The final round was the ninth of the year for Capps – the second-winningest Funny Car driver of all time – and the 99th of his career as a nitro driver. It also marked the third time in which he was runner-up in Reading.

Capps came into Reading with the Funny Car points lead and he left with the lead, although Johnson narrowed it to 24 points.

Capps defeated Alexis DeJoria, Tim Wilkerson and Hagan on his way to the final round.

Beckman, who wheels the Infinite Hero Dodge Charger out of the DSR camp with crew chief Jimmy Prock, stayed No. 3 in the points and made an outstanding 3.850-second pass at 332.26 mph in the second round to break the Maple Grove Raceway track record for elapsed time and clock one of the fastest speeds of the weekend.

"Our Dodge Charger was a phenomenal race car today, and we lost a close race," said Beckman. "But that is one of those must-win situations. You had four Mopar Funny Cars in the semifinals, and now we're No. 1, 2, 3, 4 cars in the points.

Matt Hagan, driver of the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T, came into the event in the No. 6 position in the Funny Car points but made much progress over the course of the weekend. After qualifying No. 1 in his charging Mopar, Hagan won a first-round match with Jim Campbell and then sent John Bojec home with the second-quickest pass of the round paired with a big 332.75 mph speed.

In the semifinals, Hagan fell to Capps – but only just barely. Capps got a starting line advantage (.050 to .072) and used it to turn Hagan away on a holeshot. Both lanes reflected a 3.893 on the scoreboard, and Hagan had a very fast 333.58 speed that nearly matched his track-record setting 333.99 mph from qualifying.