NHRA national events are all about the nitro. If you took out the nitro, you would SIGNIFICANTLY reduce attendance.
Who's talking about taking out the nitro? That's a silly perversion of what I was saying.
What I _am_ saying is they create a video showing what an amazing experience an NHRA national event is, they talk about how cool it is, how loud it is, etc. They talk about the manufacturer's midway, the pit pass, the food for christ's sake (which will kill you...). They show flashes of dozens of ladies, they show overhead pictures of all the tents/trailers/etc, they even show the frigging t-shirt a-holes who drive everyone nuts. But they neglect to point out the vast majority of the cars and participants on the property?
Look, I'm not asking anyone to stay in the stands while the Super Comp cars run, what I'm saying is there are reasons why NHRA invites all the pro-stock and sportsman people to the event. They're time fillers between pro rounds, yes. But they're also important space fillers who turn what would be a 32 car traveling curiosity into a huge spectacle of 10 times that many cool cars. It makes what would be two rows of elite semi-trailers loaded with cubic dollars into a huge car show where everyone can imagine being a part of it. You can see the progression from the guy in his car that's just a daily driver with slicks to the wheel-standing 69 Nova in Comp to the alcohol cars to the nitro cars. You can see real people with a pickup and trailer and get some idea how the Forces with their 6 semis and million-dollar motorhome got there.
One of the key things that separates NHRA drag racing from the circus or a big concert is that _you_ can participate. I can't imagine how one goes from their back yard to Ringling Brothers, but because of NHRA national events, we race today. We saw the cars at national events and went "hey, we could do that". The vast majority of people in the pits (at any event, national, divisional, or otherwise) are there for the same reason.
An NHRA National event IS a huge spectacle with hundreds of cars and drivers, with all kinds of sights, sounds, and smells. It's an amazing thing you just have to see to believe. But a huge reason why it is that is because of a lot more than the 32 or so people at the top of the sport. I just thought a promotional video (that spent almost 3 minutes and wasn't apparently constricted by time) might acknowledge that, even if only for a couple of brief flashes and maybe 1/2 a sentence out of Dave's mouth.
