Ron Capps Running Prudhomme Army Tribute Car At Indy

One year after driving his Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme Hot Wheels tribute car to the Funny Car victory at the 2023 NHRA U.S. Nationals, Ron Capps will pay tribute to his former team owner yet again at this weekend’s70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Capps’ NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra will sport a special red, white, and blue livery modeled after Prudhomme’s Army Funny Car, which went on a dominant run after its debut in 1974. The three-time world champion is chasing his third consecutive win at the most prestigious event of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.

Capps’ win in the ‘Snake’ Hot Wheels tribute car at last year’s U.S. Nationals came on the 50th anniversary of Prudhomme’s win at the 1973 U.S. Nationals. Prudhomme himself was a part of the NAPA team all weekend, from warming up the Toyota GR Supra before the first qualifying session on Friday to standing behind Capps on the starting line for the final round on Monday afternoon. It was Capps’ second consecutive win in his third consecutive final round at the Big Go.

“Running the Hot Wheels Don Prudhomme tribute car at the U.S. Nationals, having ‘Snake’ there, and then winning the race was certainly one of the highlights of my career,” said Capps, who drove for Prudhomme’s Snake Racing team from 1997 through 2004. “It’s been talked about since last year, and ‘Snake’ has told me it’s one of the coolest things that he’s been around, and that’s saying something coming from Don Prudhomme. It’s hard to top that, but there’s only one car that’s cooler than that car, and that’s the Army car that Don ran.”

The U.S. Army started its partnership with Prudhomme in 1974 and continued to support ‘The Snake’ through the 1980 season. During that time, he went on one of the most dominant stretches in NHRA history.

“I don’t think a lot of fans nowadays understand just how successful that race car was,” Capps said. “Almost half of his Funny Car wins were in that livery. All four of his Funny Car world championships were in the Army car. I had the Army model from Revell that I built as a kid. Shoot, I wanted to join the Army just because of that Funny Car. But going back to 1975, Don Prudhomme in the Army car won all but two national events the whole season. In 1976, he won all but one of the national events on the NHRA tour. It’s pretty amazing.”