PHOENIX — During the first round of Funny Car eliminations at the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park, Ron Capps suffered an explosion before the finish line.
His car crossed the center line and struck the left guardwall before coming to a stop.
Capps was alert and exited the car under his own power and was examined onsite by NHRA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Surface before being released.
“We saw (Austin) Prock in front of us go 3.93 and Guido (Dean Antonelli, Capps’ crew chief) set us up to go 3.92, 3.93 and, (I) hit the gas, didn’t see Blake (Alexander), was running great like yesterday in the final round (of qualifying) and just happened so fast,” Capps began.
“To me in the car, it just smoked the tires a little bit and then, ‘kaboom.’ Was much like Seattle last year in the sense that when the fire first happened, it was a convertible but there was a lot of fire in my face, and I was just trying to settle it down. Kind of bouncing around and then it wanted to go left. I was seeing John Force’s accident.”
Capps was referring to John Force’s violent crash last June at the NHRA Virginia Nationals where the 16-time Funny Car champion sustained multiple injuries, including a Traumatic Brain Injury.
Force has been recovering from the injury since.
.@RonCapps28 walked away from a massive explosion that sent him on a wild ride into the wall during RD 1 of the #ArizonaNats.
Eliminations are on @FS1 at 6:30p ET. @TeamRonCapps pic.twitter.com/aViQNrPQgd
— NHRA (@NHRA) March 23, 2025
“We were the car behind him last year, we had a great view of it unfortunately, but it was weird, I didn’t have much steering, (it) was a hard left,” Capps said. “I knew I was still traveling fast, so in my head, I knew it was not going to be good and I’m just picturing Force’s accident as I’m heading to the wall and just braced. I didn’t expect to be awake after hitting the wall and just braced the best you can.
“I hit the wall and then, I was still awake and there was still some fire, but I was like, ‘Wow!’ Knew it hit, but got on the brakes and the shoots were already out. First off, NHRA safety did its job. Just watched the replay and the shoots were out like they should be. They said it pushed the wall back and they needed to repair it before the next cars went, and that’s a tribute to PBRC chassis, first off, but Guido (pause), one of the reasons I love Guido is he is over the top, not just with the car, but is safety-conscious with the car.
“So in this sense, we just had me fitted for a new seat and they put new head pads in. I wanted to get out of the car and thank John Force because unfortunately, Eric Medlen started this when we lost Eric, but John’s life was spared with (the safety improvements since) Eric’s accident. And then you fast forward, John’s life was probably spared a second time because of a previous accident and I for sure walked away from mine because of Force’s.
“Thankfully, we and NHRA have learned from the bad stuff that has happened. I’m interested to find out the G-Forces and speed I hit at, but thankfully, everyone’s been on top of safety. We’ll figure it out. Last year, we broke the brand-new car when it crashed and we went to the backup which almost won the race and a previous championship but now, we have a backup car that’s just as good as the first. Thankful we have such great partners with NAPA and Toyota and the guys will be ready for Pomona.”
Eliminations are ongoing at Firebird Motorsports Park.
