Ron Capps

• DOB: June 20, 1965

• Hometown: San Luis Obispo, Calif.

• Residence: Carlsbad, Calif.

• Wife: Shelley 

• Daughter: Taylor

• Son: Caden

• Height/weight: 5’7”, 160 lbs.

• Hobbies: Racing anything and everything, computer racing games, golf, attending Supercross, mixed martial arts events, and concerts (preferably rock)

• Brother Jon Capps of Las Vegas is a part-time Funny Car driver in the NHRA and a professional stunt driver

• Category: Funny Car

• Sponsor: NAPA Auto Parts

• Crew chief: Dean ‘Guido’ Antonelli

• Career best points finish: 1st (2016, 2021, 2022)

• Career event titles: 77 (Funny Car: 76; Top Fuel: 1)

• Career final rounds: 157 (Funny Car: 155; Top Fuel: 2)

• Career No. 1 qualifying positions: 37

• Career best elapsed time: 3.821 secs, (Pomona 2, 2024)

• Career best speed: 339.28 mph (Reading, 2019)

• Announced the formation of his team, Ron Capps Motorsports, in December 2021. RCM made its debut in 2022 and won the NHRA Mission Foods Series Funny Car championship in its rookie season

  • The 2022 series title was Capps’ third overall, and made him the first Funny Car driver in 20 years to win two consecutive championships

• In 2025, Capps revealed he was expanding to a two-car operation and had selected Maddi Gordon to drive his team’s first Top Fuel entry starting in 2026

• In January 2026, Capps was named to NHRA’s prestigious Top 75 Drivers list during the unveiling of the 25 additions joining the original Top 50 Drivers list from 2001

• 2026 marks Capps’ 32nd season competing professionally in the NHRA (first event: Phoenix, 1995)

• One of 19 drivers in NHRA history to have claimed a win in both the Top Fuel and Funny Car categories

  • First Top Fuel win: Seattle, 1995; First Funny Car win: St. Louis, 1997

• Second on all-time Funny Car win list (76 wins) and leads the class with most wins among active drivers; ranked seventh overall (77) among the four pro categories

• Ranks third on NHRA’s all-time round-win list (939 round wins as of the conclusion of the 2025 season)

• NHRA Road to the Future ‘Rookie of the Year’ award recipient, 1997 (Funny Car)

TENURE

Phoenix 1995 – 1996 Roger Primm Racing (Top Fuel)

1997 – 2004 Don Prudhomme’s Snake Racing

2005 – 2021 Don Schumacher Racing

2022 – present Ron Capps Motorsports

RON CAPPS

Driver of the NAPA Auto Care Funny Car

Capps, a native Californian, who lives near San Diego, was going to drag races before he was born.

“I was in my mom’s belly at my first race,” he says, adding his mom, Betty, met his dad, John, at a drag race.

Capps cannot remember when he was not going to drag races with his dad whether racing or watching, and often camping at the tracks. He was six years old when he attended ‘The Last Drag Race’ at California’s fabled Lions Drag Strip.

Capps learned to work on race cars with his dad and graduated to working on the crew of the world championship Top Alcohol Dragster team with the late Blaine Johnson and his brother, Alan Johnson, who remains a legendary Top Fuel crew chief.

“They took me under their wing and taught me a lot of things working on their Alcohol car,” Capps said. “That’s kind of how it was; I was a crew member with aspirations to drive. I finally got that shot.”

The ‘shot’ came in 1995 when he drove a Top Fuel dragster owned by Roger Primm. Although the Primm team competed in only a partial 14-race schedule, Capps recorded his first NHRA national event title when he won near Atlanta. That year he also added a runner-up finish and advanced to two quarterfinals. Capps drove Primm’s car six times in 1996, and his talent caught the eye of Hall of Famer Don ‘the Snake’ Prudhomme, who hired Capps to wheel a Funny Car full-time the following year. With Prudhomme, Capps won 13 event titles.

In 2005, Capps moved from Prudhomme’s team to Don Schumacher Racing (DSR). For Capps’ first three years with DSR, his Funny Car was sponsored by popular cologne Brut, and in 2008 was replaced by another iconic and nationally known corporation, NAPA Auto Parts. Capps raced for DSR from 2005 through 2021.

Shortly after clinching the 2021 Funny Car championship, Capps announced that after 17 years of competing as a hired driver for DSR that that he would be departing his longtime racing home to launch a new team, Ron Capps Motorsports (RCM).

RCM made its on-track debut in 2022 with Capps taking on the dual responsibilities of owner-driver. NAPA signed on to join Capps in his new endeavor, backing the popular Funny Car star for the 15th consecutive year. The NAPA team launched with a statement-making debut when they raced to a runner-up finish from the pole position at the 2022 season-opening NHRA Winternationals in February. While they came up just short of capturing the victory, Capps and his NAPA team didn’t have to wait long before finding the winner’s circle.

At the fourth race of the season, the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Las Vegas, Capps drove his machine to victory from the top of the Funny Car ladder to score his 69th professional triumph and win No. 1 for Ron Capps Motorsports. Among Capps’ other season highlights were his win in Indianapolis where he ran the table, claiming the No. 1 qualifier honors and winning the Pep Boys All-Star Call Out specialty race before powering to victory to win his first U.S. Nationals trophy in more than 25 attempts. Capps then went on to score a pair of Countdown victories in Charlotte and Ennis, Texas, before ultimately being crowned champion for the third time in his career at the 2022 season finale in Pomona, Calif.

In 2025, Capps announced he would be expanding to a two-car operation in 2026 and had selected third-generation drag racer Maddi Gordon to pilot his team’s first Top Fuel entry.

Drag racing is Capps’ passion and vocation, but he’ll race anything from Sprint cars on dirt to go-karts, and has made appearances in the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX Series) and a Thursday Night Thunder Heroes midget race. When he can’t get to a track, he satiates his need for speed with various virtual games.

Capps was a student-athlete at San Luis Obispo High School in Central California where he lettered three years in football as a slotback and wide receiver, and four years as a wrestler. He also competed in Freestyle and Greco Roman wrestling for a couple of years with USA Wrestling California. After high school, Capps began competing in racquetball and developed into a premier ‘Open’ division player.

He studied computer software for four years in college before opting to pursue a professional racing career.

Capps is comfortable in front of a camera whether in an interview after a race with a smudge of clutch dust on his face or when it’s covered with theatrical makeup. A longtime member of the Screen Actors Guild, which allows him to vote on the Oscars and preview movies, he has become one of the most recognized drag racers in the country through starring roles in television commercials for sponsor NAPA Auto Parts.

He had a cameo role in the 2013 release of “Snake & Mongoo$e: The Movie” feature film. The movie celebrates the Funny Car rivalry between Prudhomme and Tom ‘the Mongoose’ McEwen that made drag racing and Funny Cars part of American mainstream culture through the marketing of the drivers and sales of replica Mattel’s Hot Wheels toys.

Capps is a passionate rock aficionado and lists countless rock stars as friends. Several have been his guests at various NHRA events throughout his career. His rocker friends range from members of iconic groups like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Seether, Sammy Hagar, and Van Halen.

Capps ranks second in all-time Funny Car wins and is the class leader among active drivers. His 77 total wins, which includes his first NHRA title driving a Top Fuel dragster in 1995, rank seventh among NHRA’s professional categories. He is one of 19 drivers in NHRA history to have won in both of drag racing’s premier categories, and ranks third on NHRA’s all-time round-win list. Capps’ achievements helped him to be named to NHRA’s prestigious Top 75 Drivers list in early 2026 during the unveiling of the 25 new members joining the original Top 50 Drivers list from 2001.

When the 2026 season commences, the NAPA Auto Care Funny Car team will begin their quest for a second series title and Capps’ fourth overall. 2026 will mark Capps’ 32nd season on the NHRA tour competing as a professional driver, and 19th year representing the NAPA brand.