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Even before he decided to take the next step into team ownership in 2022, Ron Capps was already a big star in the NHRA Drag Racing world and a symbol of what can happen when you combine the right mix of upbringing, tradition, hard work, natural talent, charisma, and good fortune.

Capps’ world has revolved around drag racing from an early age, when his parents, John and Betty, would take him and his brother Jon to tracks throughout their Central Californian stomping grounds. He learned how to work hard and forge relationships, and before long was crewing for West Coast stars like Alan and Blaine Johnson, Jim Rizzoli, and Darryl Hitchman. His eagerness to learn was not lost on many, a desire matched only by his desire to one day be a driver himself. 

He got that chance in John Mitchell’s A/Fuel Dragster in 1994, which led to an invitation to drive Roger Primm’s Top Fueler. Capps wasted no time proving his talent behind the wheel, winning at the 1995 Seattle event, which caught the eye of legendary racer and team owner Don Prudhomme, who was looking to add a Funny Car to his stable. Capps had never driven a Funny Car, but that didn’t stop either of them.

“As a kid, you dream so big at times that it’s like dreaming of being an astronaut; you just don’t think it’s ever going to happen. I dreamed about driving ‘Wild Willie’ Borsch’s Fuel Altered or Don Prudhomme’s Funny Car. And then you fast forward, I’m working on my dad’s car and then a traveling crewman traveling and just dreaming someday I’d get a chance to make a run, and things just seemed to happen so fast. A lot of the time it was right place, right time, but it all goes back to my dad. My brother and I raced go-karts with my dad, and we never could afford the best equipment, but we always left with trophies because of hard work. We learned that from our dad growing up, and I learned it by crewing and hanging out with people like the Rizzolis, the Johnsons, Pat Austin and his family, Gary Scelzi, and Jay Payne, and that was already a dream come true, so to drove for ‘Snake’ was beyond my wildest dreams.”

After seven years and a dozen Funny Car wins with Prudhomme, Capps joined Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) in 2005 and amassed more than 50 wins and his first championship in 2016 and a second in 2021. As the DSR empire started to wind down, Capps made the decision to strike out on his own and got immediate support from his longtime partner NAPA, whose brand has been on the flanks of his cars since 2005.

“I knew I had to go out on my own and didn’t know which sponsors would go with me, and when the NAPA people told me they wanted to be a part of whatever I was doing, I just started crying on the phone,” he recalled. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Capps immediately rewarded that faith by winning the prestigious NHRA U.S. Nationals for the first and a third world championship in his first year as team owner. After so many years of falling just short of winning NHRA’s biggest race, he won it the next year, too, in a throwback Hot Wheels-branded car saluting Prudhomme for not only giving him his biggest break but also for “the Snake’s” continuing support and mentorship. 

With the blessing of his partners at NAPA, the bright yellow car did not carry huge NAPA branding, but Capps made sure they got due credit, as he does after every win, often visiting NAPA Auto Parts and Auto Care stores across the country, carrying with him his latest Wally. Katherine Wooten, director of partnership strategy and activation at NAPA Auto Parts and one of our other Movers and Shakers this year, called Capps NAPA’s “employee of the year, every year.” That’s high praise and testament to his desire to continue to give back to those who have helped him along the way.

That kind of payback is emblematic of Capps’ nature and plays a big hand in Capps’ next chapter as he has announced his team’s expansion to a second car, a Top Fueler, with rising star Maddi Gordon at the controls in 2026, a callback to the big breaks he was given and to pay it forward to another multigenerational up-and-comer with mechanical skills and a desire to drive.

“My mom drove, and she taught me how to pack a parachute on my dad’s car, and she helped my dad build engines, so when I saw Maddi and her family doing that, her working on the car and wanting to drive, I began a relationship with the Gordon family, who I have known for years.

“I wanted to do something that was the way I was picked to drive, and that was not because of any money,” he continued. “I saw a talent. I loved her enthusiasm. I loved the way that the family all clicked together. And I loved her mom, Christina, being there, like my mom. I loved her mechanical side of things, and just how much fun she has, because it reminded me of myself, working on a dream, and, like me, she never dreamed anything past being an Alcohol Funny Car driver.”

From humble young racer to hired gun to world champion to the corporate face of a huge sponsor, Capps has been a champion of the NHRA, and his story speaks volumes about the nature of the sport and what’s possible from even the humblest beginnings.