Why NHRA Funny Car Greats Ron Capps, Robert Hight Is Series' Best Rivalry

• Revenge-seeking rival Robert Hight and Matt Hagan are, like Capps, gunning for a fourth NHRA Funny Car championship.

• Hight driven by reclaiming “the one that got away" in 2022.

• Capps and Hight are the second and third winningest drivers in NHRA Funny Car history.

• Another Funny Car rivalry brewing as Gatornationals gets opens season in Florida.

Ron Capps saw it and heard it.

He tuned into the offseason interviews that featured his NHRA Funny Car rival and fellow three-time champion Robert Hight. Capps saw that stubbornly set jaw and heard that tenacious tone of voice that signaled Hight means business when the Camping World Drag Racing Series opens this weekend at Gainesville, Fla.

Capps knows Hight is coming after him. But he said he’s tired of the John Force Racing driver’s complaints about the Countdown to the Championship structure.

Hight’s 2022 dream season gave him eight victories in 12 final rounds, 58 victories in 72 elimination rounds, and the lead in the standings for virtually all season. But in the final weekend of the season, the final day of the season, the second round of the Finals at Pomona Calif., it turned into a nightmare. Hight lost to Bob Tasca III, and Capps advanced to the final round to claim the championship by three points.

“It was a tough one to get over,” Hight said. “Since 1996, when John Force won 13 of 18 races, I think this is the best Funny Car season anybody has ever had. I’m not sure you can top that. After a year like last year and how it ended, we definitely have something to prove. Can’t wait to get back in [the car]. I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”

And according to Capps, he has been talking about it a lot—too much, actually.

“Well, let me tell you,” Capps said on a recent WFO Radio podcast, “who’s the person who’s lost the most championships on the last day of the season . . . by less than a handful of points?” The answer is himself: “I guarantee you. But have you ever heard me in all these years, after losing by five points or four points or three points to (Jack) Beckman or (Gary) Scelzi or Force, complain about the Countdown? Ever once? No. It is what it is. We all know it going in.

“To leave Pomona and wake up Monday morning after you’ve lost the championship, you think back about so many places during that season and that Countdown and if you would’ve just done something a little bit different and gained an extra four or five points, you would be a world champion. It’s that little a difference,” Capps said. “I’ve been listening to it all winter long, and I’m tired of it now. Now it’s starting to irritate me. I never complained about it. I laughed about it. So get over it! Get over it! It’s a championship. It’s a Countdown. We all know it.”