Friday we knew we would have to get to the grandstands by about 3:30 or 4:00 to get a good seat for the pro qualifying session. We located some great seats about 20 rows up on the aisle. We got settled in for the last couple rounds of the Hemi Challenge, a little bit of Super Stock class eliminations, some Comp qualifying and about 6:30 the pros were scheduled.

If there is one thing that drives me nuts at a track it is a PA system or an announcer that can’t be heard. ONLY and I repeat ONLY Bob Frey could be understood and heard. Every other guest or announcer sounded like a faint whisper. The sound system at Indy was a major disappointment, except when Bob announced, then it was clear as a bell.

After the last sportsman car went down the track the stands filled up pretty darn quick to the point it was basically standing room only. The place was jammed! Now I was “feeling it.” Here we go. Nitro and Indy!

Well, that great feeling of anticipation was crushed by about an hour and half of some dribble over the PA about the Countdown, a bunch of driver introductions at a stage behind the burn-out box that no spectators could even see, and two memorial services that I don’t remember getting the invite to. Sure, Dick Landy and Bob Daniels were part of the drag racing world, but why did 30,000 people have to watch videos and basically sit through a funeral service? Talk about taking the excitement out of the air! WOW, that did it. I think it was 90 minutes of “stroking egos” for the sponsor, VIP guests, etc. I have no idea why they filled the seats and then put us through that. Good thing I had a Monster drink before I found our seats.

Finally, the pros were in the staging lanes. The Pro Stock Motorcycles were first out and even though I don’t have a motorcycle I love those machines. Hand built, no seat belts and “hang on brother, we are about to go 190 mph!”

The Pro Stock cars are about as exciting as watching paint dry (sorry, I had to say that.) Every car looks the same, reacts the same and sounds the same. I would rather watch Super Gas; at least they have a variety of cars to watch go the same ET. The highlight of that Pro Stock session had to be Max Naylor’s run. He got the pole with his Jagermeister-sponsored Dodge. He was the only one with Hoosier slicks and is basically a “new guy” to Pro Stock. Talk about a racer with a BIG SMILE, he had one -- and deserved a couple “cold shots” that night.

Funny Cars and Top Fuel were up next and the next thing I watched just amazed me. There must have been 50 people wandering around the track for about 20 minutes. Crew chiefs, NHRA employees, crew members and whoever else wanted to wear their sponsor’s shirt in front of the crowd. What the Hell was going on? No word on the PA as to what they were doing…just walking around “inspecting” the track I guess. (Too bad they didn’t “fix” that right lane!)

After that delay the first pair fired up. Don’t remember who they were but I do remember seeing about 30 crewmembers around the cars and so many guys with photographer passes we literally could not see the cars in the burnout box or when they were staged. Nice -- $38.00 a ticket and so much “clutter” (people that didn’t need to be there) along the guardrail the cars had to clear the 60-foot lights to become visible. Talk about a “slow program.”

The cars did their burnout then backed up and then the delays began. Bodies up, crewman checking it for??, body down, idling and spraying nitro the entire time. Finally, they stage and make a run. Then it is check the track, more delays, finally the next cars start, etc., etc. You could actually leave your seat and make it to the restroom between runs. When I owned my track if a “booked in show” ran that slow I would be having a cow. Spectators pay money to be entertained and what I was watching was not entertainment, it felt like a slow, painful, medical procedure.

Top Fuel was the same thing, over and over again. I expected much more and I really expected a fast-paced, exciting program. What I witnessed was the opposite of that in my opinion. Maybe that’s as fast as they can run them, I don’t know. The funny thing is, I don’t care anymore.

The fireworks after the last pair were pretty neat and the crowd was actually fun to be part of. Getting out of the parking lots was interesting. It took about 45 minutes, which isn’t bad, but they sent us down a street headed South, when we needed to go North. I had no idea where we were going and no signs telling us how to get back to the highway. A little strange really, driving around in the country at midnight on a blacktop road somewhere near Brownsburg, IN. We found our normal camping spot for the night at the Brownsburg Wal-Mart and settled in. We left the next morning for Iowa as there was no way I was paying $48 more or whatever it was for a ticket to sit through that “show” again.

I watched it on TV Sunday and Monday and the race is actually much better on TV. The drawn-out time between runs is shortened and makes it look a LOT FASTER than it really is. No wonder live TV won’t work.

I did see something that the NHRA and Indianapolis Raceway park should be ashamed of: A ONE LANE RACE TRACK at the biggest event of the season. If you got the right lane in the pro categories, to win you pretty much had to create a miracle or hope the other guy red-lighted. I think the right lane stole at least one historic moment from the sport. Greg Anderson’s shot at an unprecedented 5th straight Indy win was snuffed out because the right lane was .02 slow if not worse than that. You could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice -- he didn’t lose the race, the crappy track cost him a chance to extend his legacy.

Come on NHRA. Why not stop the event for a little while and FIX THE TRACK or, if the track is going to determine the outcome, why not flip a coin for lane choice? Why keep letting the faster car have lane choice? At an event like the U.S. Nationals I would have been embarrassed to have been a part of that track prep.

So how do I really feel? Well, I liked the sportsman racing but it’s a shame only about 64 out of the 800 of them get to race on Monday. The pro show was in such slow motion and so predictable due to the right lane debacle that it was less than interesting. I won’t be planning another trip to the U.S. Nationals any time soon. I went from remembering an event that is a great part of my life to watching an event I need to forget. Maybe that’s how the new NHRA wants it. I hate to believe that but it might be true. 

© 1999-2008, Drag Racing Online and RacingNetSource