‘One thing I’ve learned is that you can’t have a world championship car with 10th-place people.’
It’s so neat to walk into the pit area, and it has been every race this year.
As a new team owner, there’s a lot of things going on, a lot of clutter, a lot of things away from the race track that I’m getting used to on the business side. It is so nice to walk into the pit area and be around these kids on our crew that we won the World Championship together with last year.
Our last race weekend at Gainesville, Florida, one of our crew members, Travis Wirth and his wife Jill, had a baby due any day. We were ready to send Travis home for the weekend. It was their first child and we didn’t want him to miss it. He stayed with us, and they ended up having the baby, named Brantley, two days after the race, which was great.
Ron Capps is third in the NHRA Funny Car standings aftter three events.
NHRA/National Dragster
Yes, Ron Capps Motorsports is already feeling much more like a family. I sort of get this grandpa feeling because of all these kids working on the team. I still don’t feel like a team owner a lot of the time when I’m at the race track—at least until I stop for a second and look around, or when somebody comes up to me and says something to me.
I still try and approach every day on a race weekend the same. I get my suit on, make the run, get my suit off, get the parachute packed—all the same chores I’ve done in the past. That hasn’t changed, which really helps me kind of focus and not worry about the business side.
But I do feel like a grandpa of sorts. It’s weird when Travis had his baby I felt so proud that he had a baby and they’re part of this team. There’s these moments when you’re doing all these business transactions, and you look at the bank account, and you look at what money that comes out for payroll, and insurance every paycheck, and you forget that you’re on the other side of this now.
I have these moments where I get this eerie responsibility feeling. There’s so much you feel responsible for, a lot of lives you feel like you’re responsible for. Before the season started, I was working with a former teammate and now another new owner/driver, Antron Brown, on our employees and health insurance. We really wanted to take pride and make sure we were taking care these families. It’s a little weird to have these moments.
I’ve been lucky with Guido Antonelli, my crew chief. He’s been unbelievable. He’s helped on the team side of it. He’s helped me feel like I was in the same boat I was in last year—just a driver. We still do everything the the same on race weekends as we did last year. He handles all the employees.
“There’s so much you feel responsible for, a lot of lives you feel like you’re responsible for.”
We’re fortunate in that we’re the only professional nitro team in the pit area that had 100% of our employees come back from last year. Every other team had at least one turnover, if not more. And, that’s pretty cool considering we’re a brand new team, brand new team owner. There’s a lot of balls that were up in the air, and people were wondering, ‘can he do it?’
So, for everybody to stay together and come back, it’s pretty impressive and I love that they did. It’s a cool feather in the cap, for sure.
I drove for the Don “Snake” Prudhomme for almost a decade, then Don Schumacher for 17 years. One thing I learned over those years—you can’t have a world championship car with 10th-place people. I feel like we’ve got those great people.
You look at other successful owners in racing, like Roger Penske, Rick Hendrick. There’s a reason they’re as good as they are.
It’s about putting people in the right place, but then about letting them do their jobs.
Keyword: NHRA's Ron Capps Motorsports Is a Family, and I'm the .... Grandpa?