Richards Out After Capps DNQ

Tim Richards is out as crew chief for the Don Schumacher Racing Funny Car of Ron Capps.

Team owner Don Schumacher expects to announce next week the new crew chief for the NAPA AUTO PARTS Funny Car driven by Capps after Richards resigned from the position on Saturday night.

The NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T failed to qualify for Sunday’s championship elimination rounds of the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Richards took the position after four of 22 national events last season and tuned Capps to national event wins at Sonoma, Calif. and the fall Las Vegas race.

“I understand the complexity of our race cars and how challenging our sport can be," Schumacher said.

“But when something occurs like what happened to our NAPA AUTO PARTS team at Las Vegas, what is paramount is that we work immediately to find the problem and correct it. We owe that effort to NAPA AUTO PARTS and other associate sponsors on the car."

“I have tremendous respect for Tim and appreciate what he did last year to help Ron win two NHRA titles. I wish Tim the best. The commitment to our marketing partners is we will do whatever is within our power to win and compete on a championship level." RacinToday