Who got screwed by the countdown? (3 Viewers)

[Sully]

Way back when the Finals determoned the champion, the drivers competed regionally instead of nationally, so the only way to name a national champion was to have a runoff. No longer applies.

Football had to go to a playoiff when the leagues merged and the number of teams reached the point where they didn't play every other team during the season. That rationale does not apply to drag racing.

Just because the other sports have found a marvelous sorce of money in having protracted plaoff series following the protracted pre- and regular- seasons is no reason for drag racing to adopt a similar format.

Let's see, why did we end up with this abortion? Oh, yeah, last season was soooo boring that artificial hype was the only way to save drag racing - or maybe it was the only way to line certain pockets??

Post-season tickets in all other sports are more expensive and are scalped at even higher prices - can't wait to see how much the post-season drag race ticket prices get jacked up with the new format.

 

[Bullard Anderson]

The way I see it 5th thru 8th got a some exsposure they wouldn't have usually gotten. All the complaining about teams not in the countdown getting no media. Really? I guess because every other year until 2007 the TV coverage and print has been about that "heated" 10th place race.

Guys, The TV is focused on covering racing on the track. And with 3 hours to get it done the producer has to fit in 3 classes (sometimes 4), plus Scelzi Sez . NHRA Tv coverage (unlike NASCAR ) offers a good thing, if your're running, ESPN has no choice but to show your car and you're sponsor.

I see nothing really changed. If you ran 11th this year, you got 11th place coverage.

And let's be honest, being in the Top 8 with 6 to go means you need to be in the Top 50% of your class each raceday. Just saying for those who qualify.

When this thing began my complaint was that 8 cars/bikes is too much.

 

[None]

We all have, and are certainly entiltled to our opinions, Rich....With the polls showing 80%+ of fans NOT liking the countown, thats tough to ignore...

I'd bet there's a portion of that 80% that don't even know what they're watching. All they care about is noise and racing. They go to one race a year and don't even follow the sport on a weekly basis. When one whiner explains the deal to the person sitting next to them, then you have two whiners. The winners won and that's it. Capps didn't have a competitive car for whatever reason, so hasta la vista. Pedregon tried to throw it away at the end. Fuller did himself in and Shoe showed that he and AJ would be there if somebody stumbled. Anderson did it to himself as did the little temper tantrum puller, Connelly and Jeggy stepped right in and did what he does best. Motorcycles? Time to go the head.

 

[Nitrohaulic]

that is correct but as the sport evolved it was realized that making the entire season important was better for the sport. Now with the countdown we have regressed but you get 2 races to win it all now

I'd like to see someone post a chart listing how many and what "national events" NHRA has had during the years that also shows when they went from that to what we now consider to the be conventional, pre-Countdown method.

 

[Tony]

The Countdown is a real shame.

Comparatively speaking, NASCAR has hundred of laps to make up for mistakes in the final stage of their Chase, pro ball teams have hours of game play to make the win light come on for them. Drag racers have anywhere from 36 seconds (4.5 seconds x 8 rounds) of racing to 56 seconds (7.0 seconds x 8 rounds) of racing depending on which class we are talking about to win a championship. I feel this whole countdown thing has no place in Drag Racing whatsoever. There is absolutely no margin for error and that doesn't hold true for any other sporting event in the world that has a playoff format! NHRA is completely clueless in my opinion.

I feel for the teams who got the shaft. But I congratulate the champions as everyone was playing by the same rules. I vote for no Countdown, and that's my 2 cents.

Tony

 

[willy]

The Countdown is a real shame.

Comparatively speaking, NASCAR has hundred of laps to make up for mistakes in the final stage of their Chase, pro ball teams have hours of game play to make the win light come on for them. Drag racers have anywhere from 36 seconds (4.5 seconds x 8 rounds) of racing to 56 seconds (7.0 seconds x 8 rounds) of racing depending on which class we are talking about to win a championship. I feel this whole countdown thing has no place in Drag Racing whatsoever. There is absolutely no margin for error and that doesn't hold true for any other sporting event in the world that has a playoff format! NHRA is completely clueless in my opinion.

I feel for the teams who got the shaft. But I congratulate the champions as everyone was playing by the same rules. I vote for no Countdown, and that's my 2 cents.

Tony

Now THAT was a well thought out post..from someone who knows.

Thanks Tony

 

[Sully]

Actually, if you believe what Tony Schumacher said after winning the title, the fans at all the races before Vegas 2 got screwed because their team was in test mode all that time - that's why he lost so many first-round matchups. They didn't start running for real until the Countdown to One. Or that's what he said - well, not exactly, but he blamed all the first round losses on testing and he lost three out of four in the Countdown to Four. I still haven't figured out how he managed to sneak into the fortunate four after doing so badly in the not-so-great eight - I thought the idea was to cut it down to the best four. I guess the four teams that didn't make the penultimate cut really stunk the place up between Maple Grove and Vegas. Out of the sixteen rounds contested in the second phase, Schumacher won exactly four rounds. Sure looks like championship material to me!! NOT!!

 

[NHRADeuce]

Granted, it MIGHT be a bit skewed (although, I don't think so...), but even if it was, the results are still overwhelming that the fans don't like it...Some of you can bit$h an moan about it, but a fact is a fact.

Those results are hardly overwhelming at all. Less than 160 people voted, all from a hard core race site. If you want to talk about overwhelming statistics, let's talk about PJ's countdown petition. There are over 80k NHRA members. It is safe to say that there are many more NHRA fans, but let's use the 80k number for the sake of argument. Also keep in mind that PJ's petition was mentioned on several huge drag racing sites other than the Mater so it is pretty safe to say that many thousands of people saw the petition.

Consider this -
1. 1572 people signed the petition
2. The 'Mater has 3831 members as of today, so only 41% of 'Maters signed
3. Given the 80k NHRA members, if EVERY person who signed is a member, less than 2% of members signed the petition.

Those statistics are much more telling than ~160 people responding to a loaded question.

Personally, I really enjoyed the Countdown. The cutoff to 8 was incredibly suspenseful for us. The Finals were great and 2 classes went down to the final round. FC was the only bummer. The only change I would make is eliminating the cutoff to 4. Set the top 8 at Indy then let all 8 fight it out to the end.

 

[PJ]

Those results are hardly overwhelming at all. Less than 160 people voted, all from a hard core race site. If you want to talk about overwhelming statistics, let's talk about PJ's countdown petition. There are over 80k NHRA members. It is safe to say that there are many more NHRA fans, but let's use the 80k number for the sake of argument. Also keep in mind that PJ's petition was mentioned on several huge drag racing sites other than the Mater so it is pretty safe to say that many thousands of people saw the petition.

Consider this -
1. 1572 people signed the petition
2. The 'Mater has 3831 members as of today, so only 41% of 'Maters signed
3. Given the 80k NHRA members, if EVERY person who signed is a member, less than 2% of members signed the petition.

Those statistics are much more telling than ~160 people responding to a loaded question.

Personally, I really enjoyed the Countdown. The cutoff to 8 was incredibly suspenseful for us. The Finals were great and 2 classes went down to the final round. FC was the only bummer. The only change I would make is eliminating the cutoff to 4. Set the top 8 at Indy then let all 8 fight it out to the end.

well since you have much better connections then I do. Put the petition on an email chain. I would think you'd have access to membership email list or at least a large business one. Or give them a choice start one in favor of the petition and tell them to sign one or the other

 

[PJ]

The way I see it 5th thru 8th got a some exsposure they wouldn't have usually gotten. All the complaining about teams not in the countdown getting no media. Really? I guess because every other year until 2007 the TV coverage and print has been about that "heated" 10th place race.

Guys, The TV is focused on covering racing on the track. And with 3 hours to get it done the producer has to fit in 3 classes (sometimes 4), plus Scelzi Sez . NHRA Tv coverage (unlike NASCAR ) offers a good thing, if your're running, ESPN has no choice but to show your car and you're sponsor.

I see nothing really changed. If you ran 11th this year, you got 11th place coverage.

And let's be honest, being in the Top 8 with 6 to go means you need to be in the Top 50% of your class each raceday. Just saying for those who qualify.

When this thing began my complaint was that 8 cars/bikes is too much.

true the focus would still have been on the ones fighting for the top but others at least get recognozed. Doug K went to two finals and they could not even bother to interview him until the final.

 

[Husky]

Those results are hardly overwhelming at all. Less than 160 people voted, all from a hard core race site. If you want to talk about overwhelming statistics, let's talk about PJ's countdown petition. There are over 80k NHRA members. It is safe to say that there are many more NHRA fans, but let's use the 80k number for the sake of argument. Also keep in mind that PJ's petition was mentioned on several huge drag racing sites other than the Mater so it is pretty safe to say that many thousands of people saw the petition.

Consider this -
1. 1572 people signed the petition
2. The 'Mater has 3831 members as of today, so only 41% of 'Maters signed
3. Given the 80k NHRA members, if EVERY person who signed is a member, less than 2% of members signed the petition.

Those statistics are much more telling than ~160 people responding to a loaded question.

Personally, I really enjoyed the Countdown. The cutoff to 8 was incredibly suspenseful for us. The Finals were great and 2 classes went down to the final round. FC was the only bummer. The only change I would make is eliminating the cutoff to 4. Set the top 8 at Indy then let all 8 fight it out to the end.

I totally agree, except I would do away with the Countdown! It cheated fans of seeing quality racing at certain races. I can't see that being a positive. They didn't get what they paid for.

 

[Ronny Robinson]

Consider this -
1. 1572 people signed the petition
2. The 'Mater has 3831 members as of today, so only 41% of 'Maters signed

That percentage is somewhat skewed, the number of "active members" is 1249 as of today. There are an awful lot that never come on here anymore, so probably aren't aware a petition even exist.

 

[john]

I would think that a considerable percent of the people that favor the crapdown are because it is their heros who have won the Chumpionship. We will see if they repeat when said heros don't win next year.

 

[PJ]

I would think that a considerable percent of the people that favor the crapdown are because it is their heros who have won the Chumpionship. We will see if they repeat when said heros don't win next year.

and thats part of the problem with it. Drivers who complained early on then benefitted from it throughout the process all of a sudden liked it. It seems rather hypocritical. Is either good or bad, right or wrong. Too many racers and fans seem to take to view of deciding if it screws or helps their favorite or not.

For me one of my favorites did win and one that I generally root against got hosed. For some they would view that as good, personally I still think the whole ordeal is wrong

 

[farmje]

Guys and guys,

I totally respect your opinions (most of them), but let this go. NHRA will not listen to you. They don't care.

Many racers are thankful for the countdown, as it gave many of them a shot to do something they wouldn't have been otherwise able to do.

It does no good to bicker and complain. What's done is done. What's decided has been decided. All you can do is sit back and support the sport that has brought us so much joy as fans over the years.

I don't understand why we keep playing this game like 1st graders do.

Many of you just need to grow up.

 

[john]

Many racers are thankful for the countdown, as it gave many of them a shot to do something they wouldn't have been otherwise able to do.

Yeah, three people that took home trophys for it.

 

[PJ]

I don't understand why trying to have an honest discussion needs to be thought of as kids fightig. For the most part people on both sides have been behaved, there are always a few chumps but I think its been ok for the most part.

Do you talk about the weather, your favorite sports team, politics? These too are issues that the general person has no control over yet its ok to talk about them.

Look at the number of comments and views on threads. People look and comment on the ones that they want.

I would love to talk about something else.

 

[Sully]

Just because somebody has a bad idea and is in a position to shove it down our throats is insufficient reason for us to "sit back and enjoy the sport." The current Countdown structure compeletely ruined the 2007 championship - I enjoyed the races, but not the "championship process" and I believe that in at least two instances, the championship went to a driver with a season record not worthy of the honor.

If they had cut the field to the top ten (remember that, a time-honored end-of-season achievement formerly honored by being invited to the stage at the awards ceremony and the right to wear car numbers 1-10 the following year?) at Indy and let them fight it out, then we wouldn't be faced with one-race wonders wearing the crown and we wouldn't see racers in the top ten fighting a "glass ceiling" that keeps them from moving closer to the top. While I still prefer the old system, I could live with one that makes Indy the start of the championship season because it eliminates the crapshoot we saw this year with the two-event championship format. Might as well take the top four and have them play rock-scissors-paper, because one round-one loss leaves no chance for recovery with the 2007 format.

I believe that was the initial reaction of most of the teams and drivers - the initial cutdown (to eight, ten would be better) was acceptable, the second, two-event countdown was not. We lived with it for one year, let's not screw it up that way next year (and three races isn't much better than two).

Oh, yeah, several winning and disappointed drivers all said pretty much the same thing in their post-season interviews at Pomona. If a countdown is necessary (and that's not universally accepted), the championship "post-season" needs to be longer and the need for the second countdown is unclear, unless it's solely to improve ticket sales at the Pomona Finals.

 

[Tony]

I for one am not a fan of the countdown. Like many have said, cut it down to 10 after Indy and let it go to the end of the season. Isn't a Championship a culmination of a entire years work, not just two races? Cutting the Championship to two events makes it weigh as much as 2 event wins, not a year long championship battle. Might as well make the championship payout a race win times 2, because that is all it is.

I hope NHRA can see what is happening here and make some adjustments, but we have a better chance of them creating world peace. The more people complain and state their protest the more they will dig their heels in and say this is the way it is. Remember the Pro Stock Truck deal? Even if it makes sense to change or over turn the original descision, they make a decision and it is FINAL, which is pretty sad.


Tony

 

[jpee]

Actually, if you believe what Tony Schumacher said after winning the title, the fans at all the races before Vegas 2 got screwed because their team was in test mode all that time - that's why he lost so many first-round matchups.


They didn't start running for real until the Countdown to One. Or that's what he said - well, not exactly, but he blamed all the first round losses on testing and he lost three out of four in the Countdown to Four.


Schumacher won exactly four rounds. Sure looks like championship material to me!! NOT!!

Larry your 100% right.. with that being said, I Demand a Recount of the points in "vBookie" I was betting on Schumacher, thinking he was trying to WIN.. now I find they were just testing, & I lost all those points... I could have made the "Bookie" countdown if I knew that