last year en route to her second career championship.

As her Funny Car stablemate Hight showed in 2022, being consistent over the course of the season is no longer a prerequisite given the whims of the Countdown to the Championship, drag racing’s six-race playoff.

Force earned another pole position at LVMS heading into Sunday after four rounds of qualifying.

“When we won that championship in ’17, we just happened to get hot at the right time,” Force said. “We struggled at the beginning of the season, but we were really strong in the Countdown. (Last year) we were strong all season, struggled in the Countdown, regained it here in Vegas and (clinched) in Pomona (at the NHRA Finals).”

Despite setting 16 track records during a 2022 season in which she won five times (including twice at LVMS), Force agrees that the steps between the cars, drivers and teams on the bracket ladder seem to keep getting closer.

“It’s not like there’s a big gap from one to eight,” she said. “We’re all so tight together with very similar speeds, and that makes it really tough.”