Buster was in a good mood that day.I wasn't a fan of the double DQ. I see NHRA's side, they disobeyed the starter, so they are in violation of the rules, so they were DQ'd. But I don't necessarily agree with how the starter handled the situation on the line either. The starter could have shut them off earlier (instead of letting it go on for 3+ minutes) and backed them up, gave them a talking to, and then rolled them back in. See: Couch, Buster
The Buster Couch days are long gone and its a different world now.. Bruno's been at the drag racing game a long time and knows better than to let that go on for that long and the driver in the other car is 18 and still learning the ropes. The rules are clear that the starter runs the starting line and while he was was willing to give them some lattitude but they both went past that limit. Lesson given and hopefully learned.
In the interest of safety and moving the show along I don't think sending them would have been a great idea, one of both of them could have blown a motor resulting in a oiled track or an accident, burn downs can be great for the show and the fans, but I doubt the fans would be happy with a long track cleanup. JMOI found it very entertaining for a normally quite boring Pro Camaro class. I thought Hardy displayed way more patience than Buster or Rick would have, in fact, so much so, he should have just let them go and see if someone could stage and take the (win) light on fumes - the place would have erupted. I think they only have 2 gal fuel cells anymore, so they couldn't have had much left.