In Funny Car eliminator for the NHRA Arizona Nationals, Paul Lee became the 96th different Funny Car winner in NHRA history with his first career victory, defeating reigning world champion Austin Prock with a run of 4.030 at 313.22 in his McLeod/FTI Performance Dodge Charger SRT.

It was a remarkable performance from Lee, who defeated a slew of standouts to earn his first career win in the category.

After qualifying fifth, Lee took down Gainesville winner Chad Green, Blake Alexander and Bob Tasca, running an impressive 3.964 at 319.82 to reach the final round. Prock drove into smoke, while Lee made a clean run en route to the victory. It led to a memorable celebration, as Lee continues to make massive strides in the loaded Funny Car ranks.

“Twenty-one years ago was the last time I won a Wally in Englishtown, N.J., at my home track in Top Alcohol Funny Car and I’ve dreaming of someday standing here with a nitro Funny Car Wally,” Lee said. “I love driving a nitro Funny Cars. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do since I was 13 years old. A lot of people don’t realize this is a lifetime of work, it’s not just overnight.”

“It’s a special day. We lost Eric Medlin on this day [in 2007], and we have a team prayer every Sunday, and John [Medlen, Eric’s father] leads us and today, he asked for Eric to watch out for us. You know something, our whole pit was calm all day, we just had a feeling that Eric was watching over us. I know it’s a funny feeling. It was just we were calm all day. Nobody was excited. Everybody did their job. It was a long time coming, but it’s well worth it.”

Prock advanced to the final round for the first time this season and the 21st in his career after defeating Buddy Hull, Matt Hagan and John Force Racing teammate Jack Beckman

During Saturday’s event schedule — it was Ron Capps who claimed the first Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win of the year defeating Matt Hagan in the final round of the bonus race as part of the 40th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals.
  
In front of a capacity crowd, Capps went 3.989-seconds at 318.24 mph in his NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra, driving past Hagan in the bonus race in a matchup of multi-time world champions. It was a welcome victory for Capps, who went all of 2024 without winning a national event.

Subsequently on Sunday however – Capps overall event fortunes — took on a mean streak.

In a first round paring during a match versus Blake Alexander, Capps (who had qualified #4) experienced a high-speed and violent explosion which sent him into the retaining wall – effectively destroying the NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra Funny Car.

Capps had moved first off the starting line and held the lead to the eighth-mile mark, but an explosive fireball erupted shortly thereafter, sending his car across the track and into the left-side retaining wall just before the quarter-mile mark. With most of the body blown off the chassis, Capps brought the car to a stop and emerged from the wreckage unscathed — in a testament to the safety advancements in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series nitro ranks.

It was a dramatic first-round exit for Capps who later said:

“It just happened so fast. In the car, I feel like it just smoked the tires a little bit, and then ‘kaboom.’ All of a sudden it was a convertible, but there was a lot of fire in my face, and I was just trying to get it to settle down. I was kind of bouncing around, and then it wanted to go left. I didn’t have much steering, and it was going hard left and I knew I was still traveling pretty fast. In my head, I’m like, ‘This is not gonna be good,’ so I just braced, honestly, and I didn’t expect to be awake after it hit the wall. It hit the wall, and I was still awake and there was still some fire. I got on the brakes and got it to stop. The ‘chutes were already out, so NHRA safety did its job.”

Capps continued to praise a number of individuals and groups that have focused on improving the safety aspect of the 11,000-horsepower Funny Cars, including Antonelli, chassis builders Precision Built Race Cars (PBRC), Simpson Safety, and the engineers at John Force Racing. Over the 18 years since JFR driver Eric Medlen was killed in a testing accident, Force and his team have continually studied and made improvements to the driver’s compartment in Funny Cars, especially in the head padding area. Following Force’s devastating crash in Virginia last year, Capps and Antonelli had installed brand-new, upgraded head padding between the Gainesville and Phoenix races.

“I wanted to get out of the car and find John Force right away and just thank him,” Capps said, “because unfortunately, Eric Medlen started this with the head padding when we lost Eric, but then with John’s accident (at Dallas in 2007), his life was spared because of Eric Medlen’s, and then you fast forward, John’s life was probably spared the second time (in Richmond in 2024) because of his previous accident, and I for sure walked away from mine because of Force’s accident. So, thankfully we and NHRA have learned from all the bad stuff that’s happened and made the safety improvements.”

With just a few days left before the next stop on the NHRA Mission Foods Series tour (at Pomona CA), the Ron Capps Motorsports plan to work diligently to prepare his teams backup car.

NHRA Arizona Nationals – Funny Car Class Summary

WIN: Paul Lee – 4.032 secs 313.22 mph (Career win #1)
R/UP: Austin Prock – 4.507 secs 240.68 mph
Low ET: Bob Tasca III – 3.863 secs
Top MPH: Bob Tasca III – 333.82 mph
Bump: 4.656
Entries – 20 cars

Posted with files by NHRA Communications & ABM Communications
Photos Courtesy of NHRA