It was a "business decision."
I've seen that term a lot over the years, in many contexts well outside of racing.
Here's my interpretation: Making a "business decision" simply means that any sleezy, harsh, unfair, unjust, untrue, lying, heartless, dishonorable and hypocritical decision you make can be justified merely by calling it a "business decision".
The only thing you can't do under the blanket of this term is something blatantly criminal!
if it's done in the name of business, virtually anything goes, as long as it doesn't cause a murder.*
I actually support the outcome of Force vs. Hight, because John's JOB ONE is to take care of his sponsors any way he can. There may have been one pre-determined Force team outcome, but there was a lot of other round wins by both John and Robert that were PURE HEADS UP RACING that were contests in which only the best race car wins. Robert got into the top ten because of damn good racing from both his team and John's.
I worry about Pro Drag Racing's future with the combination of this economic down turn and NHRA's frequent sponsor alienating behavior, and I strongly support anything done out there that is in the best interest of the Sponsors.
And it's certainly ironic that this Countdown thing, intended to make the points race more exciting to fans, is producing the unintended consequences of sponsors throttling back on sponsorships if their car(s) don't make it into the Countdown after Indy.
Finally, NHRA making rules that are not written or openly distributed certainly doesn't help. The problem of team orders making for pre-determined race outcomes cannot be solved merely by making a rule that such a thing is not allowed. That rule is so unenforceable in so many ways and is so prone to arbitrary opinions from the enforcer, that the ruling, whether it sanctions the outcome of the race or over rules it, will always be in question. Would fans be happy if it was Mike Dunn's call on whether a race was fixed or not? He's probably the best one out there to make that call, and, in his 'ruling' on Force vs. Hight, there is enough reasonable doubt to question Dunn's call on the outcome.
Team racing strictly heads up when Countdown standings are on the line is certainly honorable, but, is merely a bad business decision, from my point of view! Hey, I lost my sponsor, but my personal honor is still intact. All of us wage slaves have to do things every day that may compromise our integrity. It is a very rare person indeed that can go through life without sacrificing some personal integrity and honor!
There's no going back from teams and occasional pre-determined outcomes and there is absolutely nobody out there, including the Pedregons, that is completely without sin.
-90% jimmy
* this phrase is from a Zappa song, although I forget exactly which one...maybe Teenage Wind?