The sanctioning body stuffed every nitro-class participant's Christmas stocking with a Dec. 16 announcement that tires and the percentage of nitromethane in the fuel aren't the only items that will be under the official magnifying glass in 2005.

New technical specifications, set to take effect at the Feb. 10-13 season-opening Winternationals, target cylinder blocks and blowers. It also introduced the notion of a fixed RPM timing controller that will be mandated by the third race of the season.

Darrell Russell's fatal accident last June at St. Louis is the catalyst for the changes. Graham Light, NHRA's senior vice-president of racing operations, said they're part of ongoing efforts to battle rising costs of competing in the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes, improving safety, and "maintaining the quality of the show."

NHRA lined out the changes this way: "Beginning next season, all cylinder blocks must be forged, and blower overdrive is limited to 50 percent. The maximum percentage of nitromethane in Top Fuelers and Funny Cars remains at 85 percent, and NHRA will introduce at the Gainesville race a fixed RPM timing controller, to be set within the current range obtained by the top teams in the respective classes. For consistency purposes, in addition to the pneumatic system currently in place, NHRA will allow the use of electronic timers to be used for fuel and clutch management systems. NHRA will maintain a moratorium on engine development and require teams to use only one style of NHRA-approved nitromethane fuel engine."

In addition, NHRA declared it will "budget research and development funding to look at other ways to maintain parity in the sport" and will test carbon fiber driver enclosures for the dragsters, along with monostrut wing technology. 

"The cost to compete, not only in NHRA but all other forms of motorsports, has escalated significantly in the last few years," Light said. "As a result, and as the sanctioning body, we must maintain a balance between all competitors in the Top Fuel and Funny Car categories while focusing on providing entertaining and exciting side-by-side racing for our fans.

"The measures being taken are designed to continue the trend we saw over the last part of the 2004 season, to provide fans with close racing, and place the outcome of the race not solely on technology, but on the ability of the team to tune the car and the driver’s ability to navigate the track," he said.

John Medlen, one of four crew chiefs in the John Force Racing, and son Eric, who drives the Castrol Syntec Ford Mustang he prepares, took a positive approach. 

"It's a tough job. I wouldn't want to have it, but I think they're doing a real good job of it," John Medlen said. "I feel real comfortable that the changes they're making are going to be for the better of the sport in the long run."

Drivers and their crews are most familiar with the edict that limits the amount of nitro in the fuel mixture to 85 percent. It has been in place since the late-July Seattle event.

John Medlen says everybody seems to be adapting well. "You learn to make that same cylinder pressure. Now they've been getting them to where you got the old sound and you've got the old pressure and they're running the same or quicker. What that does, though, is it has closed up the field," he said. "You can do a lot more to tune the cars with 85 percent and they aren't as fussy with the changes. If you made a tiny change, when we had 90 percent, you can't really do it. Now you make a change, maybe double or triple that, you get about the same result. You saw it at Pomona [in the season-ending NHRA Finals]: there were 11 cars that qualified in the 4.70s. You never saw that -- ever. The 85 percent has brought back parity."

That sounds like a wonderful deal -- for the fans. "But not for us -- it's stressing us out!" Eric Medlen said.

His father agreed, saying, "It adds a degree of stress to it. Sometimes they implement those things and you don't know the end result. Nobody's been in that territory before and when you're pioneering that stuff, they make the best decision that they can and hope for the best. Probably in the long run, 85 percent will turn out to be better. It'll turn out to be a wise decision."

The Goodyear slicks seem to be behaving well through preseason testing. "The tire, knock on wood, if nothing else, is kind of getting everybody focused on those issues," John Medlen said. "When you look at that stuff long enough and hard enough, usually some good will come out of it."

Track preparation might have been a forgotten part of the equation in trying to understand how to prevent accidents like Darrell Russell's. It, too, though, is a variable than can fluctuate wildly. 

John Medlen said, "You can't prepare the track the same in every place, but the pre-race preparation, they're putting more effort into that."

But perhaps the already scheduled 2004 upgrades at several tracks have inspired NHRA. Following a wave of renovations at Gainesville, Fla., that gave the March Gatornationals some bite, the hardly insufferable Route 66 Raceway made its nearly perfect dragstrip better. Overdue resurfacing in Seattle finally brought entertaining side-by-side racing last July, and NHRA began 2005 by tearing up the Pomona Raceway launch pad and resurfacing it from 25 feet behind the starting line to 75 feet downtrack.

"They're doing way better in track preparation," John Medlen said. Chad Head [NHRA national event planning manager] has been real instrumental in that."

Added Eric Medlen, "He's real strict sometimes. You have to be."

The result, John Medlen said, is that "we've got a better race track, a better tire, and a safer race car today."

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Whit Bazemore, driver of the Don Schumacher-owned Matco Tools Iron Eagle Dodge Stratus Funny Car:
"It's becoming more and more limited in terms of innovations. You're not free to innovate anymore."

Donnie Bender, assistant crew chief  for driver Larry Dixon and the Miller Lite Dragster:
"Hopefully, NHRA will have a rules package that won't change in the middle of the year, so we can continue to work on our tune-up and refine it during the season. When they changed rules every race [in 2004], we got behind and we never really caught up."

Brandon Bernstein, driver of the Budweiser/Lucas Oil Dragster:
"The big challenge for all the teams this year is trying to shorten the learning curve on the new MSD ignition. Tim [crew chief Tim Richards], Kim [Richards], and the team are working on getting a baseline. The new electronic technology will react and respond differently than the air system we've used through the years. Tim's feeling is that it will be great once we learn all of its intricacies.
"Championships are always about consistency, and it will be key to have a good showing at the first couple of races so that you're not trying to play catch-up from the start."

Larry Dixon, driver of the Miller Lite Dragster:
"Now I know how the [NASCAR Nextel] Cup guys felt when they had to use restrictor plates.   . . . There is a major rule change coming at Gainesville in March with the ignition. With the given rules package that we'll have for the first two races, I have a good feeling that we'll be able to compete with the top cars. After the first two races, we've just got to wait and see how much that changes things, but I'm confident entering the season.

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Wayne Dupuy, crew chief for driver Morgan Lucas and the Amato Racing/Lucas Oil Dragster:
"It's not going to bother us that much. We've got a lot of good stuff right now. We're making good power and have some new personnel and that's helping out a lot. We're keeping everything fresh on the car. We ought to be looking good for Pomona."

Robert Hight, rookie driver of the John Force-owned Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang Funny Car:
"No matter what the rules are, I have to learn how to drive. All the different situations that I haven't faced yet, I've got to learn to deal with them."

Tommy Johnson Jr., driver of Snake Racing's  Skoal Chevy Monte Carlo Funny Car:
"As long as it is a safe package I'm not really too concerned. I've never been a big fan of slowing the cars down. I am all about trying to break barriers. If the cars become unsafe, then I like the idea of controlling the speed until we can figure out how to make them safer at faster speeds."

Connie Kalitta, owner of the Mac Tools/Zantrex-3 Dragsters:
"They're talking about a tub for the chassis, which is, in my opinion, is going backwards. It is. The tub factor, which is the basis for IRL or Formula One racing, has a totally different factor than what this thing is here. They can crash in many different ways. This thing goes down a slot. It's like a slot car. In crashing it, you need the 4130 chromoly around you. You really do. It's much safer than somebody trying to come up with a tub car. The problem is we have some people at NHRA who think [a prominent technical official] is a rocket scientist, and he's a [expletive] idiot, in my opinion -- and I've told him so straightforward. It is what it is. He came around with this, and [I said], 'Where are you going with this? What are you trying to prove?' He can't answer me because he don't know. We have an organization that's a sanctioning body that are not business people. It's not done like a business. There's five of us on this committee -- a group of people that understand the cars very, very well -- and we've given our input. They really don't want to adhere to it. They just knee-jerk on everything. Trust me, I have told them straightforward right  to their face about it. I have nothing to hide on it. I've been in this sport longer than all them people have. I started in it when it basically started off. I had my first dragster in 1958, so I go back a ways. I've been a very strong innovator in the sport, and I've had a lot of help with a lot of it. So I understand pretty much what the ups and downs are. They don't. They're not even good businessmen.

"We had a death. The death shouldn't have happened. It was a very, very queer deal. The tire was a bad tire. I blame us as racing groups, knowing that the tire was failing. NHRA knew it was failing, and so did Goodyear. So all three entities should've stepped up and said, 'Stop!' We never had anybody die because of a tire. We didn't think we'd have a tire take a person out. That's really what happened. That was a wake-up call to everybody. And I blame everybody for it, me included, all right? I've got my son [Scott Kalitta] driving a car, and I've got my nephew [Doug Kalitta] driving a car, and I've got Davey [Grubnic] driving a car. I'm very much familiar with what's going on. Until Darrell's death, I felt the tire has been failing but the tire hasn't exploded, like it did. It finally did. Hindsight's 20/20." 

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Doug Kalitta, who owns the two quickest elapsed times (4.420 and 4.428 seconds) and fastest speed (335.57 mph) in NHRA Top Fuel history:  
"We'll just work with what we've got and see how it goes. Actually, on Scott's car, they were using some of the stuff that became mandated this year. So Rahn [crew chief Rahn Tobler] seems to be adapted to it pretty well. Connie [team owner Connie Kalitta, his uncle] has seen just about everything that's gone on around here over the decades in drag racing.

Jon Oberhofer, crew chief for driver David Grubnic and the Zantrex-3 Dragster:
"NHRA has stepped up with the rev limiter deal, and they've paid people to put that on and test, which they've never done before. Maybe they'll pay somebody to put the monostrut wing on. Maybe it's a good idea. I don't know."

Tony Pedregon, owner/driver of the Quaker State Chevy Monte Carlo Funny Car:
"I think we got a good enough jump on 'em [new rules] that I don't think it's not going to set anyone back too much. I think it’s going to be a much better year. We've already got established a tire that works. It's proven. So there's not going to be a big tire issue. I think everyone has adapted to the 85 percent rule. I think NHRA has done a good job in not allowing some of the heavier-funded teams to really get too far out there. You don't want it to become about money, even though it already is. Sometimes you can't stop the machine and that's growth and that's good for the sport. They've done a very good job, as has NASCAR, in maintaining a certain level of performance. I think that's going to help us deliver a good TV package. At some point the driver makes a difference. As long as it doesn't get too out of hand, the driver's going to have a lot to do with a car winning and  losing. I like the idea of that, because I think I'm young, and I'm feeling better than ever. I know I'm going up against some guys who've got some good wheels.  . . .      
"There were a lot of other teams that knew about the [mid-season 2004] rule before it was in place, and we didn't understand that. There's some kind of inter-politicking with NHRA that I think we understand a little bit better." 

Tony Schumacher, reigning Top Fuel champion and driver of the U.S. Army Dragster:
"I don't know too many of 'em. I read it and stuff like that, but there's nothing I'm going to be able to do to change that. Alan [crew chief Alan Johnson] can control and handle that a lot better than me. There's no reason for me to know any of that stuff. The less I know about that stuff, the better I am. I just get in the car and do my thing.

"I need to know when the light comes on. I need to know what to do when it shakes. I need to know what to do when it smokes the tires. I need to know when to pull the parachutes. And I need to know when the car is out of my control -- which it is sometimes, unfortunately."

Del Worsham, driver of the Checker Schuck's Kragen Chevy Monte Carlo Funny Car and runner-up in the final 2004 standings:
"I overcame a lot of rule changes last year. The 85 percent nitro didn't help us at all. Tires, fuel, nothing seemed to stop [John Force]. Rules changes weren't good. Whether we still would've had a shot at it, it's hard to say. He ran awfully well. All I hope is we all knew about the rules at the same time. Before Houston, I called NHRA Tech up. I said, 'Hey, there's a new tire out, and it doesn't appear to be as good as the old tire. How long can we run this older tire?' They said, 'Until they're gone.' I said, "Are you sure? I'm going to call around the country. I'm going to call every warehouse and buy every tire I can get right now.' We were good, we're running races -- There had been 10 races and we won five of them. They said, 'Go ahead. You'll be fine to run them.' So I go around, spend a ton of money, buy all the tires that I can buy. I see Ray [Alley, NHRA Director of Top Fuel and Funny Car Racing] come walking over at Houston with his chin down, and I said, 'What's going on, Ray? I know you're not here to tell me I can't run all those tires I just bought.' He said, 'You need to sit down,' and I said, 'Oh, no, I'm not sitting down.' He said, 'Yep, you can't run your tires. There was a vote. A bunch of racers got together and you've been vetoed, and all your tires at this point are null. So you'd better start running the new ones.' So we have all these tires, we're ready to go racing . . . It possibly could have been an advantage. When I called all these different dealerships and warehouses, I asked each one, 'Am I the first guy to call?' They said, 'Yeah, no one else has called us, looking for tires. You’re the first guy.' Then we go on to Houston and we lose by one-thousandth of a second to Tim Wilkerson. We lost the weekend before by one-thousandth.  . . . We had the tires. No one else did. I was told, 'You can run these tires until they're gone,' I was told 36 hours later, 'By the way, you can't run these tires anymore.'  So that was the rule. That was that.