NHRA Funny Car Champ Ron Capps 'Emotional' over New Partnership with Toyota

The season of change continues for two-time NHRA Funny Car champion Ron Capps.

Capps, the defending Funny Car, champion in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series, already has a win and a runner-up finish in his first five races as an owner/driver of first-year Ron Capps Motorsports after 17 years of racing for Don Schumacher Racing and a decade before that racing for Don Prudhomme.

On Thursday, Capps and Toyota announced that RCM will begin racing the Toyota GR Supra Funny Car at this weekend’s 4-Wide Nationals at zMax Dragway in Concord, N.C. Capps will join Alexis DeJoria and J.R. Todd in the Toyota Gazoo Racing North America NHRA stable.

Capps drove for Dodge when he was with Don Schumacher Racing. This year, he raced the first five events with RCM in an unbranded car.

"This partnership with Toyota, talks started early when we were talking about starting Ron Capps Motorsports," Capps told Autoweek. "One thing I learned from driving for Don 'The Snake' Prudhomme and Don Schumacher all those years is that you've got to have a great foundation. I've had that with (long-time sponsor) NAPA Auto Parts.

"I was looking for a partner, and not just a car to drive. I was looking for someone to invest in what we're doing. My gosh, I couldn't have asked for a better partner—Paul Doleshal, Andy Graves, Slugger Labbe and everyone over at Toyota—it's been such a fun process."

Capps, 56, said talks with Toyota started during the offseason and fondly remembers one of those discussions in particular with Doleshal, the Group Manager, Motorsports, Toyota Motor North America and Labbe, a former longtime NASCAR crew chief now working on the technical side for Toyota Racing Development.

"Really, one of he most emotional phone calls I had was when I got a call from Paul Doleshal and Slugger when we weren't sure this was going to be able to happen," Capps said. "They had to take care of their other Toyota families—J.R. Todd's team and Alexis' DeJoria's team.

"That phone call that they said they were going to try to do whatever they could to become our partner was one of the most emotional phone calls—knowing that we were going to have that foundation and partner in Toyota."

Doleshal said that Capps will fit in nicely as the newest member of the Toyota NHRA family.

“Ron Capps is a proven champion in NHRA competition and all around one of the truly entertaining and engaging personalities in the pit area,” said Doleshal. “The drivers that pilot not only our GR Supra Funny Cars, but all of our TGRNA vehicles in NHRA competition are not only talented behind the wheel, but also as ambassadors for our brand on and off the race track. And we couldn’t be happier to welcome Ron and his team to the family.”

Capps will be making his first run in his new GR Supra in the first qualifying run on Friday at Zmax Dragway in Charlotte.

"I've been asked if anybody has ever joined a manufacturer during a season like this," said Capps, who is third in the NHRA points standings. "What's it going to be like? I literally have not been able to sit in the car prior to Friday of the Circle K Four-Wide. I've talked to J.R. and Alexis, and they've been unbelievable as teammates already, just in the input into the car, how different it is with the vision.

"You have to remember the Funny Car, we get 3.8 seconds, 300-something mph. We don't have a lot of great visual to look around and see out out of. It happens to fast. The fact that J.R. and Alexis just continually talk about how the vision is better with the Supra, I can not wait."

In addition to DeJoria and Todd, Capps joins a growing TGRNA driver lineup that includes four-time Top Fuel champion Steve Torrence, three-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Antron Brown, 2020 NHRA Rookie of the Year Justin Ashley, 49-time race winner Doug Kalitta and 2013 Top Fuel champion Shawn Langdon.

"When we first started talking, I didn't even know about the GR Supra," Capps said. "I just wanted to be part of this great team and always a little bit intrigued about what they had going on."

Toyota drivers have won 138 Top Fuel and 44 Funny Car races along with six Top Fuel and three Funny Car championships.