SEATTLE — Funny Car driver Ron Capps was uninjured after a crash Sunday during the first round of eliminations at the NHRA Northwest Nationals.
Capps’ car suffered an engine explosion, struck the right wall, crossed the center line and hit the left wall before his car came to a stop. According to an NHRA release, Capps was awake and alert after the crash and he exited the car under his own power.
Capps was later checked and released by the NHRA Medical Team.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Thank God we got all of the new safety stuff in there because four, five, six years ago that probably would have been – who knows – especially the head padding,” Capps said. “John Force, I know you are at home watching – what John and his team have done have surely made that less on my body. We were up staging the car and there were some drops, and I was like ‘oh, boy.’ But I thought it wasn’t bad enough that we couldn’t run, and I know that Guido (Dean Antonelli, crew chief) was trying to throw down pretty good.
“It shook loose. I was trying to pedal it and couldn’t get it going. I heard Gary (Densham) over there and I knew he was a little bit in trouble, but then he started going again. I was looking out of my window and just trying to get it going again – nothing crazy, and as I rolled in, that last pedal – I’ve been there before. The explosion, the concussion and then the body is going. When I’m seeing these trees around the track, it is not a good thing in a Funny Car and then I was just hanging on.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had an accident like that – hitting walls. It is something I don’t think I’ve ever done in my career that bad. I was just hanging on trying not to hit hard – and then after I hit the right wall, I knew it was going to go left. I was going to go head on into the other wall, so I was able to brace for it.”
Capps plans to return next weekend in Sonoma (Calif.).