Courtney Vs Robert (1 Viewer)

[stitcherbob]

No doubt in my mind that Eddie took a dive for Andrew. I'm sure NHRA is checking into it thoroughly though! /s

what really happened was that Andrew picked up performance on Eddie because the 20lbs NHRA put on the Harleys fell off his bike at 3/4 track

 

[PJ]

Richard Hartman had something to say about diving accusations on Facebook:
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I think its a sad statement on the points system when there is more comments on here and on social media about dives and a bad system then about praise for those that won. Just the fact that the integrity of races are in question at times means that something needs to be looked at.

 

[Just Paul]

I think its a sad statement on the points system

So how would you run the points? Can't blame the Countdown. Larry Minor took a dive for Dick Lahaie at the 87 World Finals and it cost Joe Amato the championship. I'm still slightly bitter about that. Back then they had a normal points system, national record points, low ET points, top speed points. Team orders has been happening since Candies and Hughes 1970 Gatornationals F/C final.

I'd like to hear how your new points system would fix team orders.

 

[BountyHunter]

.....tped called it like he saw it.....if anyone has class, it's LE.

hight's damaged car was left at turn off. caught re-air again last nite. watched finals racers turning off rite past
the dusty and damaged AAA special.

It wasn't Hights car you saw sitting there. I went to the pits right after to watch them put the backup car together and the crashed car was sitting in Forces pit.

 

[PJ]

So how would you run the points? Can't blame the Countdown. Larry Minor took a dive for Dick Lahaie at the 87 World Finals and it cost Joe Amato the championship. I'm still slightly bitter about that. Back then they had a normal points system, national record points, low ET points, top speed points. Team orders has been happening since Candies and Hughes 1970 Gatornationals F/C final.

I'd like to hear how your new points system would fix team orders.

No point system will eliminate all dives. Neither will no longer allowing teams, as some have complained about. We can go back and find examples of dives pre-countdown among teams. Remember when the qualifying was changed to not allow alternates into the first round if someone could not make the call. Years back, a driver in the points battle had a DNQ but allegedly bought a spot back into the race from one of the part time teams. That shows that even without teams, dives or back in the pit deals can happen. So no points system will ever eliminate such things.

What the countdown does, in regards to dives, is make the need and opportunity for them to occur more often. In old examples, we remember a few incidents spread out over years if not decades. Now we can point to them just about every season. With the cut off and then the playoffs, we have double the times when a dive might happen. Be it Indy or Brainerd when you have teams trying to make the cut then again during the 6 race playoff. Once the points are bunched up, you create a another opportunity over 6 races. Team cars not in the countdown helping those that are or once they fall behind in the countdown then can then be divers.

Most dives are hard to prove and pretty much speculative on every ones part. Short massive obvious events such as Larry Minor doing everything he could to stop the car so Gary Beck could drive by him in the 80's to KJ basically admitting it, most incidents just have people questioning the credibility of what they watched. That questioning is where we have a problem. If people don't feel the race is being true, then why bother coming. There are multiple flaws in the countdown system, but with dives, It makes them more likely to happen and if you are a team, more needed in order to advance at least one of your sponsors cars.

If you are a fan of a team/driver then you don't believe they ever dive or point out the other people do. If you don't like them then any minor blip is considered a dive or at least called into question. It's not a good look for the sport when we now have a two time FC champ but many people believe has twice benefitted from...can we see creative driving. Now from NHRA's standpoint, I get that they don't want driver A coming on TV saying, yup we are gonna throw this race since our XYZ sponsored car can keep going in the points chase. While honesty would be better than what we have now, it is still not the reputation you want for your sport. Ideally a driver just claims something broke and sits in the pits, not fully truthful but at least we don't get a staged event.

In the end, there is no cure for dives. But having a points system that increases the need and has shown a great benefit to those that dive is not a good look for the sport.