CON #3
Sorry... just can't agree with you regarding the new "chase" program. Sounds like a ridiculous idea.
And as far as "other" teams getting media exposure, that sounds like a problem with the media, not those "other" teams.
Even when a media-star loses a round, who typically gets attention from the media? The star.
I'd love to hear from that other guy once-in-a-while!
John Coleman
CON #4
No one has explained this new points deal where I can understand it. If I cannot understand it, it will only make things more confusing to the non drag racing folk who cannot figure out why there are six or more winners at one race event!
I know Shirley Muldowney is up on the tire about this points thing, and it seems to me the non racing boys in the ivory palace just took something NASCAR is using and adopted it. NASCAR is making money, so these guys copy as much as possible.
It needs to be simpler, not more complex, and I understand lots of NASCAR folks don't like this system of points either!
Richard Burbick
Sebring FL
CON #5
I can't believe that you are going along with this! It's an absolute disaster for the sponsors and the teams who don't qualify for the elite 8. Once the separation has been made, the ONLY cars anyone will focus on are the ones in the elite 8, AND, for those who don't really have a chance to do so from the beginning of the year, it will make even HARDER to get any kind of real funding in the first place, because it will be clear that from a sponsor's
point of view, that car will disappear before the end of the year is up, and who wants to sponsor that kind of team!
Check out NASCAR if you don't believe me. How much press did Jeff Gordon or Dale Jr. get at the end of the year last year (neither made the chase) -- almost NONE, and we're talking two of the biggest names in motorsports as you well know. And it's pretty obvious that there are a lot of those teams out there. (almost every single-car team, and often even teams like the Worshams.
So now what will the Gary Densham's, Frank Pedregon's, Troy Buff's, Greg Stanfield's, etc,, of the NHRA do? Leave the sport, because it's impossible for them to secure funding? BRILLIANT.
Stu Melis
CON #6
That's it; I'm done. Glad I didn't have to be at Indy to hear the news in person.
I tried to hold out hope after four-each slow Ford and Dodge pickup trucks were "seeded" into a major NHRA eliminator category (even though Dyno Don and other lucky "seeds" fully ONE SECOND off the Chevys' pace). I walked back and forth to the finish-line bleachers after everything else became reserved seating. I kept going to national events even after all -- ALL! -- of my bleacher buddies either bailed out or bought reserved seats that put them out of my reach. Now, this.
How does drag racing improve in any way for this fan if that much-ballyhooed "mainstream media" gets suckered into covering a contrived championship chase? Should anyone care whether or not those obsolete, ratings-challenged TV networks and circulation-losing daily newspapers approve of how we've been determining our champions since Jim Tice pioneered season-long points accumulations? In 2006, is anybody still waiting for Monday morning's paper to find out who did what to whom at what speed — a day later? What'samattah; aren't you being force-fed enough Force family?
Now that moving to Norwalk, Ohio, is suddenly no option, on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons, I think I'll go to my drag-mag collection and pull out something from, say, the 1980s, before people who'd never been to a drag strip started replacing key NHRA veterans. Wally, we didn't know how good we had it!
Dave Wallace Jr.
