When Ron Capps came aboard Don "The Snake" Prudhomme's brand spanking-new Funny Car operation in 1997, it appeared that a formidable challenger to John Force's stranglehold on the category championship might be emerging.

Capps had a top-five points finish in his rookie season, while veteran tuner Tom Anderson worked hard to give the new driver a consistent race car. Capps finally got his first national event win in St. Louis that year, followed shortly by another one in Sonoma, Calif., and in 1998, actually led the points before being overhauled by John Force in the season's final few events, ultimately finishing second in the standings. Capps again finished second to Force for the 2000 Funny Car crown, but he has yet to earn the privilege of wearing the No. 1 on his car.

Over the past five years, Roland Leong, Todd Okuhara, Dale Armstrong and Ed "The Ace" McCulloch have all had a shot at tuning Capps to that elusive championship. And now, there will be yet another change on the "Green Team" Skoal Camaro.

On Tuesday, Snake Racing announced that McCulloch had been relieved of duties and that Okuhara would again take on tuning responsibilities. Okuhara has served in the assistant crew chief capacity under McCulloch and previously held the top position prior to McCulloch's arrival. For Prudhomme, it most certainly represented a tough decision since he and McCulloch are long-time friends and together, as drivers, have won the prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals 13 times.

"I wish Ed the best of luck in the future," Prudhomme said. "However, right now our main focus is to restore consistency and competitiveness to the Skoal Green team. Ron has done an excellent job driving no matter what the circumstances. Now it is our job to give him a better horse to ride, as we try to win races and work toward capturing our first NHRA POWERade Funny Car championship."

This year, Capps has had only sporadic success, with a single victory back in February in Phoenix, a runner-up finish in Englishtown in May, and a disappointing scorecard from the recently completed Western Swing in which he failed to win a round of racing. He is currently sixth in the POWERade point standings after holding the No. 1 spot following his Phoenix victory.

What has exacerbated the struggles for Capps has been the spectacular performance enjoyed by Prudhomme's Top Fuel team, headed by reigning champion Larry Dixon and tuner Dick Lahaie. Their dominance of the Top Fuel class over the last two seasons has given Prudhomme the tantalizing possibility of ruling both nitro classes should his F/C duo of Capps and Tommy Johnson Jr. move into title contention.

But for now, tuning responsibilities for the "Green Team" have been assigned to Okuhara, who will serve as interim crew chief as Prudhomme evaluates Todd's abilities in this new role, and will also consider other opportunities before officially naming a new crew chief for Capps.

Bill Stephens covers the NHRA for ESPN and ESPN.com.