An 'awesome' time at Eldora
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| Capps |
It was pretty evident how much of a surprise it was to see the 336 mph that Tony Schumacher put up in Columbus in the U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster at a track that by far nobody thought would have ever held a mph record, let alone seeing the ETs we saw come that Sunday.
National Trail Raceway outside of Columbus had been re-paved, the weather was cool after the rain and the results were outstanding. You have to hand it to places like Chicago that build tracks the right way at the start. It's raised the bar for every other track that we go to, and we saw that at Columbus.
And the fans deserve good side-by-side racing. They deserve to see records broken in the areas we go to and put on a show for them. In Chicago, you always reach down and pull your belts a little bit tighter when you get ready to go down the track, because you pretty much are going to be in for probably the quickest ride you've ever taken.
It's Disneyland for the crew chiefs. They're able to really get after everything and there are not a lot of tracks where we can do that.
On my way to Chicago on Wednesday I got to go and live another lifelong dream. I thank God that my team owner, Don Schumacher, is a racer from the past, because he understands how bad I like to race, whether it's in the Funny Car or in any kind of race car. I've been really blessed that he's given me the OK to do a lot of different kinds of racing.
So I raced in the Nextel Prelude to a Dream, a special promotional event held on the half-mile clay oval at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, which Tony Stewart owns. To be able to go to Eldora and race dirt Late Models with Stewart and a long list of Nextel Cup drivers and to race probably on the most prestigious dirt track in the world with those guys was just a dream come true.
The guys at my sponsor, Brut and Schumacher, could easily have said no we don't want you to go, you could get hurt, but they understand that it's something that any race driver wants to do, and thank God they said yes.
My goal was to do well. I knew that honestly I would be a big-time underdog, so to finish as well as I did in the Main, in ninth, made it a successful night. To have finished in any position would have been a successful night, because I don't think I was expected to do that well.
It's a pretty awesome dirt track. I raced against some of the best stock car drivers and dirt drivers as well. Drivers like Stewart and Kenny Schrader, who races on a dirt track in between Cup races, as well as Dave Blaney, who is a sprint-car champion, and the rest of the guys who are considered the best drivers in the world in stock cars, such as Bill Elliott, Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, Mike Wallace, Kenny Wallace and Kyle Petty among them.
I was definitely a fish out of water, but I'm competitive, I love to drive, and every chance I get to go drive something else it helps me in a Funny Car. I know when it comes time to pedal the Funny Car or have a feeling for the car or to be able to communicate with my crew chief Ace after a run driving other stuff has really helped my senses as far as being able to feel the car better.
To be able to drive a midget, which I did in the Chili Bowl in '03 and 04, and stay in shape by racing go-karts and doing stuff like that definitely has helped me.
Just to be invited to race at Eldora shows these guys respect me enough and they believe that I'm not going to go out there and do something stupid, and that's important. And luckily I didn't do anything stupid.
The event was awesome. The Eldora track was everything I heard it was as a kid growing up. I was in awe when I saw the place, and it was great getting together with guys like Labonte, Elliott, Petty and especially Stewart, who put on the show. This event raised more than $50,000 for the Victory Junction Gang that Kyle built.
It was a great night, I finished in the top 10, and l finished in front of guys like Harvick, Petty and Kenseth. I didn't crash, that was the main deal. To just go there and have fun and not get in trouble was outstanding. Tony's already talking about having another one next year, the second annual. I think it's gong to be a lot of fun.
Now that the fun time is over, it's time to focus on Route 66 Raceway and qualifying on Friday night.
Ron Capps drives a Funny Car in the NHRA for Don Schumacher Racing. He is providing a diary to ESPN.com throughout the 2005 season.
