The Lucas Oil NHRA Drag Racing Series and Super Gas division in particular, are sitting on a potential media home run.

To hear some of the discussions in drag racing circles, the prospect has flown over the heads of many who profess to be drag racing experts.

This potential media payday is the prospect of NASCAR star Kurt Busch racing Super Gas at the upcoming NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

The Lucas Oil NHRA Drag Racing Series and Super Gas division in particular, are sitting on a potential media home run.

To hear some of the discussions in drag racing circles, the prospect has flown over the heads of many who profess to be drag racing experts.

This potential media payday is the prospect of NASCAR star Kurt Busch racing Super Gas at the upcoming NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla.

The possibilities are endless. The media exposure the sport of drag racing and one of its most obscure sportsman divisions could obtain staggers the mind. Kurt Busch gets coverage serving hamburgers in Atlanta while the world of drag racing struggles to get mentions of actual racing events.

While the sport of drag racing community should be licking its chops at the prospect of a bite from NASCAR’s once impenetrable market share [at least for drag racing], you have many message boards and Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com readers demanding this media magnet scratch the notion from his head.

In their eyes, the thought of Busch drag racing isn’t the issue, nor is it his talents as a driver or the neat-looking classic Mopar he plans to drive. Busch dares to want to compete without the necessary grade points required for the average drag racer to gain admission to a national event.

Sometimes I wonder if some can truly see the forest for the trees. In perusing the debates and reading our emails, it has become clear the Average Joe demands the NHRA cut their nose off to spite their face.

So let’s look at why the NHRA adopted their grading point procedure in the first place. The requirement was put in place to ensure the higher funded sportsman teams would visit their divisional events instead of passing them by to run rival sanctions. The best example was when former Comp racer David Nickens passed over several of the NHRA divisional races with his Comp car to partake in the IHRA’s Factory Modified division, a heads-up and no breakout division. The class was billed as a junior Pro Stock division.

The NHRA made it known Nickens, if you want to run the nationals, then you have to run the little races. Thus was born the David Nickens rule, also known as grading points.

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Now that regulation might be put to the test, and Nickens is cheering for Busch.

“They ought to be thankful that someone from NASCAR has the interest to come over and race with us,” said Nickens, who confirmed the rule was based on his 1988 season.

If the truth be known, there are many more drag racing fans in the NASCAR garages, and Busch could be the tip of the iceberg. NASCAR drivers find the time to race on other places, despite their supposed busy schedules. It's all about desire. 

“Surely to goodness the NHRA will let this guy race,” Nickens said. “If he wants to race, they ought to have a parade for him. If he meets resistance, I’ll just go over and get an entry as a past world champion, then step aside and let him drive. You can do that.”

Speculation is the NHRA will find a way to allow Busch to race and add one more spot to the run field.

Busch is supposed to make a final decision this weekend whether or not his car is ready for competition next weekend. If he deems it ready, he’ll ride with his team [instead of flying private plane] and park in the middle of the sportsman pits.

Busch has made it clear that he wants to experience the event from the grass roots level. And if he wasn’t running a 38-race NASCAR schedule, he’d be first in line for those divisional events.

There’s a big difference in what Nickens did and what Busch aspires to do.

If he’s met with resistance, he can always head over to the NMCA to race in one of their muscle car classes and their racers will be all too happy to oblige his interests.

The NMCA will be all too eager to gobble up the publicity.

And, if that happens, the expected interest in Super Gas will wane … but fear not, it will not fall any further. To be honest, there’s no lower to go than it is presently.

At least if Busch comes and goes, it would have further to fall.

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