Thanks for answering my question Rex/PJ ... I fancy myself a pretty smart dude, but I never actually considered it was actually 640 feet, 320 less acceleration and 320 more slowdown.
Like I said, I am all for safety, but I hope this is a temporary fix for tracks that have shorter shutdown areas. I will still attend Indy and Vegas2, I will still fork over the bucks for the whole weekend. There are many smart drag racing people who think the ADRL 1/8th mile shows are the best thing since sliced bread, so I think 1,000ft will work out OK.
PS don't everyone bail on Vegas yet ... we have a LONG shutdown that is uphill ... many of the fuel cars can use the first turn off at Vegas if they get both chutes out ... there is NO REASON to back 'em up to 1,000ft here. The way I read NHRAs press release was that the length of the fuel races will vary track by track until a permanent solution is found.