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Points Program Re-visited
9/5/06
I usually don’t revisit a subject in one of my columns so soon, but with the outpouring of angst from our readers over my endorsement of the NHRA “Chase to the Championship” and their continued complaining about the NHRA program, you would think that the decision to alter the championship points program was as bad as…as, oh say, limiting the number of revs a fuel motor can turn or limiting the percentage of nitro a fuel car can burn or changing the elimination ladder at the Pro’s request so that the number one qualifier ran number 16 instead of number eight so that the higher qualifiers would have an easier time advancing even though doing so probably meant the quality of racing was diluted for the fans. Oh, the humanity.
Oh excuse me, they’ve already done all of those things and when they did these changes no one had a cow, man!
So before we light the torches, march down Financial Way in Glendora and tar and feather Tom Compton and his staff, let’s all take a deep breath and really consider how changing the NHRA points system is actually going to affect our beloved sport of drag racing.
First, I want to go on record as saying that I’m diametrically opposed to the part of the system that pares the field to four teams for the last two races to determine the championship. Two races are just not enough to really take the luck factor out of the equation. So, I’m backing the idea that pares the field to eight cars or bikes with six races left and then have a six-race shootout for the championship. Most of the pro teams I talked to last week at Indy liked that idea much better than the 8-4-1 solution and so do I.
Tom Compton told me on Friday night that the rules for the “Chase” weren’t set in stone tablets and that if needed the program could and would be changed.
Having said that, I just don’t understand why some fans and racers are so sure that the “Chase” deal will be the ruin of drag racing as we know it.
One of the main issues seems to be that we are copying NASCAR. So what if we are? There isn’t a professional racer or team that isn’t copying someone’s way of racing or doing business. Just because it isn’t an original idea does that mean you can’t or shouldn’t use it? Sorry folks, the idea that you can’t copy a better program is just stupid. We all do it every day.
Another thing that I hear is that the “Chase” is really going to affect sponsorships in a negative manner because sponsors will penalize or drop racers who don’t make the ‘Elite 8” after 17 events. So I checked with several large sponsors and they say it will have little or no effect on the contracts they have except that they may negotiate some bonus clauses in the contracts they have with their racers that would give those racers extra money should the team make the second round or the final round.
Do any of you really think Bernstein, Prudhomme, Schumacher, the Pedregons, or the Kalittas are going to sign 17-race contracts, or that Budweiser, Skoal, Mac Tools, Mopar, ACDelco or GM are going to offer their stars a contract that releases them after 17 races? Let’s be serious here, folks.
“Why should the racers keep coming to the races if they aren’t part of the ‘Elite 8’ -- they’ll just quit coming!” The folks saying this just don’t understand professional racers. For the most part by the time the 23-race NHRA season gets to the 17th race no one out of the top four in the points chase has a chance in hell of winning a championship but they all still keep coming because that is what they do.
Just for instance let’s take the Worsham Funny Car team or Don Prudhomme’s Top fuel team. Neither of those two teams has a realistic chance of winning a championship this year and they both are way down on points but does anyone really believe that either of those two teams would quit coming after 17 races? Has any sponsored team ever quit attending races because they didn’t have a chance to win the championship?
I also hear the teams that don’t make the cut after 17 races won’t be motivated and won’t get any TV time. Au contraire, nitro breath. I think those teams that are not in the Elite 8 after 17 races will go after those that are with everything they have. They’ll race harder than ever to prove they are just as good as that guy that made the cut. . .and don’t fool yourself, the teams and drivers that take out one of the “Elite 8” and cripple their chances to win the title are going to get plenty of air time. The battles between the Elite8 and the rest of the field will make great TV.
If anything those teams not in the “Chase” may get more attention than they would have. There will also still be plenty of motivation from all racers to make the Top Ten in POWERade Championship points. Making the Top Ten is still a valuable deal for all teams.
I think we have observed in recent years that the sport is far stronger than any rule the NHRA management can make. Virtually none of the rule and policy changes made in the last decade seem to have significantly affected the sport either positively or negatively. NHRA drag racing at least seems to just roll along oblivious and impervious to change.
A lot of the faces I see at the drags today are the same ones I first saw when I started covering the sport professionally in the mid-1970’s. Only the grim reaper has really had an observable effect. As far as I can determine, the rule can do no harm to the sport but there is a chance it could help. If anyone can actually prove to me that changing the championship chase will cause any racer to quit or any sponsor to depart or make drag racing less interesting, let’s hear it.
Drag racing as a sport (and for some, a religion) thrives on change. Rules, racers, cars, and combinations change constantly. You only have to read through a 1966 NHRA rule book or yearbook to see that drag racing in 2006 just faintly resembles what it was in 1966. Fuel Alts, front-motored Top Fuel cars, flag starts, $.32 a gallon gas and 32-car Top Fuel fields at Indy are gone and are never coming back, no matter how badly some of you might want them to.
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I can’t find any verifiable instance in drag racing history where a racer that was lower than eighth in Championship points at half-way through the season came back to win a professional title. So much for the theory that the new points system is unfair to the racers in the lower half of the points program.
The NHRA management is simply trying to generate some additional interest in the sport by instituting a “playoff” just like every major sport in the world (except F-1) has. If it works, that’s great; if it doesn’t, so what. No harm no foul. At least they are trying.
And one last thing. I’ll bet that if this works for the NHRA the IHRA will adopt something similar in short order. After all those guys refer to their events as a “Nitro Jam” -- they’re all about entertainment over there. 
