Ron Capps Motorsports Post-Race Recap: St. Louis

NAPA AUTO PARTS NHRA Midwest Nationals
Event 17 of 20
Countdown Event 3 of 6
World Wide Technology Raceway
Madison, Ill.
Oct. 2 – 4, 2026

Ron Capps Battles Through Difficult Midwest Nationals Weekend in St. Louis

By: Ron Capps Motorsports (Photos Courtesy Ron Capps Motorsports)

MADISON, Ill. (Oct. 4, 2026) – Ron Capps and the NAPA Auto Care Funny Car team battled through a challenging weekend at the NAPA AUTO PARTS NHRA Midwest Nationals, overcoming three consecutive traction-plagued qualifying attempts to make the field before falling to Austin Prock in the opening round of eliminations Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway. Capps leaves St. Louis sixth in the Countdown to the Championship standings with three races remaining in the six-race playoff.

Capps arrived at the third of six Countdown to the Championship events looking to capitalize at a track where he has enjoyed considerable success throughout his career. The four-time St. Louis champion is the winningest Funny Car driver in facility history, having earned his first Funny Car victory at the inaugural event in 1997 while driving for Don “The Snake” Prudhomme.

Prior to the start of qualifying, Capps was recognized on the starting line as one of “Gateway’s Greatest,” honoring his long history of success at the St. Louis-area facility.

Once qualifying began, Capps and crew chief Dean “Guido” Antonelli faced an immediate challenge. The NAPA Auto Care Funny Car lost traction early in Friday’s opening session, forcing Capps to lift. Tire smoke followed again in the second qualifying session, leaving the three-time world champion outside the 16-car field going into Saturday. The struggles continued in the third session, when Capps smoked the tires immediately after the launch and shut the car off. With one qualifying opportunity remaining, Capps sat No. 18 and faced the pressure of needing a clean run to earn his place in Sunday’s field. In the final qualifying session, Capps kept the car hooked up and charged straight down the groove to a 3.994-second pass at 327.35 mph. The run moved him safely into the field, ultimately placing him No. 13 and setting up a first-round meeting with Prock.

The NAPA Auto Care team stepped up considerably in eliminations. Capps left the starting line with a .063-second reaction time and powered to his quickest run of the weekend, a 3.937-second pass at 322.11 mph. Prock, however, posted a 3.872-second effort to advance.

“This St. Louis event always has a say in the championship, and it’s been such a great track for me personally and our team in the past,” Capps said. “With NAPA Auto Parts being a sponsor and McKay NAPA Auto Parts being such a big part of this area, we really felt great coming in here, especially coming off the last two races. We had one of those weekends where we just didn’t qualify well, and the drama of getting into the field on the last run showed me the moxie that our team has continued to have. Having the pressure of the championship and all that was huge and the guys never wavered. That just reminded me how good our team is. Losing first round was a punch in the gut. We just need to go win the next three races.”

The weekend also marked another prominent event for Capps’ longtime partner NAPA Auto Parts, which served as title sponsor of the NHRA Midwest Nationals. Capps’ NAPA Auto Care Funny Car carried additional OE TurboPower branding throughout the weekend as part of a NAPA supplier partnership.

Through 17 races this season, Capps has three victories, one runner-up finish and four No. 1 qualifying positions. The next stop in the Countdown is the Stampede of Speed featuring the NHRA Texas FallNationals, Oct. 16-18, at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas.

Qualified: No. 13 (3.994 E.T. at 327.35 MPH)

Elimination Round Results:
E1: 3.937 E.T. at 322.11 MPH defeated by Austin Prock 3.872 E.T. at 334.90 MPH

NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Funny Car Point Standings (Unofficial):

1	Matt Hagan	2402
2	Jordan Vandergriff	2330
3	Austin Prock	2296
4	Jack Beckman	2279
5	J.R. Todd	2270
6	Ron Capps	2240
7	Alexis DeJoria	2215
8	Dan Wilkerson	2174
9	Chad Green	2123
10	Spencer Hyde	2117
11	Dave Richards	2086
12	Cruz Pedregon	2082

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Maddi Gordon Achieves New Career Best At NAPA AUTO PARTS Midwest Nationals

NHRA Rookie of the Year contender Maddi Gordon delivered an impressive qualifying performance at the NAPA AUTO PARTS NHRA Midwest Nationals, posting a new personal-best mile-per-hour while temporarily resetting the World Wide Technology Raceway speed record when she broke the 340 mph barrier for the second time in her burgeoning career. Although she made an uncharacteristically early exit in eliminations on Sunday morning, the talented young Top Fuel pilot is maintaining her signature positivity and enthusiasm.

For the first and only time this season, Gordon’s Top Fuel dragster carried a special livery, matching that of her team owner Ron Capps’ NAPA Auto Care Funny Car, to commemorate NAPA’s title sponsorship of the event. 

Gordon started qualifying on Friday with a powerful pass behind the wheel of her NAPA Auto Care dragster, crossing the stripe in 3.757 seconds at 332.67 mph. She lit up the sky on Friday evening as she piloted her 12,000-horsepower machine to an even better pass of 3.708 at 335.90.

Before qualifying resumed on Saturday morning, multi-time NASCAR winner and former FOX NASCAR reporter Kenny Wallace climbed into Gordon’s Top Fuel dragster to go through a nitro warm-up for the first time. Wallace referred to the experience as one of the coolest things he’s ever done. 

On Saturday, in front of a sellout crowd at World Wide Technology Raceway, Gordon’s crew chiefs Rob Flynn and Troy Fasching tuned the NAPA Auto Care dragster to another stunning run of 3.738 at 340.65, exceeding the track speed record previously held by Brittany Force as well as Gordon’s previous personal best of 340.22 mph. The final qualifying session went up in smoke for Gordon, but her Friday evening pass solidly placed her on the top half of the ladder to start race day from the No. 3 position.

In eliminations on Sunday, Gordon faced No. 14 qualifier Will Smith in the first round. 91.51% of Drag Racing Bracket Bonanza players picked Gordon to win over Smith in the first round. The pair left within five-thousandths of a second of each other, but Gordon ran into tire smoke and Smith got the early round win.

“We are definitely pretty bummed, leaving St. Louis at the end of three races in a row,” said Gordon. “This is such an important race because it’s our sponsor’s race and the only time that we will have a NAPA scheme on the race car. Every time we get to the line, I believe we have a shot to win, no matter who we’re racing. I felt like we definitely had a shot there. The way we were set up, we felt comfortable, but we just didn’t make it. Our car showed some great potential on the back half. We have great speed. We’ve just got to figure out how to make power earlier in the run. We have an amazing team. I know Rob and Troy are going to spend the next two weeks digesting every run and making sure we are as ready as we can be for Dallas.

“We had a lot of great folks out here with guests from NAPA, Carlyle Tools, TERREPOWER, and Monster Energy. We’ve had big lines at all of our autograph signings. The car looked great; I got to coach Kenny Wallace through a Top Fuel warm-up, and we qualified really well. So there are some positives we can take from this race. As a driver, I will look at the positives and negatives so I can learn from this. And I know our team will do the exact same. We will be ready as we ever have been for Dallas.”

Gordon will continue her Rookie of the Year campaign when the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series returns to action at the Texas NHRA FallNationals, Oct. 16-18, at Texas Motorplex, just outside of Dallas. The event marks the fourth of six races in the Countdown to the Championship.

Qualified: No. 3 (3.708 E.T. at 335.90 MPH)

Elimination Round Results:
E1: 4.847 E.T. at 151.51 MPH defeated by Will Smith 3.722 E.T. at 333.00 MPH

NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Fuel Point Standings (Unofficial):

1	Shawn Langdon	2459
2	Doug Kalitta	2343
3	Tony Stewart	2234
4	Leah Pruett	2224
5	Will Smith	2209
6	Antron Brown	2207
7	Billy Torrence	2166
8	Maddi Gordon	2165
9	Josh Hart	2164
10	Justin Ashley	2154
11	Clay Millican	2119
12	Tony Schumacher	2077