67 TH ANNUAL MARCH MEET

On the opposite side of the ladder, Capps, who was essentially auditioning for a spot in the car for the next few races, had a bye in the second round and then faced reigning event champion Cory Lee in“ The Peddler.” Capps laid down a blistering 5.568 at 257 mph, while Lee struggled, posting a 6.799 at 154 mph after having to lift off the throttle early. That run earned Capps his spot in the semifinals, where he met Geoff Monise in the“ Quarter Pounder” Pontiac. In a tight race, Capps came out on top with a 5.570 at 258 mph, narrowly beating Monise’ s 5.592 at 256 mph.

In the finals, Capps ran another strong 5.627 at 254 mph to defeat Westerfield, who left early and disqualified himself due to a false start, handing the win to a delighted Capps. With this performance, Capps has now raised his hopes of being hired to race with the Matthews Motorsports team for the remainder of the 2025 season.

“ From into the wall, straight into the winner’ s circle” perfectly describes Kyle Hough’ s day in the“ Sheepherder” Fuel Altered. On his first run, the car made a sharp left around the 60-foot mark and slammed into the wall. After a quick check and some adjustments, including removing the damaged front wing, the team sent Hough back out for the next qualifying round. This time, the car went straight as an arrow, recording a best of 6.332 at 161 mph, which placed him fourth in the qualifying ladder of the 6.00 indexed field.

In the first round, Hough faced James Generalao Jr., and both drivers ran identical 6.318 ETs. However, Hough’ s faster 186 mph to Generalao’ s 178 mph, combined with a better reaction time, earned him the ticket to the semifinals. There, Bill Windham in the“ Burkholder Brothers” Fuel Altered awaited him. With another great reaction time and a 6.265 at 187 mph, Hough secured the win after Windham had to lift off the throttle, coasting to an 11.660 at only 70 mph.

24 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 194