Mid-season reflecting...

[Fast455]

Okay, we're quite far into the season and I was wondering what everyone thinks so far. I'm still not a fan of the Chase - it has made several factors (i.e. DNQ's) less earth-shaking than before. There's also the feeling that those who don't make the Eight at Indy may simply not see a huge need to be at each race. Maybe I'm wrong -

I'm missing the ol' days when the guy with a respectable points lead could feel comfortable in the knowledge that he/she wasn't going to be back to back to square one come Indy.

Maybe it's just because this season has been so full of drama (crew chief changes by the bucket load) and the loss of Eric. Something just seems off -

It's late, I'm bummed because of Mike Edwards DNQ, and I'm just curious what everyone thinks.

Blessings,
Linda

 

[PJ]

Well I think my opinion of the chase is pretty well known

I don't like how know they keep talking about the race for 8th place?!?!? Who the hell wants to be #8? I thought the idea of racing or competing in any sport was to be #1. I don't get it, maybe I just have too much pride but I wouldn't want to win a championship under such welfare rules as these.

-Night qualifying: its a crowd pleaser and it must stay but efforts need to be made to have that not be the only chance people have at getting into the show. Back up Saturdays session a few hours.

-The cost of the sport: NHRA needs to work with teams in gaining sponsorships instead of competing with them. Also efforts need to be looked at to keep the cost down. I'm no expert but enough crew people have said that its more expensive on parts to run on 85% then it is on 90%. Go back to 90% and adjust something else to take away some speed.

-The sale: I want to believe it will be good but after being fed the chase crap all season I can't trust anything that comes out of Glendora now. We need a combination of true race people as well as marketing, sponsorr and business savvy people running the show. It doesn't appear we have all areas of that covered now and the sale hasn't shown that this will change.

-Marketing: I was always surprised at how small minded the race teams are in selling items. Most have very miminal websites and with the tour only going to 21 different venues you really limit your sales. Plus with there being so many different teams its scattered. I would love to see a colaborative effort where people couold go online to one place and buy anything from Hillary Will and V Gaines, to Karen Stoffer and Kenny Bernstein items. Even nhra stuff and event shirts. yes of course I'd love to run this too but there is a larger market available that just isn't being tapped.


-Funny Car: Funny car has been amazing this season, dnq's all over the place. no predictability. Who would have though Jeff Arend would be the lone person to qualify for each event? Who would think a guy could win, dnq 2 races in a row then win again? Hmm and all of this without a fake championship but I digress....

 

[Fast455]

Well I think my opinion of the chase is pretty well known

I don't like how know they keep talking about the race for 8th place?!?!? Who the hell wants to be #8? I thought the idea of racing or competing in any sport was to be #1. I don't get it, maybe I just have too much pride but I wouldn't want to win a championship under such welfare rules as these.

-Night qualifying: its a crowd pleaser and it must stay but efforts need to be made to have that not be the only chance people have at getting into the show. Back up Saturdays session a few hours.

-The cost of the sport: NHRA needs to work with teams in gaining sponsorships instead of competing with them. Also efforts need to be looked at to keep the cost down. I'm no expert but enough crew people have said that its more expensive on parts to run on 85% then it is on 90%. Go back to 90% and adjust something else to take away some speed.

-The sale: I want to believe it will be good but after being fed the chase crap all season I can't trust anything that comes out of Glendora now. We need a combination of true race people as well as marketing, sponsorr and business savvy people running the show. It doesn't appear we have all areas of that covered now and the sale hasn't shown that this will change.

-Marketing: I was always surprised at how small minded the race teams are in selling items. Most have very miminal websites and with the tour only going to 21 different venues you really limit your sales. Plus with there being so many different teams its scattered. I would love to see a colaborative effort where people couold go online to one place and buy anything from Hillary Will and V Gaines, to Karen Stoffer and Kenny Bernstein items. Even nhra stuff and event shirts. yes of course I'd love to run this too but there is a larger market available that just isn't being tapped.


-Funny Car: Funny car has been amazing this season, dnq's all over the place. no predictability. Who would have though Jeff Arend would be the lone person to qualify for each event? Who would think a guy could win, dnq 2 races in a row then win again? Hmm and all of this without a fake championship but I digress....

PJ,

Thanks for the well thought out response. I've hesitated saying anything about this since it's negative. On the plus side, we've seen some very talented drivers enter the sport - and, hopefully, there will be sponsors to keep them in the game.

Tonight I just had about my millionth (okay, slight exaggeration) argument with my niece who is a die-hard NASCAR fan. If the car doesn't go around and around and around in her mind it isn't racing (and heaven help you if you say ANYTHING bad about Jeff Gordon!). I hope that NHRA gets the same amount of airtime during NASCAR races to announce our upcoming racedates and times that is given during an NHRA race. That publicity alone would be worth a lot! I don't watch NASCAR - does anyone know if this happens?

As for night qualifying - last year I attended my first big race. For over 15 years, we raced locally and the nearest experience to a big race was the occasional Night of Fire, etc. There is NO comparison between what you see on television and experiencing the sight of header flames in the pitch black cover of night. As you said, this is something that must stay because even new fans can get into this! Perhaps tweaking a bit of the schedule is needed as you mentioned to accomodate the fact so that this session doesn't negatively impact racers. How do the drivers feel about night qualifying anyway? Does anyone know?

Yes, I completely agree with you regarding the jockeying for 8th place! Do you think that the Chase will ever fade into the sunset or is it here for good? I'm hoping that the sale will bring some changes.

This sport has good publicity appeal - speed, teamwork and accessibility for the common guy/gal. I'd love to see that pushed more!!!

Off to begin inventory of 4th cooking supplies ~

Linda

 

[megadeth]

What I don't like about the chase is that cars outside the final 8 spot are just a few or less rounds out and some outside the top 10 are 100 or less a streak of couple of good races and they would be in the hunt under the old rules know after Indy they have nothing to shoot for and to me it plain out right "SUCKS"!
Last years Top Fuel final were Tony came back from over 300 points back was awesome to watch play out those days are gone. I think it takes something away and could effect future sponsors down the road not to mention entries at the races after Indy.

 

[john]

So it sucks.

 

[BlueStangGT]

What I don't like about the chase is that cars outside the final 8 spot are just a few or less rounds out and some outside the top 10 are 100 or less a streak of couple of good races and they would be in the hunt under the old rules know after Indy they have nothing to shoot for and to me it plain out right "SUCKS"!
Last years Top Fuel final were Tony came back from over 300 points back was awesome to watch play out those days are gone. I think it takes something away and could effect future sponsors down the road not to mention entries at the races after Indy.

For the record I'm still on the fence about the whole chase thing. That being said, while Shoe's amazing run last year was just that, amazing, it was also highly improbable and not likely to ever happen again, chase or no chase, so I'm only a little bummed about losing the prospect of that type of miraculous dash to the finish. (I reserve the right to change my mind about this ) One thing the chase has done is to really light a fire under those teams that are 5-6 rounds out of the top 8 as well as those who are a few away from dropping out and I think that this provides the distinct possiblilty that we'll see some amazing racing in over the next 2 months. I guess the jury's still out on the whole concept as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Toejam]

As long as cars in the Top 3 win the championship I think anyone will care a whole lot. BUT.....Should a car in 7th-8th at Indy mysteriously Step it up a TON and win the whole thing, you'll see a Revolt like non other in Motorsports!

 

[PJ]

I don't intend to sound neagtive in fact until the countdown thing I was usually an nhra cheerleader but when my sport is being sabotaged and the intergrity of the championship being comprimised....well I get a little worked up

I think we have the best sport in the world. Now granted I'm speaking the choir here as we are all die hard fans here but the effort to grow the sport is important.

I think the 2 sanctioning bodies need to work together on some things. On their websites they should list any track (approved as there are some unsafe tracks out there) not just nhra on their site or ihra on theirs. To get people to the track is a very important and seemingly overlooked need. Promote racing your own street car, I do and its a blast. You'd be surprised how many people become fans because they went to a local track on a regular weekend and either watched sportsman guys or were able to enter their daily driver in something. From there they learn of tv coverage of the pro's and a new fan is born. I don't mean it as an insult but ihra is a minor league in comparrision to nhra. They could work on developing some type of relationship that could help each of them. Think busch series to nascar or minor league baseball to the mlb. For nhra the I side goes into markets that we are not in. Several Canadian stops, Michigan, the Northeast and Oklahoma. TV coverage should include mentions about getting out the your local track, also most casual fans have no idea about sportsmen racing, do a sportsman spotlight on the regular broadcast. Explain bracket racing, peole look at me cross eyed when I tell them I race my car until I explain bracket, now I have people who want to go race their car even though they are not fans (at least not yet, I'm still working on it)


Ticket prices- I am very grateful that kids tickets are less money, that is a huge help on families going to the track and getting kids hooked young makes them lifelong fans (I am an example of that) However to get a first timer to shell out $50 is a bit steep. I've had several people who I've talked into going but they think $20-25, when I drop the price on them they are turned off.

Live coverage as much as many people want this I don't think our sport is well suited for live coverage. Maybe the final round but that is it and with the timing of a whole day of events it would be torture trying to get things lined up right to show the finals live. Obviously it would be at the end of the show so what happens if the fc oil down, you have a 20 minute clean up, does coverage overlap then? Do they bounce back when the tf runs? I think tape delaying and packaging the show as they do now into a 3 hour show is perfect. I also think they need to aim at a certain time slot. Its rough from week to week remembering if its on at 5 or 11 or anywhere in between. I doubt nhra really has much control over that as it would be an espn2 call.

product placement- sell our stuff in walmart and more then just shirts. I used to have drag racing sheets on my bed as a kid and beachtowels and such now you can't find any of that. Also we need to aim more stuff at kids, hook em young.

 

[PJ]

As long as cars in the Top 3 win the championship I think anyone will care a whole lot. BUT.....Should a car in 7th-8th at Indy mysteriously Step it up a TON and win the whole thing, you'll see a Revolt like non other in Motorsports!

My dream is that Force finsishes 9th or 10th, missed the chase then goes on and wins the last 6 races. To the point where he would have won under the true rules or at least would come down to him vs ??? at pomona in a winner take all race. Either that or with all the dnq this year the top 4 in funny car all dnq at the finals. Zapp the forced fake a$$ drama right out of this system.

My bigger worry is that as stubborn as the powers that be are about this system (try to ask them sometime) if it does fail. Will they be wise enough to go back to the way it should be or will they monkey with it further as nascar has done.