NiTROhype
Nitro Member
Nitromater
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The 4 wide petition????
- Thread starter Tim5636sc
- Start date
mick
Nitro Member
you're right rex, what do we know - could have been incompetence
from numerous angles.
also could have been the culmination of numerous private discussions between racers/nhra/SMI......info we are not privy to.
nevertheless - how this all came out is rather inept.
Paul
Nitro Member
Rex and Mike, I see your points but I still place most of the blame on the NHRA management. They've got to smart enough to see disasters like this building up and be in close enough contact with the PRO organization to be able to at least be able to buy some time for candid discussions before damaging letters get sent out.
This is the NHRA management's full time responsibility, PRO management is a part time effort by some pretty busy team owners. The NHRA should have had a contingency plan thought out in case the reaction to 4 wide racing wasn't as positive as they hoped for, and they should have been in close contact with the racers during this event to see how it was being received.
But clearly they didn't do either of these things, or didn't to them very well, and now once again everyone that depends on or follows or cares about the NHRA is going to pay a price for their poor management.
I try not to care about this so I don't lose any sleep over it but that never works, I do care about the NHRA and it really bugs me to keep seeing poor management harming the organization over and over and over again.
I keep hoping that some day the professional NHRA members will wake up and take back control of this organization, but I guess they are too splintered for that to happen. Maybe someday someone will arrive on the scene that is universally trusted by the racers and capable of pulling them together, unless that happens I think we're going to continue to see bad performance by the organization.
jackass
Nitro Member
Yeah, of course it's not rumor, just one side of the story............
BTW, Humpy was an employee, not the boss. As with myself, we employ people that agree with our business 'mission'. once their is significant disagreement, the boss has the last say, may it be right, or wrong.
Actualy Bruton mentioned Humpys leaving was in part due to a difference of opinion on the drag strip and other items... Humpy was what made Brutons busines into a racing empire ..so to speak. Most if not all of the racing ventures success and growth were due to Humpys leadership.. Bruton kept to his car dealerships....
I'll take your word for it, but if true, Bruton has/had the right to be wrong.
Humpy once agian talked Bruton into testing the waters with the now defunct CMS Sportsman series. which folded after two drivers were killed at then Charrlotte Motor Speedway over a couple years. IT was also reported heavily in the NASCAR media outlets how Bruton wanted his own series.
So, the NHRA is on par with NASCAR
No where near on par... which is why some feel they may be manipulated eaily... plus when winston left NASCAR learned form what they did and advanced beyond their efforts... the NHRA realisticly has grown but not at the same pace....
the first major live network broadcast was at Daytona in 1979. So when was the first major live network broadcast of a NHRA race?
We know that will never happen Drag racing isn't condusive to a live broad cast ..at least not for the entire event...
How much does ESPN2 pay the NHRA to broadcast it's tape delayed events???
sorry, the NHRA can't carry NASCARS lunchpail. Dale jr probably makes more in a year than most NHRA pros have made in their careers.
try he makes in a month
"Build it, They WILL Come", as long as you, "SHOW THEM THE MONEY!!!!
REX
We all know we cant compare NASCAR to NHRA.. different as night and day... and the same promotions and mentality won't work for both. Brutons past business dealings in and out of racing show his SOP...
Billy
Rexfiles
Nitro Member
Not being from the area, and only other than watching a few races per year, you would be more knowledgeable about this than me.
Actually, I'd kill to get someone to run my business with the motivation and skill(and loyalty) that Humpy displayed.
Most very successful businessmen delegate to people smarter than them at what they do, which in my case, at the risk of sounding very un-humble, would keep the VERY out of my resume.
My point with the NHRA comparo, is that the PRO board has much lesser weight rather than 60 signatures from NASCAR owners/drivers.
Bruton is quite rich enough to simply shrug NHRA off his shoulders.
I rather doubt it would kill his empire, as a whole, but losing six tracks would certainly put a dent in Glendora, like a mag .9 quake
What happened when concord faced off against him over the dragstrip?
They were so tough, they gave him 80 million dollars, and named a street after him!
REX
d'kid
Nitro Member
Gordon
Nitro Member
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Rexfiles
Nitro Member
"Behind every great fortune, there is a great crime"
I may have been born yesterday, but is wasn't last night...........
REX
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jackass
Nitro Member
LOL... well all i can say is i live in Rockingham NC...home fo the North Carolina Motor Speedway... which Bruton bought and well.. the rest is history as to what the local around her thought of him.....lol.. but thats another story...lol...
Realisticly thinking about this deal...
the 4-wide deal is a crap shoot as to who and how it effected the over all points race this year... it makes for a great novilty act... something different from the rest of the season. much like the Sprint All-Star event Brutons teams also has.... 4 wide makes it a different deal.... which would make it a great All-Star event for drag racing..
as far as who will win is this deal only time will tell...never mind what PRO, NHRA,Bruton or US fans have to say.... key factors are did it improve tv ratings?... did it bring in more fans? (compare days to the whole event)... compare to other events at Z-max... they have had two so far.... was it more costly for the strip, NHRA or ESPN to hold compared to the other events? thats the real bottom line.. like it or not...
But i feel IMO that Bruton will use his check book to make sure everyone knows he was right no matter what....lol...
Pro mentioned Sponsors not happy with limited tv time.. no one will take that serious until a rep from one fo the companys comes out in public and backs them up on that statement... maybe one maybe more than one.. but untill the first ones speaks out the rest will keep quiet....
Billy
Realisticly thinking about this deal...
the 4-wide deal is a crap shoot as to who and how it effected the over all points race this year... it makes for a great novilty act... something different from the rest of the season. much like the Sprint All-Star event Brutons teams also has.... 4 wide makes it a different deal.... which would make it a great All-Star event for drag racing..
as far as who will win is this deal only time will tell...never mind what PRO, NHRA,Bruton or US fans have to say.... key factors are did it improve tv ratings?... did it bring in more fans? (compare days to the whole event)... compare to other events at Z-max... they have had two so far.... was it more costly for the strip, NHRA or ESPN to hold compared to the other events? thats the real bottom line.. like it or not...
But i feel IMO that Bruton will use his check book to make sure everyone knows he was right no matter what....lol...
Pro mentioned Sponsors not happy with limited tv time.. no one will take that serious until a rep from one fo the companys comes out in public and backs them up on that statement... maybe one maybe more than one.. but untill the first ones speaks out the rest will keep quiet....
Billy
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good point
Rexfiles
Nitro Member
LOL... well all i can say is i live in Rockingham NC...home fo the North Carolina Motor Speedway... which Bruton bought and well.. the rest is history as to what the local around her thought of him.....lol.. but thats another story...lol...
Realisticly thinking about this deal...
Agreed. we have no more Winston Invitational, or Showdown. This could be a high payout, prestigious, non points event. Everyone happy.
I think TV ratings for Sunday went up 20%, which, compared to the small audience anyway, were not all that terrific as a whole, but ratings were still better. Considering the weather, and race at Martinsville, My friends that went told me Saturday was packed, and Sunday was good, considering it was raining almost everywhere else.
"SHOW ME THE MONEY"
I see the sponsor thing as a easy fix, many different approaches to that. I think PRO was swinging for the fence there. But, bottom line, this will be interesting, as many have said.
REX
mick
Nitro Member
i know - time to drop these discussions, but here's just one more
article on the concord race by an espn journalist.
Are the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals too good to be true? - ESPN
article on the concord race by an espn journalist.
Are the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals too good to be true? - ESPN
Bross Hawg
Nitro Member
I found it interesting in a link posted earlier by someone where Bruton Smith in response to the too much of a circus atmosphere he said "Isnt that what we want isnt a circus atmosphere a good thing". It seems to keep coming back to that "Racing VS Showbiz/entertainment" thing. It reminds me of when I watch the "American Nitro" movie and someone asked Don Prudhomme about people saying drag racing is more a showbiz then a sport and he says "Its unfortunate people think that way because it is a sport its a profesional thing and something I take very seriously" then Tommy Ivo even says that "They are doing there best to turn it into showbiz its unfortunate but true, because showbiz makes more money then racing does" and people were saying that back in the 70's.
