Ron Capps Motorsports Post-Race Recap: Chicago

Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals presented by PEAK
Event 6 of 20
Route 66 Raceway
Joliet, Ill.
May 15 – 17, 2026

Strong Qualifying Effort, Quarterfinal Finish Moves Ron Capps
Back to the Top of the Standings at NHRA Route 66 Nationals Outing

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

JOLIET, Ill. (May 17, 2026) – Ron Capps put his NAPA Auto Care Funny Car in position for a successful Sunday run at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals, qualifying No. 2 and earning bonus points, before bowing out in a tire-smoking quarterfinal match with Chad Green at Route 66 Raceway outside Chicago. Capps, a two-time winner six races into the 2026 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season, moved back into the points lead, which he shares with J.R. Todd.

Capps, who has raced at Route 66 Raceway since the inaugural event in 1998, wrapped up day one as the provisional No. 2 qualifier on Friday thanks to his 3.916-second pass at 330.31 mph in the second session. He earned two championship bonus points with that effort, as it was the second-quickest pass of the session. Capps drove into tire smoke early in the third qualifying session on Saturday, but he bounced back in the final session with a 3.952 E.T. at 326.79 mph, the third-quickest pass of the round, to pick up another bonus point and maintain the No. 2 position going into race day. Maddi Gordon, driver of Ron Capps Motorsports’ Carlyle Tools Top Fuel dragster, also qualified second.

Capps met up with Chicagoland’s own Bobby Bode in the opening round of eliminations on Sunday. Capps lost power as he approached the finish line, but his 3.978 E.T. at 301.47 mph was still more than enough to defeat Bode’s 4.659-second effort. A wild pedalfest followed in the second round against Chad Green. Capps moved first before both drivers went into tire smoke almost immediately. Capps worked the throttle to regain traction, but it was Green who recovered quicker and got the round win.

“We had a great weekend with both cars – our car and Maddi’s Carlyle Tools dragster – qualified No. 2, and we felt great going into Sunday,” Capps said. “The weather wasn’t like everybody thought it would be today. We had heat come in and the track got trickier. The second round of Funny Car was just bizarre. It was a matter of who could just get down the track. It was a learning curve for us on Sunday, but overall, another great weekend for Ron Capps Motorsports.”

Though Capps’ race day didn’t last as long as he would’ve liked, he found highlights in the off-track aspects of the weekend.

“This track is still considered one of the coolest places, and I remember the first year we came here. I still get that feeling when we come here,” Capps said. “I’ve always loved this track because it’s another home facility of sorts with a lot of the family members of our crew members coming up from Indy. That’s very important to me. We were also able to host Dorman Products, a great partner with NAPA Auto Parts. We had a fun time with a lot of their customers and a lot of first-timers, which is always great when you can bring somebody out and introduce them to NHRA Drag Racing.”

Capps and the NAPA Auto Care Funny Car team will now shift their focus to becoming the first Funny Car winners at the inaugural NHRA Potomac Nationals, May 29-31, at Maryland International Raceway in Mechanicsville, Maryland. Prior, they will compete at the IHRA Triple Crown in Reading, Pa., over Memorial Day weekend, kicking off a grueling schedule of five consecutive race weekends.

Qualified: No. 2 (3.916 E.T. at 330.31 MPH)

Elimination Round Results:
E1: 3.978 E.T. at 301.47 MPH defeated Bobby Bode 4.659 E.T. at 188.62 MPH
E2: 7.351 E.T. at 120.40 MPH defeated by Chad Green 6.102 E.T. at 182.58 MPH

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

1	Ron Capps	468
1	J.R. Todd	468
3	Matt Hagan	459
4	Chad Green	453
5	Jordan Vandergriff	416
6	Alexis DeJoria	389
7	Spencer Hyde	312
8	Jack Beckman	311
9	Dan Wilkerson	233
10	Dave Richards	222

Maddi Gordon Records Strong Qualifying Performance, Quarterfinal Finish in Chicago

“Maddi Mania” continues to ripple across the country as the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series gets into the thick of its 2026 competition schedule. Top Fuel rookie Maddi Gordon piloted the Carlyle Tools dragster to an impressive qualifying performance, qualifying No. 2 at the Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals presented by PEAK. The energetic young phenom went on to reach a quarterfinal finish (with the first Top Fuel engine that she helped to build) on race day at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill.

Gordon launched to the top of the timing sheets as qualifying got underway on Friday afternoon. She made the best pass of the session, covering the track in 3.779 seconds at 335.32 mph and securing three valuable bonus points. In the second heat of the day, several Top Fuel competitors knocked Gordon down a few spots and by the time she made her burnout, she was sitting in seventh place. The Carlyle Tools team, led by crew chiefs Rob Flynn and Troy Fasching, answered with a blistering lap of 3.738 at 334.90, the second-fastest pass of the session and another standout performance for the rookie driver.

“Qualifying on Friday was a super good day,” said Gordon. “We were the lowest E.T. of the first session and the second lowest of Q2, which gave us five bonus points, which is great.”

While Saturday started with tire smoke in Q3, Gordon’s reaction time of .037 seconds was her best yet. The NHRA Rookie of the Year candidate made another solid pass in the final qualifying opportunity of the event, running a 3.783 at 332.92. In the process, the team experienced its first parts issue, leading to them needing to swap engines before competition began Sunday morning.

“On Saturday, we struggled a little bit,” recalled Gordon. “We actually had our first big parts failure, so we had to change engines. That was a bummer. But the guys got to learn. And I got to learn what it feels like to kick the rods out. The engine we used today for eliminations was the engine that I helped build. Dustin (Minnick) took time with me in Phoenix and taught me how to help him build the short block. So, we nicknamed it ‘The Lime’ because we love lime over here repping Carlyle Tools. We were hoping ‘The Lime’ was going to take us all the way, but it didn’t. It’s still really cool though that I got to run in Top Fuel with an engine that I helped to build.”

Gordon began race day from the No. 2 position, facing No. 15 qualifier Krista Baldwin in what was dubbed NHRA’s “Marquee Matchup.” It began as a solid side-by-side drag race. Gordon got the starting line advantage, but Baldwin edged ahead of her around the 330-foot mark. At the midpoint, Baldwin’s dragster began to lose traction while Gordon remained steady on the throttle to cross the finish line first with a 3.813-second pass at 329.58 mph.

Facing multi-time world champion Antron Brown in the quarterfinals, the duo left within five-thousandths of each other, putting on a great show for the fans as they powered down the track but at the stripe, it was Brown who turned on the win light to advance.

“I felt pretty solid coming into Sunday,” said Gordon, who departs Joliet ranked sixth in the Top Fuel standings. “We had a good car. It was really consistent. We just got beat in a good race. Obviously, we wanted to win this weekend and I thought we had a really good shot. I talked to Rob and Troy up in the lounge and something that I’m really grateful for is that I go up to the line every single time and I don’t have to stress. I’m not stressing about whether the car is going to get down the track, or if it’s going to blow up or put holes out. I can go up there and just have confidence in what our guys have done so I can focus on my job. And that’s something I think has really shortened my learning curve in a way because I can just focus on me, not wondering what the car’s going to do.”

The Carlyle Tools Top Fuel team, along with Capps and the NAPA Auto Care Funny Car team, will be competing for the next four weekends straight, hitting the IHRA Triple Crown Race at Maple Grove Raceway over Memorial Day Weekend and returning to NHRA competition when the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series rolls into Maryland for the NHRA Potomac Nationals, May 29-31 at Maryland International Raceway in Mechanicsville, Maryland.

Qualified: No. 2 (3.738 E.T. at 334.90 MPH)

Elimination Round Results:
E1: 3.813 E.T. at 329.58 MPH defeated Krista Baldwin 4.347 E.T. at 192.96 MPH
E2: 3.804 E.T. at 333.82 MPH defeated by Antron Brown 3.774 E.T. at 332.18 MPH

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

1	Shawn Langdon	594
2	Doug Kalitta	540
3	Leah Pruett	429
4	Tony Stewart	388
5	Josh Hart	376
6	Maddi Gordon	358
7	Antron Brown	313
8	Justin Ashley	311
9	Billy Torrence	282
10	Clay Millican	252