(Editors note: Ron Capps has again committed to keep a weekly diary for ESPN.com in 2006. Last season, Capps finished second to teammate Gary Scelzi for the 2005 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car championship by eight points.)
Well, we'll be at Gateway International Raceway this weekend, which is in Madison, Ill., just over the bridge from St. Louis. I can't wait to get back there. Gateway is where I got my first win in a Funny Car back in 1997, which was also the inaugural race for the new track that was built there.
It's always been a place that I love to go back to.
There are some places where it seems, no matter what, you do well for some reason. And St. Louis is one of those places for me.
Last year was when Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) was under the knife in Indianapolis (for cancer surgery) and he missed the race and actually missed our first win. We had Ronnie Thompson, who was our assistant crew chief and who is now Morgan Lucas' crew chief, fill in for Ace and we ended up winning the race.
It was our first win for Don Schumacher and Brut, so the crew guys doused me with Brut instead of champagne in the winner's circle. The press room was really fragrant in the postrace interview!
It was a pretty emotional weekend with not having Ace there and Ronnie tuning the car. It was a weird weekend.
I truly wish NHRA would have more night races, like at Gateway. I think the fans love it. I think it's a great event for anybody to come to, whether it's their first drag race, or they're a longtime drag-racing fan.
Anytime you can come and watch a nitro car at night it makes for great TV, but it's great in person, because you can see the flames spewing out of the header pipes.
And it's great for a driver. Growing up as a kid I watched my heroes in Funny Cars and Dragsters race at night; that's all they did back then. I love it. I really wish they would have more races like that. It's exciting.
For most teams it's also the halfway point of the year, because after St.
Louis we do get a couple weeks off before we hit the Western Swing.
It's a very demanding race. It's also the last of three races in a row and we'll see warm weather conditions for sure.
You know you have to get through this race because then you'll get two weekends off and a nice breather. And for me, we take time off with the family and go camping and stuff. I always look forward to the St. Louis race because I know right after that it's going to be a lot of fun times for the family for a couple of weeks.
It was great watching the Englishtown TV coverage (where I won) when I got home from last weekend's race and reading a lot of what happened during the weekend. I've said time and time and again if you're qualified for the Funny Car field for Sunday you have a shot at winning. And every one of those guys in the top 16 Sunday morning are legitimate contenders to win that day.
Everybody is so tough.
We didn't qualify well and some people thought that maybe we might have been in trouble. I don't care how we qualify. It is what it is, and we struggled to qualify, but we made it. I'm hoping that -- and I've talked with Kenny Bernstein about this -- there is some way of possibly changing the qualifying format down the road, where the Friday night run isn't everything (where conditions are cool and the best times are set), where maybe it just holds down the top four spots. Really, you don't see those conditions again the rest of the weekend, and race day surely is not like that. I think it makes it tough for a lot of teams.
I always know we're good and we're going to run good on Saturday afternoon and we're going to run good on Sunday. But Ace is very, very, very honest about going down the track. And especially Friday nights. He doesn't want to give up a run. And a lot of teams will take an extra chance of possibly not going down the track but trying to go for a pole, trying to run the best they can. Ace doesn't like to get outside the realm of where he feels comfortable. And, yeah, it hurts us at times because wherever you end up on Friday night, most likely you're going to be on Sunday. Very little ever changes on Saturday from Friday night.
Looking back at Englishtown, we didn't qualify that well, but I had no problems at all going to bed Saturday night wondering if we had a good race car. I knew we were going to be more than ready. Friday night is such an ego shot, but with the conditions so good it makes it difficult on a lot of other teams.
It's cool to hear from my competitors when I win. Even Sunday night leaving the track, I got a call from Del Worsham, Tommy Johnson, Gary Scelzi. And I do the same. When a lot of these other guys win, I'll send a message, like to Tommy Johnson or Del Worsham and anyone else who I am friends with out there that we race against. It's a big accomplishment, and even though we have to race each other, it just shows you what kind of people we have in the sport. If I'm listening on the radio, and I'm out early, and if someone else besides my teammates wins who I'm friends with, I'll send a congratulatory message. I haven't heard from John Force yet, but I know he'll call me.
We are now 106 points ahead of John Force, so wish us luck this weekend.
Ron Capps drives a Funny Car in the NHRA for Don Schumacher Racing. He is providing a diary to ESPN.com throughout the 2006 season.