POMONA, Calif. — Ron Capps, who led the Funny Car standings for most of the season, conceded Saturday to champion Tony Pedregon.
“I know that he’s going to be a good champion for the rest of us Funny Car guys. He’ll carry our Funny Car division well as a champion,” Capps said. “He’s an interesting story. He went off on his own and formed his own team, so I have a lot of admiration for what he’s done, and that’s a great team.”
He said that for his soon-to-be called NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Stratus team, “The motivation in the off-season is to try to learn what we did wrong this year, and that was starting to test (after acquiring a strong lead). If we get a big point lead again, like we did last year, we’re going to stay after it. You just can’t lay off like we did and start testing. But, you live and learn.”

• After 10 seasons as one of the elite Pro Stock Motorcycle competitors on the NHRA circuit, 16-time NHRA winner Antron Brown will move to NHRA’s premier category, Top Fuel, to pilot the Matco Tools Iron Eagle Top Fuel for David Powers Motorsports.
A two-time NHRA championship runner-up (2001, ’06), Brown raced to 16 wins in 145 career Pro Stock Motorcycle events.

• After J.R. Todd ended Larry Dixon’s bid for a third Top Fuel championship in Sunday’s quarterfinals, Dixon said, “If they didn’t change the points format, we wouldn’t have had a shot at the championship. So I applaud NHRA for stepping up and doing this big move. We had a shot to win. It was there for the taking. We just didn’t get it done. Overall, we had a great season.” Said Todd, for whose team Dixon is the shop’s landlord in their Brownsburg, Ind., complex, “Larry’s my friend. I hate to rain on his parade, but we’re trying to salvage our season.”
   
• Torco Chevy Cobalt  driver Dave Connolly ended up third in Pro Stock points for the third time in his four-year Pro Stock career. However, his victory total marked his best. He also became the fourth driver in the class to win five straight races — joining Ronnie Sox, Bob Glidden and Greg Anderson. And he had eight wins in nine final rounds. Included were triumphs at his home track in Norwalk, Ohio, and the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis. He also was the No. 1 qualifier three times, including at this event.

• Pro Stock driver Justin Humphreys capped a strong rookie season Sunday with his runner-up finish to series champion Jeg Coughlin from the No. 15 starting spot in the 16-car field.. He beat three-time champion and points leader Greg Anderson, then Countdown to One driver Allen Johnson and former NBA star Tom Hammonds in the semifinals before losing in the final by only seven-thousandths of a second.
Humphreys’s performance turn-around began when Pro Stock icon Bob Glidden, a 10-time champion, joined the team along with veteran engine builder Richard Maskin.
“We struggled early and things kept getting better and better,” Humphreys said of his season in the RaceRedi Motorsports/Knoll Gas&Energy Pontiac GTO. “In the past six-to-eight races things have gotten really good. To come here and end on a good note gets us excited about ’08.”

• Morgan Lucas announced Friday that J.R. Todd will join his Lucas Oil-sponsored Top Fuel team in 2008. He’ll drive the dragster that Melanie Troxel will vacate as she moves to the Funny Car class. Her Vietnam Veterans/POW MIA label will transfer to the Evan Knoll-owned Funny Car, and the ride will be known as the Seelye-Wright/Torco Dragster.
John Stewart will remain crew chief for the dragster, but co-crew chief Lance Larsen will move to Clay Millican’s Top Fuel team. Lucas said of his new teammate, “J.R. and I have been great friends. We already talk about everything, even if it is just talking about the cartoons we watch.” shot back Todd, laughing, “He’s the bad influence.” Todd said he’s excited to drive what he called “one of the best running cars out there.”

• Lucas and Todd will team with John Spar and Ed Hullinger to compete in the 40th annual Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 desert race that starts Nov. 13. They’ll drive the Lucas Oil/Torco Race Fuels Class 1 Chevy-powered Penhall open-wheel desert race car in a grueling non-stop dash over 1,300 grueling miles of Mexican desert on the Baja Peninsula. In the week between the ACDelco Nationals at Las Vegas and the Auto Club Finals, Lucas and Todd, the two practiced near Barstow, Calif., getting acquainted with the car and the feel of the rough terrain.
“They were patient with our learning curve, and it went pretty smooth,” Lucas said. He said Spar “showed us some of the potential of the vehicle. He showed us how to drive, how to approach certain landscape, and how to be aggressive and what to watch for on the surface and to keep an eye on the big rocks on the course. There are a lot of variables that you don’t have to worry about in drag racing. You never know what you will find going over a jump, and you will have to be ready for just about anything.”

• Gary Scelzi received the Rick Mears Good Guy Award during Saturday’s qualifying from the American Auto Racing Writers and Broadcasters Ass’n.
Some of the former winners are Richard Petty and Mario Andretti. The last time the award was presented was in 2005 to Rusty Wallace.