What does it feel like to go from a dead stop to nearly 340 miles per hour in less than four seconds? It feels like an 11,000-horsepower rocket ship trying to tear itself apart while pinning you to your seat with five times the force of gravity. In this episode of Empty the Bench: Small Market Edition, host Callan McClurg peels back the fiberglass bodywork to trace the volatile, high-stakes journey of Carlsbad’s own Ron Capps. Before he was an NHRA Funny Car titan and a three-time world champion, he was a multi-sport athlete from San Luis Obispo who clawed his way up from the absolute bottom of the pit lane.
We take a deep dive into the early days on the Central Coast, detailing how Capps brought a blue-collar work ethic to professional motorsports by starting out as an unheralded crew member before finding his true calling behind the wheel. The episode explores the immense psychological toll of finishing as the NHRA's national runner-up five separate times, highlighted by a devastating 2012 title loss by a microscopic margin of just two points. We then track his emotional breakthrough title in 2016 and the subsequent back-to-back championship dynasty he forged in 2021 and 2022 as a self-made team owner with Ron Capps Motorsports.
Finally, we break down the terrifying physics of his workspace, including his miraculous escape from a massive 300-mph engine explosion at the 2026 Arizona Nationals. From watching his father at the historic Lions Drag Strip to securing his upcoming March 2027 induction into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, Ron Capps is the living definition of what happens when you refuse to lift.
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