NHRA drag racers Ron Capps and Maddi Gordon

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This isn't a costume, I'm freezing.

Yeah, a little chilly out there for sure.

Welcome back to the show, Ron Capps, NHRA drag racer and his newest teammate, Maddie Gordon.

How are you guys doing?

I'm good, thanks for having us.

Yeah, it's cold here too by the way.

We're in Wisconsin, Maddie and I.

At the Hotel Fister, I'm not sure.

Bob, you've probably been to his places like Historic and we're here for a big event for

Carlisle Tools and Napa and it is like two degrees outside.

So warm here, but not as cold as Bill is.

I know you guys, between the promotion stuff and the, you know, and the

so much of the car stuff gets built out in India and whatnot, but you're a Southern California boy.

We both are.

So that's the funny thing about the, the sort of weird weirdness for me.

I got hired by Dom Pradome back in 97, drive for my hero, right?

Legendary.

The biggest name you can get in the sport.

Still one of the coolest guys.

And Maddie, I knew her dad and her grandfather who raced top alcohol dragster.

They live in Paso Robles.

I grew up in San Luis Obispo.

So we're both central coast.

The way that she came up in the sport, she's very mechanical, worked on and built,

built part of the car, worked on the clutch when she drove for her sister.

And I did as well before I drove.

So this, this sort of, it blows me away.

Sometimes that we start talking and she has these same questions that I say,

it's okay.

It's not a dumb question.

I had it for snake the first year I drove for him.

So to answer your question, we're both from the coast.

I think Maddie was probably 75 or 78 degrees when you left Paso Robles.

Oh yeah.

I'm in Carl's bed relocated.

So it was warm there as well.

So we are both Californians and definitely not used to this cold weather.

No.

So we, we spoke a couple of years ago, Ron, when you were putting together the team.

And by the way, just what a hell of a way to start a first season as a team owner,

go out there and just do as well as you did.

And then here we are just a couple of years into the team and, and bringing on,

bringing on another driver.

What, why now, like, by the way, this seems quick, but you're doing it very quickly.

Why, why start to bring on another team, get another car out there, double everything, right?

You know, like the manpower that the support team, everything, twice as much work for Allison,

who's your wonderful PR person.

It's like all of it just started ready to grow the team, huh?

I didn't need another, I needed it like I needed a hole in the head, honestly.

This is four year as a team owner.

I just kind of like Bob in his cars.

You say you got enough cars in your collection, right?

And then somebody shows up for the car and you're like, okay, maybe one more.

I kind of had this posed as adding a team.

I was watching Maddie get her license and her family's top alcohol funny car.

I knew I wanted a car, but you just don't go out and do it without a budget for sure.

Honestly, it started out with me bringing Andretti into drag racing.

Met with Michael Andretti a few times.

We were going to have Andretti caps.

They were going to come in and he didn't want to come in full bore.

He's always been a fan of drag racing.

We had a bunch of meetings and then all that F1 stuff happened that we all read about.

So it kind of, it dissolved pretty quickly and Michael got kind of pushed out of Andretti Global

and, you know, his taste for motorsports there for a while wasn't good.

So we put it on pause.

And in the meantime, I've been watching Maddie.

I told all of our, our sponsor people at Napa Auto Parts about,

every time they'd asked me, you ever thought about another team?

And I said, well, I got this girl in mind.

And then as soon as I told them, they started watching her.

So this kind of built up.

And the next thing you know, Andretti thing didn't happen.

We were relying a little bit on some of their partners that they have there,

which we thought would be great to bring to our sport.

And then without that happening, I got a call from Catherine at Napa and said,

they were rebranding this tool company that they own called Carlyle.

It's been around forever named after the guy that started Napa 100 years ago.

And they asked if they could be a primary on the dragster.

And I was like, oh my God, talk about an emotional moment like now we have the funding.

So that, that just sorted how it went.

And next thing you know, Maddie's winning.

She became the 100th woman in NHRA to win when she won in Seattle.

And, and it just, it kept going from there.

So I didn't want to add a team.

I didn't need to add a team.

But it, it worked out really great so far.

And, and Maddie, you're going to run Top Fuel?

Yes. Yep. Top Fuel Dragster.

Bill, would you ever get into a Top Fuel car?

Oh, a hundred percent.

It's the one thing I've really always dreamed of doing.

Ron and I talked about it in the past.

He's a funny car guy though.

He'd be better than a funny car.

A funny car guy?

Yeah.

Yeah. Oh yeah.

Look at him.

He's a funny car guy.

The rebellion, yes.

I don't know. Is, is, is 58, 59 too old to start?

No. Never too old to start.

Hey, I'd love to do it.

I'd love to do it.

We'll, we'll make that happen one of these days for sure.

Maddie can get me some pointers and.

All right. All right. I'm in.

Yeah. Cause I know, I know the women can drive better than us.

I know that.

Remember my wife guys?

I mean, between her, oh my God.

Driving the autocross at the good guys in Del Mar

with, with Posey screaming at her.

You could hear Mary screaming at her while she's doing the run

and she beat me by, I think over two seconds in there.

Oh man.

Oh yeah.

Maddie, Bill's wife, they met on a movie.

She's a former stunt woman and stunt driver.

No way. That's so cool.

And she's, she's also like, not only can she drive,

but a big part of her stunt, the stunts she performs are animals as well,

like horses and, and you know, jumping on and off of them.

And so it's done like Westerns and things like that.

She's done a lot of, so they met on a film and now they're on the ranch.

So she's still around animals, not Bill, actual animals.

And she can now drive me with her eyes closed.

You are a lucky man.

That is an understatement.

I like it.

It's fairly lucky, but you know, I mean, I'm wrong.

I outpunted my coverage by a couple hundred football field, but she,

she emasculates me weekly getting behind the wheel of a, of a vehicle for sure.

Before Bill moved to Texas and we were starting the podcast,

this is years ago now, I came down to the house, stayed at the house.

We went out for dinner.

We were like, Hey, let's go out for sushi or something.

And then we all just loaded up in her truck.

She has like a F 250 at the time.

And it was, it was, it was there.

We all can get into it.

Gage, Gage was young.

He, but he was, he was just a little kid.

He was with us and getting down the hill, winding down the hill and getting to the,

to the, to the sushi restaurant.

She's driving this thing like a sports car.

We get out and Bill, you're the one who were like, what the fuck?

You're like, what the hell is like this, this way?

He's like, that's my girl right there.

It's like, why are we going to take two cars to go out?

Because she scares the hell out of me.

All right.

So Maddie, uh, 21 years old, almost 22, 20.

I'm kind of fresh 21.

Well, I guess like mid 21.

So yeah, yep.

What's so, and then yeah, tell us more about the family.

The whole family has been into racing.

And you've been at it for years.

This isn't, you know, obviously this isn't new for you.

Tell us a little bit about the background.

Yeah.

So I went to my first race at eight days old.

So, uh, very young and I started actually driving junior dragsters at eight years old.

I always wanted to drive like as a kid.

That was always, that was always my dream.

But at the time I was in competitive gymnastics and we had, you know,

school and all that kind of stuff.

And I actually ended up breaking my collarbone twice in gymnastics.

And my mom said, screw it.

She's down with gymnastics.

Put her in a race car.

It'll be a lot of fun.

You might as well go to the side of the road.

A little bit safe.

I'm not even kidding.

That's literally what she said.

She's like, she'll be way safer in a race car.

We're getting her a race car.

So that's all we did.

And I started driving at eight years old, drove junior dragsters, drove those for 10 years.

Also drove what we call a junior comp car, which is a little bit of a bigger dragster,

but has a Hayabusa engine in it and drove those about.

Yeah.

Those are really cool.

It shifts five times in an eighth mile.

So it's, it's really, they're really cool cars.

And then my sister and I both drove those.

So we did it all as a family.

I mean, every race we went to was a family with my mom, my dad, my sister and I.

And we did all the work on the cars at one time, we would bring four cars to a race.

And that was, that was a lot.

And, and then we aged out of those at 18, my sister and I.

And then we started driving super comp cars, which is a longer dragster.

And we went about 180 miles an hour to the quarter mile.

I drove those for a year and a half or two years.

And then started driving the funny car, which was

such a, such a dream of mine since as long as I can remember.

Because I mean, I've grown up around alcohol, funny car, my grandfather drove,

my dad drove for 30 years.

And when, when they actually thought about me driving, I've always expressed,

I want to drive, I would love to drive, love to drive.

But I didn't really know if, for one, it would ever actually come about

or two, if I could even do it, you know?

I mean, people dream a lot of stuff, but it's like, can you really do that?

And when they were like, are you serious about driving this car?

I'm like, oh, I am dead serious.

Are you guys really considering this?

And so I spent a whole year warming up my dad's car.

So he was driving the year, but I was warming the car up.

And that was so helpful for me to get procedures down and things like that.

And then I got my license in 2023 and drove alcohol, funny car 2024 and 2025

with my family, which was such a dream.

We were able to do it with my grandma, my grandpa, my mom, my dad,

me and my younger sister, which was unheard of in alcohol, funny car.

Yeah, youthful exuberance.

I love what I'm doing.

How can you not be happy?

And Caps had been on the show many times and have told the stories about

about him and Pradome and his start in racing.

And yeah, the first time he's been to the track.

And I know it was important for Ron to take that experience,

take that opportunity that was given to him and at some point extend it to someone who

I know he would he would want to extend it to someone that he really believes would

capitalize on the opportunity.

Right.

It's not it's it's not a handout, if you will.

It's appreciate it's like walking.

So we did this film with there's an actor back in the day, a guy named Paul Newman.

He's passed away now.

You don't know him.

You're kid.

But Paul Newman was a race car driver as well.

And there was a young driver that would like sneak through the fence and watch the races

and get the attention and try to drive cars, you know, and practice and and eventually

Paul Newman was like, you're going to start driving for me.

And then he called him one day and he goes, are you ready for the big leagues?

And he said, yes, I am.

And he goes, great.

Budweiser is calling you tomorrow.

And it was Willie T. Ribs, who I love Willie.

Willie T. Ribs is great.

I did you maybe you were with him with the with the was it the SXS?

Which what was the?

No, he he got out of the car when I raced at El Dora there.

But yeah, yeah, each fan.

Yeah.

So and this is this is Imza Road Racing's stuff like that.

And Willie T. Ribs went on to just be just such a dominant racer.

And he was the first black driver to qualify for the Indy 500.

And that was because of that opportunity with Paul Newman.

So for for Ron to be able to say, hey, we're going to pick somebody now for the first time,

I get to pick somebody and and and and pick you.

I think I think that is fantastic.

And I think there's a wonderful opportunity here and just hearing your voice and hearing

the passion and how excited about all of this.

I think you guys are going to be a phenomenal team.

What was it like getting that call from from from caps going?

Hey, a complete surprise that the totally a shock to us, which going back a little bit.

My mom just showed me this literally before I flew out to Wisconsin.

Ron had posted because Ron was part of my licensing process.

He was there, watched every single run.

Like, I mean, we both we were all like, wow, like he really took an interest in watching me run.

Like he wasn't just present.

Like he was involved.

And but Ron posted on Facebook or Instagram.

Like, oh, you know, excited about being part of, you know, Maddie Gordon's licensing.

May have to look into expanding Ron caps motorsports for the for the Gordon family.

And I'm like, how did not like catch catch on to that?

We just saw that I did that.

My mom was like, did you see this?

And I'm like, um, no.

But it was actually it was a complete shock.

Like we had no idea that he was even looking.

I mean, we had no idea.

And it was Seattle of my rookie year.

So middle of my rookie year.

That specific race, there was some talk about different classes in alcohol.

And my dad was talking with Del Worsham a lot.

So Ron had texted my dad, hey, when you get a chance, you know,

I want to talk to you about something.

So I didn't really think much of it because I thought it was about something else in alcohol.

So then my dad sees him in the lanes and he's, you know,

saying, you know, I'm thinking about adding another car.

You know, what do you think about Maddie driving tall fuel for me?

And he's like, what?

Like, are you just totally blown away?

Right.

And then Ron's like, you know, but, you know, casual Ron, don't even, you know,

you don't got to tell her now, tell her whenever you want.

Right.

Well, they told me that night.

Of course.

And, uh, it was actually funny.

We were, I was riding our beta motorcycle and they were riding a scooter and we're

riding past the staging lanes and Ron Mortimer, who does staging at the, at the races,

I was like, I passed by and I'm like, hi, Ron.

And they're like, who did you just say hi to?

And I'm like, uh, Ron.

And they're like, well, Ron, who?

I'm like, Ron Mortimer, why are you guys freaking out?

And they're like, well, actually, we have something to tell you.

Ron Caps wants, uh, wants you to run tall fuel for him in 2026.

And I'm like, you guys chose to tell me this when I'm riding a motorcycle.

I'm never going to live to see the day.

But it was, I mean, just the most shocking, surprising, honored, all of the above.

And, uh, it was actually the next day we went to Ron's pit and had a meeting with him.

And, uh, it was, I mean, just walking into the pit with the thought, like maybe.

Yeah, is this real?

Yeah, I mean, I'm walking on like, I'm walking on like, I feel like I'm like,

just like tiptoeing in, like, am I going to get in trouble?

Like I've never been in here before.

And, uh, you know, I just, it was just such an honor.

I mean, honestly, I get like speechless when I talk about it.

It was a very exciting day.

In the day of, of a generation as a father of a 19 year old,

that pretty much exemplifies, I don't know, look at me.

Hey, I deserve this.

It is the breath of fresh air, Maddie, to see your youthful exuberance and your passion

show through.

And now I forgive me if I haven't seen you race.

Obviously you're more than qualified to do what you're doing, but I just want to say.

Oh, thank you so much.

Great choice, Ronnie, man.

I figure it out.

I mean, she's just a wonderful kid and appreciation is part of passing things down.

And this is someone who appreciates it as much as anybody else from what I can see right now.

So what a, what a wonderful choice.

Yeah, that was so nice.

I was hired that way by snake.

So, you know, today's world, you go f1, you go NASCAR, IndyCar, all of them.

It's how much money can you bring for a seat and so many drivers in all those categories

and now drag racing, you get a million and a half, two million to bring to a seat.

And it's probably going to take the place of a really talented kid or somebody

that would have a better chance.

It just doesn't have a family that's wealthy or sponsors behind them.

And snake hired me without, I never brought a thing.

And so I was very lucky in that sense.

He saw something in me and then, you know, obviously that created my whole career.

So we did this backwards.

When I announced that I was, first of all, we knew we were going to do it

and we had the Android thing going, I announced that we're going to add a team

and it was just kind of started, it kind of leaked out by somebody.

So we came out and said, starting a team.

I already had her in mind, but the amount of people,

ex drivers and current drivers that were coming to our pit area,

talking to me and my crew chief, I had to explain.

I go, I don't think you understand.

I already have the driver and I'm going to build it around the driver.

We don't even have a sponsor yet.

And people couldn't believe they thought it was lying to them.

I said, I swear to you, I don't even have a sponsor right now,

but we know who the driver is.

So thank you for coming by.

But, you know, we're going to build this backwards sort of.

So it is, like you said, Bob, it's why I was hired by snake.

And I just felt like it's somebody deserves a chance.

And she obviously did.

You're a good man, Charlie Brown.

I mean, I love it because it's the old school way of doing it.

It's like you find the best driver and then go after the money.

And and you're right.

These days, all the racing is, you know, you want to drive,

go go find a few million dollars in sponsorship.

And then we'll talk about putting you in a seat.

And and I get it because there's a business there.

But it can't put a price on passion.

Yeah. And it doesn't have to always be that way.

Like, you know, with with a good motivated team,

a good motivated team owner, I think you can you can do it the way you did it.

And that's what I love about this story, the beginning.

This is just the beginning of this story.

I have a few more questions.

We've got some more stuff to get into.

But let's just take a quick break and we'll be right back.

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OK, so Maddie Gordon, this is another thing that kind of came up as in all the years of

talking to Ron Kapps and so many of the other racers and racers across all forms of motor sports.

We have such many, many good friends in the racing community and having conversations with them,

conversations with guys like Graham Rahall about driving and then with Bobby Rahall about

becoming a team owner.

And the thing I would stress just and looking and having these conversations is

yes, you want to be the best driver out there and you want to win as much as possible,

but learning the business, learning everything that has to happen behind the scenes.

And you've been doing that with your family.

But now to be able to do that at Ron Kapps Motor Sports is it's on another level.

And yeah, Rhonda, it's like you were saying having having a mentor like the snake,

you know, listen, it was just just a few years ago.

We were having this very, very nervous conversation with Ron going,

I'm starting my own team.

I moved out here to Texas.

Yeah.

He's like, I kind of don't know what I'm doing, but I kind of know what I'm doing,

but I need to be on the phone with Snake.

And it's, you know, like several days a week, like to figure this thing out.

He still checks on me.

We were together last night at dinner.

He was checking.

He checks on me all the time.

It's crazy.

And listen, nobody's more proud than he is, right, of what you guys are doing.

And that's pretty, pretty special.

So I imagine that as you get into this, yeah, you're going to start looking over the shoulder

of not just Ron behind the driver's seat, but, you know, in front of the computer,

the Excel sheets, the meetings, the, you know, the staff, just all of that stuff and just

figuring out the business side of it.

I think that's super important.

Yeah, no, definitely.

And I think, you know, as where I was with my family, we did it, you know,

you call it a hobby, but I mean, it was our entire life.

But we had, you know, my family has a camera shop back home.

So we technically did it as fun, but it was, it was a business to us, but not, you know,

necessarily.

And I, as much as I love driving, I love all the other aspects too.

I love the, I love working on the car.

I love learning the mechanics.

I spent a lot of time with, with my grandpa and my dad, asking questions about tune up

and graphs and just spending time listening.

And somebody very much smarter than me always taught me, if you're in a conversation and

you're talking, you're not learning.

So I like to spend time just listening and I like to learn.

That's what I love.

I love the sport and I just, I want to learn, you know, I'm young and I have a lot, a lot,

a lot to learn in the sport, but I do love, you know, looking over Ron's shoulder and

just kind of like, Hey, what are you doing?

Or like, what's this mean?

Or what's that?

And I ask a lot of questions and sometimes I need to like, it's blown down because

the only stupid question is the stupid, is the question you don't ask.

Yeah.

Well, I have a lot of questions and, but it's because I'm interested and I love to

learn about the sport and I was so, so grateful that I was able to spend eight days

and I was having Brownsburg with our team and just learn.

You know, I didn't, I didn't get to work on the car and, you know, do that side of it,

but I got to learn a lot of things about how the guys interact.

I asked a bunch of questions.

I got to sit with Rob Flynn and look at the computer and the graphs and being with Ron

at these great events.

I get to see how he interacts with people and that's been so great to see because

as a kid, my parents always taught me like, you know, you thank your sponsors.

Like, of course, you know, they're why we're able to be out here.

And at the first snap of it, I went to with Ron.

They're thanking him.

I'm like, wait a minute.

This is backwards.

Like, this is, this is different than what I know.

And it was so cool to see like how much they appreciate Ron and all that Ron does for them.

And if I subvert to, they do so much for us at Ron Cap's Motorsports.

And, you know, it just, it's been great.

I mean, Ron, obviously, like he's just like the legend in our sport.

And so highly looked upon by so many people.

And so I'm very blessed to have him as my role model for sure.

I think, I think there's another special component to it is, you know,

I love all the teams that are out there.

I love there's a lot of camaraderie around drag racing.

You know, you can fight with each other and battle on the on the on the drag race.

But at the end of the day, there's just a lot of shared communication.

There's a lot of like, hey, how do we get together and make the car safer?

How do we do this together?

And you kind of need that.

And there are some teams that are fortunate enough to go,

listen, I own a big company and I can use that company to sponsor my team.

You know, like if it's a, you know, like a Jags or something like that or whatever.

But there's only a handful of racers out that have had such a long relationship

with the sponsor and such a great relationship with the sponsor that they don't own.

They don't own that brand, you know.

And and and Ron talking about how long you've been with Napa now.

It's what have you, it almost feels like you've never not been with Napa.

Yeah, 19 years.

Actually, I was just thinking why you were saying that I was trying to do it in my head.

So yeah, it's been almost 20 years.

And for me, the barometer has always been, Kenny Bernstein is the guy that set the tone for that.

It's a guy that that's early on.

He had restaurants and stuff at way back in the day, but he did.

He's the guy everybody looked at for the longevity.

It's hard enough to get a sponsor and you hear that, but it's even harder to keep one.

And now it's things have changed.

It's they're no longer sponsors.

They're partners to us because we literally, I get up every morning.

I'm like, what can I do better for Napa today or whatever sponsor it might be?

But for me, it's been a family.

And so, yeah, it's been a long time.

And, you know, I also had Don Perdon to look at who never had anything else.

He came up in a sport.

He was a kid that painted.

And if you go back and watch the movie, the snake and mongoose movie, it shows you.

I mean, that was it.

It's only been what he's ever done in his life.

And so everything's built around that.

Of course, the Hot Wheels sponsorships and then later on, all the other things he did.

So I had really good people to sort of watch and and, you know, listening to Maddie,

it's the same thing.

I grew up the same way she did.

I worked on him before I drove like she did.

And so, you know, her being a face of a tool company is going to be a little bit of pressure for her,

but they've been great about it.

They don't want to feel the pressure.

But you look at who she's going to race and this is why we added a car.

Everybody said, why didn't you add a funny car?

Like all the multi-car teams with John Force and Coletta and all them.

And I just felt like it was better for us not to have to call on Monday morning and explain

that my team car beat me or I beat my team car.

And plus the first time we ever get to double up.

And that is when Funny Car and Top Fuel, the same event under the same banner with our team,

is going to be something.

But I can't even dream that high right now.

I can't even imagine that happening.

But that's sort of the route we went.

And again, I think it's good time in our sport.

Our sport's thriving right now in a crazy world.

And I think, you know, it's great timing for her especially.

And Bob, when we get off this, you got to go back and look at some of her stuff on Instagram

and welding and the lathe and just the things that she does mechanically.

Reminds me so much of me coming up that it's fun to watch that part of it.

The driving isn't, we haven't even seen that yet.

And it's going to be fun.

The fans already enjoy watching how mechanical she is and her working on the car.

And it's amazing to have these moms and little girls come up and say,

just haven't you seen her in a dragster yet?

And how much that they've already been affected on them and what they want to do in life.

And they want to work on cars.

And they want to get out in the garage with their dads and do things like that.

So it's already had a big impact.

Like catching a genie in a bottle.

Yeah, yeah, you mentioned especially these days.

You mentioned, hey, we're going to let's feel the second car,

but let's not make it too competitive.

So let's do top fuel.

But also as a new team owner and your first time getting a second car out there,

wouldn't having a funny car just be more familiar?

You would know more of the ins and outs of it.

You'd be able to answer more questions because it's a shortage of questions.

Being asked by this young lady.

So and so now you're a little out of your comfort zone as well with that,

having that as a second car, right?

Yeah, yeah.

I just, I have great people, honest to God.

I mean, they make me look good at being an owner, but it's been,

I never took business classes growing.

I've told you guys all this, you know,

it's been my wife and I and all the people around us that really have helped make this happen.

If it was me on my own, I would have flunked.

We wouldn't have, I wouldn't have been a two-year team owner.

So a lot of discussions from people I respect.

Kenny Bernstein, one of them.

Dom Pradoan, another one on having the car be a dragster and not a funny car.

I had so many other teams that wanted to add cars.

We already have funny cars.

It would have been the easiest thing to do in the world.

But we also have a lot of top fuel dragsters.

Doug Coletta, reigning world champion is sponsored by a tool company.

Antron Brown, my buddy, another tool company.

So you're going to have some tool wars going on, which we haven't seen.

You had the beer wars back in the day of Bernstein and Larry Dixon, my teammate.

And I think it's going to be a lot of fun this year to see all those tool wars kind of go out

at the top few rails.

And we're seeing some changes in the field this year.

We're going to be talking to Alexis DeGioria as well in a couple of weeks.

And now she's with John Force racing.

Yeah.

Been a lot of changes.

Yeah.

It's been a lot of changes.

But that's good.

That's exciting, right?

I think that'll be kind of fun.

Oh, yeah.

And then your family, your family is going to be obviously they're going to be there.

Are they continuing with the family side?

They're going to run those cars.

They're going to run with your sisters.

Is your sister driving?

Who's driving?

So my dad's going to get back in the car.

My sister drives Top Dragster and Supercomp.

And that's always been her dream.

Top Dragster has been her dream since she was a kid.

And that's what she loves.

She's in her 20s now.

I was like, I guess she's in her 20s.

She was like this tall.

But she's a massive part of the alcohol funding car team.

She builds all of our engines since she was, let's see,

we started full-time crewing in 2020.

And she started building our engines probably two years after that.

So since she was 16, she's been building our engines or 17.

But so she's a massive, massive part.

And it's really, really cool to watch her work because we're very similar in ways.

Like we both kind of like, we like the same things, but we're just different enough.

And like she is smooth.

Like we'll be under the tower about to pull into the water box.

And my papa's like, hey, what do you change to pop it?

And he's like stressing out.

And she's like, all right, grab the wrench and cash.

I mean, it's just, it's amazing.

We're very blessed to have her on the team.

And my dad's going to get back in the driver's seat,

which he's really, really excited about.

Only a couple more weeks till he races in his first race.

And we're all looking forward to seeing him get back in and getting that,

getting that alcohol funny car smile back on his face.

But we are still going to be doing it.

Well, we're going to consider, you know, as a family.

So Macy's boyfriend, they've been together for a while now.

He actually moved to Pastor Robles and he is living with us

and going to work full time on our alcohol team.

So we're really excited to have him.

He came from another alcohol team.

So he's very well-hurst and, you know, very mechanically inclined

and very good at what he does.

So we're really excited to have him.

And we spent a lot of time in the off season together, me and him,

because he's taking over the clutch, which is what I did.

So he's, me and him, been working together a lot.

And I'm excited to watch him and my sister and my family.

So it'll be different though.

I have not, it's been six years since I've seen the alcohol funny car run

and I have not been there.

So it's going to be different for me, but it's all good.

I'm looking forward to the change for sure.

I'm listening to girls tear down engines and I can't even change

the ring and penion out on my Cobra.

Yeah, we were trying to get Bill to dial in the car about my Cobra.

Oh man, we love the mechanics.

We honestly, it's kind of, so it's kind of a funny story.

So in 2020 when school went online, we're like, oh my gosh, well,

let's go racing with dad.

Like this is boring.

We don't want to sit at home.

Well, we weren't strong enough to, you know, because we got to swap engines.

We got to take the blower off.

Like those are hundreds of pounds.

Like we were at the time I was 15 and she was 14.

We were not strong enough.

So, but I mean, you can't, if you're getting part of the team,

you can't say, oh, sorry dad, I can't do that.

Like that's not an option.

We're like, well, if one part of the team got to get stronger.

So we both, we both went to CrossFit for however long it took

to be strong enough to lift the engine out.

And made it happen.

And actually the first, the first race we went to was like, everything broke.

We had to tear down the engine four times and we were like,

dead by the end of the weekend.

And we're like, dad, is it always like this?

He's like, no, this was a really bad weekend.

We're like, okay, okay.

Yeah, okay.

And then, so that'll be great.

That's, you know, you're going to have the team there.

So when Ron's looking around, he's like, where's Matty?

We got to get started soon.

And she's like, oh, she's, she's, she's a couple,

she's a couple doors down basically.

Oh yeah.

The starting line watching her dad run.

Yeah.

I've watched her dad run, right?

She's like, I don't know.

I think she's putting the clutch into another car.

Are you allowed to do that?

I don't know if she's allowed to do that.

That was one of the first things Ron told me is you will not work on this race car

because he knows that's what I'm used to.

So I'm getting used to it.

It's different, but I'm getting used to it.

Yeah. So yeah, listen, when you go into an operation like that,

and I've been out there, I've seen it is, is, you know,

everyone has their, their job to do and everyone wants to be the best at what they do.

So we're thinking of that job though.

I mean, it's got to be great for the crew to have a driver that's so mechanically inclined

that can talk to them about positive and negative feedback after every run.

I mean, yeah, I mean, I feel like at least, I mean, I think it'll be beneficial.

I find that like, in the alcohol car, I really understood what was going to happen

because if my dad told me, hey, we changed transmissions or we added clutch, we added grams,

we lean the fuel system, whatever it might be.

I mechanically understood what that was going to do to the race car

and how that was supposed to feel.

So I wasn't surprised when it happened.

I kind of had a game plan as to what should happen.

You never really know what's going to happen.

And if it didn't happen, then you could tell them that.

Exactly. Yes. Yeah. So I think it's beneficial.

Huge.

Yeah. You know, your team, they can look at all the data and all the sensors and everything,

but getting out of the car and being able to provide them with some feedback,

I think is probably the most important data that they can possibly use.

I mean.

It'll take some time. I've got to get used to a car.

It'll take some time.

It's not going to be right away, but we'll get there.

I mean, look, Ron, you can get out of the car still today and they'll go,

oh, the data says this happened.

And you could just say, didn't feel that way to me.

And then what, you know, like, what does that mean?

I was like, okay, well, you're the one in the car.

You're the one that has to control whatever's happening in that car.

And if it's not feeling right or you think it's not reacting right,

like all the, all the, all the Excel sheets and data points in the world,

they're not going to change how you feel in that car.

Yeah, they have, they have all the data and it either makes you a liar or

it tells a crew cheat that you kind of know what you're doing still.

And we go through it all the time.

I'll come in and say, man, I rattled the tire for a little ways from 1.2 seconds to,

you know, to whatever and we'll say, well, it doesn't look like it's

as much.

And you're like, so all you can do is tell them what you feel in the car,

because sometimes it'll be on the edge and they'll go, you know,

they'll look at the graphs and it's, it is what it is.

It's what the car did, but they're like, I don't know if taking a little bit of clutch

weight or like she said, leaning or rich in the motor at a certain spot would increase

those implementals that they want the car to, to maybe go get quicker in.

And then when they come ask you and I, what do you think?

You think it felt like it was on the weak side of the engine or it needs a little more torque

or, and then you're able to give some feedback because even though they have it,

they're not sure sometimes which direction and that's where it pays off.

Some of these drivers, they don't know which way the crankshaft turns.

Oh, and they're not driving the car, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

And a lot of these drivers don't even know mechanically what the car feels like.

I mean, they brought a couple of million dollars to be in the seat and they've never built

anything. They don't know anything. So they don't know that feedback.

And so I, I think it helped my acceleration curve for sure.

When I went to work for Snake, I saved a lot of engines that were going to blow up

had I got back on the throttle when I felt something.

Mattie will be the same way and it wasn't necessarily that I was a better driver.

It's how much parts I saved Snake and the crew coming back and having to work all night because

I didn't understand things and I gave it an extra pedal and destroyed, you know,

an engine and whatever else or things on fire and you lost a body, whatever it might be.

Those are the decisions of the important part.

It's not how good a driver you could be stepping on it, getting it down through there.

It's the, the situations on when to lift, believe it or not, is what makes the better

drivers out there that, that same parts. Yeah. And in the car and yourself.

And that's right. And the budget.

I, I, I tease, I tease a little bit now, the teams that are out there because I was like,

what happened to the days of the big smoky burnouts that are half the length of the,

of the course and everything? And every team is like, it's too expensive.

Yeah. Yeah. That costs too much money. The fuel.

Well, now it's tire temperature and all that. We get our crew teams all the time,

he's like short burnout. It's like, man, it's the funnest part.

And you just don't get to do that anymore. He's like, do you want to go faster?

Or do you want to win? I'm like, well, I get it. All right.

Yeah, I get it. Yeah. We should, we should.

NHRA is listening to this going, hmm. Yeah.

I knew that coming into it because I know fuel does shorter burnout. So every time,

like coming into my last four races in the alcohol car, I had the radio with dad and I'm

like, dad, what's attract him? And every time he's come, he comes back. Yes,

Maddie, you can do a long burnout. I'm like, yes. Okay, cool.

He knows exactly what you're asking. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.

Yeah. All right. Well, you'll get that rapport with the new crew for sure. I know you will.

So it'll be exciting. All right. Well, I'm looking forward to it. I can't wait to get out to Pomona

and see you guys again in person. And Maddie, to meet you in person. I know it's going to be exciting

out there. It's all right. We won't bother you. It's okay. We'll let you focus. Oh, come on.

We'll let you focus on the race and asking Ron over here a bunch of questions.

He's like, yeah, get her over. Come on, dog work. Yeah. Yeah, Ron will be like, hey,

there's Maddie. Go talk to her for 40 minutes if you wouldn't mind.

He's like, I got some other stuff to do. Just to keep her away from

you. Yeah. That's going to be a job too. Exactly. I'm very excited for you guys.

Maddie, congratulations. I think you're with one of the best teams, one of the most fun teams,

one of the most fun guys, one of the most interesting, dedicated guys out there.

One of the best humans we've ever had on the show and that have walked the planet.

Ron knows how we feel about him and what Maddie, congratulations.

You couldn't be with a better mentor. You really couldn't.

Thank you. I definitely agree. It's really cool too because we're both from the same town. Everybody

from home loves Ron Cavs and knows exactly who he is. It's cool. Very cool. I'm very fortunate.

I'll just, on your behalf, I'm just going to say a shout out to Napa. What a great partner,

what a great supporter, and not only did they recognize what they've built with Ron,

what it sounds like. They understand I'm bringing in a new driver, a young driver,

and for some of them, an opportunity to replicate what you guys built together,

Ron, you and Napa, what you can build now with Carlyle Tools with them and going,

the ask is going to be different. What Napa will come to Ron and go,

Ron, we need you to do this is going to be a little different when they come to you and go,

we need you to do this or can you do this. If you have a partner that is sensitive to that,

then I think that's the ultimate part of this whole equation, is if you have a partner that

comes in and goes, this is your first year out, your first time in Top Fuel, but you're with a

great team, ask questions. Ask questions about us, the business, the sponsorship. Let's get you in

there. Let's just make the safest, fastest, fastest you can possibly make, and we're going to grow

this together. It really is. That's what's so amazing about Napa and Carlyle is they care,

of course, they care so much about the company they're ever presenting, but they also care so

much about Ron and I and our team. Actually, it was beginning of the year and I was asking Joe

Sabo, I'm like, hey Joe, because he was telling me about the part numbers and the tools and I'm

like, hey, can you send me a pamphlet? I want to learn all those part numbers. I want to learn

what that means and he's like, okay, hold on. Why don't you learn to drive the race car and then

you can learn the part numbers and I'm like, okay, deal, deal. I mean, they're just such amazing

people and so fortunate that they saw what Ron saw in me and I'm all in and Carlyle and Napa

and using the Carlyle tools for over a year now because we've been on a tool deal with them on

our alcohol car and been able to see the benefits they truly do have. So being able to promote Carlyle

is something I'm so passionate about because it's something in a company I truly believe in.

Yeah. And when you when you allocate that, it comes straight from the heart as opposed to looking

on a prompter and sounding like a commercial. And that as an advertiser, to me, is the most

important thing in the world. We got a new Carlyle tools, their step up drill bit set

and I was so pumped like I couldn't portray my excitement through the phone like outside of

the video I made. I was like, these things are insane. Like they just work so good and it's

because I actually use it and I really did love it. And so it's it's it's easy for me because I

I love it and I enjoy it and I believe in it. Active participation. Well, just because Ron

Capps stepped into a new world being a team owner and then won a championship, don't feel any pressure.

I'm chopped liver right now. Every time we go to an event last night here,

they're like, where's Matty? And I'm like, hey, I'm right here. Yeah, you're like,

you're like, hi, Ron Capps, we've met before. Hey, Ron, can you introduce me to Matty?

Yeah. Yeah, that's okay. Give you a chance to take a take a breath. Well, guys, thank you so

much. I appreciate you being on the show. What a wonderful fun show as I was expecting Matty.

Thank you so much, Ron. Always always great. Yeah, if you get a chance somewhere on the tour

to swing by Bill's garage, you should definitely I know he would love you out there. And I'm not

going to ruin it for you. I'm not going to set the stage or anything like that. But it's it doesn't

suck. It's kind of neat. And while you're there, you may see a zebra or a kangaroo or some monkeys

or lemur or whatever. There's definitely that. Bongos, giraffes. Yeah, just depends on which

way you look. Yeah, it's basically a garage at a zoo. Yeah, or a zoo at a garage. Yeah, we'll see.

There's been more than one occasion we're doing the podcast. And what's her name? Who's your big

Presley? She walks around in the background. She's like, I don't know what the hell is she? It's

like a cow. She's a 400 pound para David, which is a deer that's on the endangered list. And

after being around her for a couple of years, I know why they're on the endangered.

She loves, by the way, she loves Bill and is not afraid of anything. He's been on the shooting

range and she stands there and like literally walked behind a target when I was shooting at

the rain. She walked up to the helicopter as it was landing in front of my brother.

When they did the TV show, they landed the helicopter. She just did like any any other

animal here a gun, not just like a gun like a Desert Eagle and and run and she just stands

there chilling crap and doing all of her stuff. It's like koalas. You look koalas and you wonder

how they ever exist and don't just get eaten out there. They're so they're just like rolling

around playing around. You're like, how do they even survive? I and she's just like a sloth in

that regard, just kind of moseying around and just like I watched her with the pressure washer the

other day. Did she just stand there? She's there. She's standing there. She's standing. She's

ahead a couple of times. All right, guys. Thank you so much. And I again, I appreciate you guys

on the show. Can't wait to come out and see you guys race in person. I'm looking forward to that.

Oh, yeah. Like I said, Ron, we're bringing out the new guy, our good friend and co-host Alistair

Weaver from from from London. Kristen here properly please. Yes, we will. He was a little

nervous about it. He's excited. We talked about it on the show and I was like, oh, you should

come out to NHRA and he goes, I've got a confession to make. He's like, I've never been and I was like,

God, you're so British. Just make sure your words of care depend. Yeah, right. It'll be

exciting. So guys, thank you so much. We're going to wrap things up. Guys, thanks for listening.

And until next time, keep the air and the spare and the bag in the wheel. If you liked the show,

please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe. It really does help the show to grow. Thank you for listening.

NHRA drag racers Ron Capps and Maddi Gordon

About this episode

Top Fuel

autocross

Ford F-250

junior dragsters

junior comp car

Suzuki Hayabusa

super comp cars

funny car

Paul Newman

Willie T. Ribs

Indy 500

IndyCar

NASCAR

F1

drag racing

safety in racing

sponsorship in racing

Top Dragster

ring and pinion

Cobra

blower

clutch weight

torque

crankshaft

burnout

NHRA

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