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Billy Torrence Calls NHRA's Countdown a 'Loser Appreciation Program' (1 Viewer)

I heard him say that after he won the race, but didn't get what he was talking about. Brian Lohnes chuckled about it, but I figured it was some inside joke.
He is correct in his assessment of the Countdown.
 
i get the idea. tighten up the points for the last 1/3 of your season and call it the playoffs. there should be increased something because of this; whether attendance,
tv ratings, higher social media traffic, or greater pro racer attendance, but i don't think any of those are happening. and now it's the top 11. texas and vegas 2 seem to draw well,
but then again, they always have regardless of points. the best thing to happen to late season races is billy meyer putting up some extra money.
 
mick said:
i get the idea. tighten up the points for the last 1/3 of your season and call it the playoffs. there should be increased something because of this; whether attendance,
tv ratings, higher social media traffic, or greater pro racer attendance, but i don't think any of those are happening. and now it's the top 11. texas and vegas 2 seem to draw well,
but then again, they always have regardless of points. the best thing to happen to late season races is billy meyer putting up some extra money.
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Mike,

I agree. There should be some benefit to this. Maybe there is and we don't know about it, but I doubt that. Doing something for the sake of doing it is just stupid. I don't know one fan who has ever said "yeah, I love the Countdown" or "the Countdown is what drew me into the sport".
 
I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed, so excuse me.

I wouldn't be talking sh*t about NHRA, and a rule that has been in place for 14 years. You entered the season and event knowing this.
Then go on and say you did your job, as a blocker, incase Steve is not able to get it done on his own, with double++ the data.

Brittany has no blocker, and your pi$$ed she won a Championship based on the rule book.

Implying that this is a joke, sends the message too the world, you are fools for coming to, and watching this farce.
Just re-think, before you bite the hand that feeds you. - More importantly, others.

How long before an employee talking negatively about Capco anything, anywhere, are called in the office, never to be seen again.

Steve called it all BS, and then has a better/different BS system.
“I would be more of a fan if they would structure it to where you cut your points in half. That would be more fair.”

^ It would still be a BS/Welfare system, no?

I signed the anti-countdown petition.
It is what it is until it isn't ...

I'm pulling for Clay anyway. ;)

nevermind - some of this was Steve, 4 years ago, and Billy? I should have stayed in bed. the drips a trip, like wade.
 
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One benefit of the countdown is that you don't have the championship decided with two or three races to go. It makes Vegas 2 and Pomona Finals meaningful. Rarely does the team in football, basketball, baseball or hockey that has the best regular season record win the championship. So what do they get for winning the regular season? Maybe a first round bye, maybe home field. But that's it. You don't hear those teams whining about winning the regular season.
 
Professional Fan said:
One benefit of the countdown is that you don't have the championship decided with two or three races to go. It makes Vegas 2 and Pomona Finals meaningful. Rarely does the team in football, basketball, baseball or hockey that has the best regular season record win the championship. So what do they get for winning the regular season? Maybe a first round bye, maybe home field. But that's it. You don't hear those teams whining about winning the regular season.
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I don't know if that's a good comparison. The NBA, NFL, MLB & NHL season sample size is so different compared to a drag racing season. The teams in those leagues still put a lot of value into gaining the first round bye and/or home field advantage. It's a nice reward for winning your regular season, division or conference.

In Billy's defense, I can see why he has an issue with the Countdown. You kick everyone's ass (the same 16 - 20 cars every race) the whole regular season and your reward is a 20 point lead to start the last 6 races?? NHRA just set the field of it's biggest race on 1 qualifying run because of rain. So if you don't qualify, you could go from being +20 to -80 because of rain?
 
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Professional Fan said:
One benefit of the countdown is that you don't have the championship decided with two or three races to go. It makes Vegas 2 and Pomona Finals meaningful. Rarely does the team in football, basketball, baseball or hockey that has the best regular season record win the championship. So what do they get for winning the regular season? Maybe a first round bye, maybe home field. But that's it. You don't hear those teams whining about winning the regular season.
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I understand what you're saying but the difference is that in the stick and ball sports, only those in the "countdown" continue on so in theory it's the best playing the best.

In NHRA you are neck and neck with someone and in a countdown race you draw, say Justin Ashley (a countdown contender) round one and the person you're neck and neck with draws Bucky Beaverson, a guy who made the field with a 12.59 @ 63 mph because there were only 16 cars on site. Not very fair, is it?

Now if they seeded every countdown race with the contenders, we're on to something. Maybe like an A and B bracket - the top 8 in points on one side, seeded according to points position, and the remainder on the other, seeded by qualifying ET. Winner of A bracket faces winner of B bracket in the final. The fans still get to see 16 cars and the countdown is actually meaningful.
 
Split the season. First half points winner runs against second half winner for championship. Top cars still win but if someone had a slow start can still be in it.
 
more money and televised on fox national network for at least 3 major events. gators / indy / vegas2. the new all-star events should be fox nat. network too. 5 big money/points/whatever races per year that showcase nhra's best pro racers. after that do what you want with a points series. each national event is spectacular in it's own right, with it's unique storyline. the FS1 live and same day shows are great. the FS2 re-airs are really great too. (2 possible other nat. events that could be promoted to 'huge' status: norwalk, ennis)
 
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An issue that rarely gets brought up in Countdown discussions is what ticket buying spectators in smaller markets or at really hot summer races loose in Pro class competition. By "smaller markets", most give more respect to winning the Gators than winning Atlanta, Topeka or Memphis (when it was in the NHRA fold).

Races in areas important to the racer's sponsors mean much more than races at a track away from large metro area or in areas where that sponsor doesn't sell. Why did Allen Johnson's Dodge win so many times on the mountain? Because the MOPAR Mile High Nationals was super important to Dodge and therefore Allen Johnson. But it wasn't as much to GM or Ford. Now the Mile High race doesn't even contest Chevy Pro Stock.

Teams have less at stake and can take it easier on parts, crew and other expenses at hot, pedal fest races or races that may not be as important to their various sponsors or to the Championship IF they feel they can get into the Countdown anyway. The REAL races, the Countdown races, all happen after Labor Day and the weather cools down fairly quickly, so having the best (or even good) hot weather tune also isn't nearly as important as it was prior to the Countdown.

In the Countdown's first year, Hot Rod Fuller would have won the Championship if every race counted equally. Rob Flynn looked back at what had happened and realized the futility of going all out at every race. The following years they saved their best stuff during the summer months (even putting their race winning car in the rafters of the trailer) and then went for it hard during the 6 Countdown races. Even though it didn't work, I believe many teams are doing the same thing now and it's a large part of why car counts are down as you don't have to be at all of them to qualify for the Countdown.

The spectators at the races where "its just not as important" are getting a weaker show and less for their money. Weaker in that Billy Torrance and Erica Enders (for two) know they don't even have to show up at all the races to win an NHRA Championship.

Billy T. is effectively saying that he doesn't need to race at all the races as long as he can make it into the Clowndown anyway. And now after just one race... Papa T is leading the points and he knows what he's talking about when he calls it the "Loser Appreciation Program".
 
T.Smith said:
Team CAPCO has been on the record about not liking the Countdown even before losing the championship to Brittany Force.
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We all have Tony. I get it.

The only point that I am attempting to make is this.
Don't call out NHRA in public, on their television package, for something that is cut and dry.

Massel pulls the I work for this company card.
Prusiensky pulls the we're a little team BS after a long standing infraction.

Imagine, if Ferre's plot had worked, and cost Steve the championship. Cameron publicly called out NHRA.

So many others have done the same as well over the years.

I don't respect that nonsense.
It is destructive, not productive.
And makes zero sense in my world.

I like them all. I laughed when Billy said it. That is not the issue.
There are enough real problems as is, without killing ourselves from within.
 
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Unfortunately NHRA was following NASCAR's lead. The reason NASCAR did it was to make the network broadcasting the second half of the season happy. They need to make them happy due to being paid by the networks. Other than keeping the NHRA championship from being wrapped up early, I see no reason for this since they don't get paid by the network.
 
What Billy said does not even compare to what Garlits had to say about the NHRA in the early ‘70s.
Garlits even staged protest races on the same weekend as Indy.
The NHRA survived that.
What’s wrong with speaking out against a very flawed system?
The Torrence team spent a lot of money to become the dominant team, only to see all their wins become basically worthless after the points reset. I don’t blame them one bit for being upset and saying something about it.
 
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