2021 countdown new rule (1 Viewer)

[mick]

taken from nhra.com
Eligibility for the Countdown this year has a new wrinkle that affords any driver who has made a minimum of two qualifying runs at every national event in the regular season will also be part of the Countdown.
i believe i'm reading nhra.com correct; jim campbell in FC, kenny delco in PS, and corey reed in PSB are all 11th members of their respective countdowns.
not even going to try and understand, nor do i care

 

[Chili]

I don’t think it’s the worst rule. I would rather have these teams run the final 7 races of the countdown than sitting out the races because they are not in the countdown. None of them are a threat to win the championship either. I think it was several years ago that Scott Palmer didn’t qualify for the countdown and parked his car for pretty much the rest of the season. With this rule he would have stayed out on tour.

 

[z28]

the rule was created to encourage teams to run every race. So far it has provided limited success

 

[mick]

um, there is only one way to encourage teams to run every race, and it sure isn't some contrived points/playoff system.
if there was enough money available to all the cars who show up, perhaps terry haddock would have raced in topeka and brainerd
trying to bump into top 10, and helping fill those short fields......but he didn't; and what do you know. terry is on FC sheets for every remaining race.
why don't they just reset the top 16 after indy? what's the difference? there are cars in the top 10 who do not race every 'regular season' race. they just
happen to be good enough to race part time and finish in top 10. what about the less funded and less successful part time teams that DO come out and try
to keep the fields as full as possible? the guys/gals at the bottom need a little recognition too.

 

[Pete]

I thought the rule was put into place to allow racers that attend all races the opportunity to make the countdown and not get knocked out by top teams that missed races but stayed in the top 10. it was more of a reward than anything.

 

[Dragracer]

NHRA started the runoff after NASCAR started there playoffs. The 1st year Tim Wilkerson was way ahead in the points until they were reset for the playoffs and Tim didn't have a good playoff. Had the point reset not happened Tim would have won the championship.
So let's forget about trying to follow NASCAR or any other sports organization.
Let's have the best driver/car for the whole year be the champion. Real simple.

 

[Dennis]

Unpopular opinion alert...

If you're goal is to increase car count, why not try something different and go back in time a few decades. Go back to the regional points (much like TAD and TAFC) and get full car counts at every event. Then have an end of year "playoff". You would have increased car counts because people know "hey I only need to go to x events in my own region for a chance to win a championship". Of course the big teams will always hit every national event, as their contract (probably) mandates but the little guys will make up the difference in every national in their division.

Just thinking out loud here because the current system is obviously a.) broken since it needs to be tweaked ever.single.year and/or b.) not best suited for Drag Racing.

 

[Chili]

Unpopular opinion alert...

If you're goal is to increase car count, why not try something different and go back in time a few decades. Go back to the regional points (much like TAD and TAFC) and get full car counts at every event. Then have an end of year "playoff". You would have increased car counts because people know "hey I only need to go to x events in my own region for a chance to win a championship". Of course the big teams will always hit every national event, as their contract (probably) mandates but the little guys will make up the difference in every national in their division.

Just thinking out loud here because the current system is obviously a.) broken since it needs to be tweaked ever.single.year and/or b.) not best suited for Drag Racing.

Unfortunately we would need a lot more cars to fill the fields. Tracks like Denver, Epping and Brainard would be lucky to attract 8 cars. Very few local runners and if the touring cars could skip an event, those events would probably be first on the list to miss.

 

[Pete]

I liked the old system, where TF & PS ran at the divisional level for points, then NHRA had 8-ish regionalized nationals. Given, this would be a step backwards, but maybe it has some teeth to allow more teams to compete?
The thought is to run TF, FC, PS with the sportsman on the divisional level or maybe as 'regional' events like alcohol cars, 8 car fields, and reduce the National events to 14-18...all classes have to run x nationals & y divisionals etc...

just a thought, but I think it may entice smaller teams to get involved

 

[ol21stud]

NHRA started the runoff after NASCAR started there playoffs. The 1st year Tim Wilkerson was way ahead in the points until they were reset for the playoffs and Tim didn't have a good playoff. Had the point reset not happened Tim would have won the championship.
So let's forget about trying to follow NASCAR or any other sports organization.
Let's have the best driver/car for the whole year be the champion. Real simple.

I assume you are referring to the first year "after" NASCAR started their playoffs and not the first year NHRA started the Countdown. The first year of the Countdown, the Champions under the old point system would have been Hot Rod Fuller, Robt. Hight and Greg Anderson.

Announcing the Countdown was also a last minute program change and teams didn't have time to change the way they raced at different events like they do today. Things like not going for the gusto at a lesser market or super hot racetrack. Or testing when you have a significant advantage over the two people behind you in points and a big gap in points from catching the person in front of you. With the season long points system this would be a much bigger gamble. Today a team can finish 5th after Indy and only be 3 rounds behind the leader as the Countdown starts.

In the past, the top teams had the incentive to run away with it before the season was over if they could. But then NHRA's last few races only had that race's Wally and race money as a prize for winning the race. That hurt NHRA's bottom line as they didn't have much to talk about to draw more TV viewers to somewhat meaningless races.

Now some teams don't seem to care as much about the hot summer races or races at weak markets for their sponsors. It makes financial sense to not destroy parts when there's going to be a reset and they know they will "catch up" when the points reset.

I think it was the 2011 season that Hot Rod Fuller told me Rob Flynn had their best car stuffed in the attic of the trailer for the summer races as they knew the points would be reset and why take a chance of screwing it up on a hot track. After all that's what happened to them the first year of the Countdown. The plan didn't work, but it had merit.

I think the first year of the Countdown was 2007 and I think that would have been Hight and Anderson's first Championship. They have both won multiple Championships anyway. But can you imagine what an NHRA Championship would have meant to Hot Rod Fuller's future in NHRA Drag Racing.