This is an editorial that will anger crew chiefs and team owners. It will result in comments like “What the hell do you know about it?” It will produce negative comments such as those that swirled around the suggestions that Hall of Famer Dale Armstrong made about slowing the cars. Numerous tuners – apparently oblivious to history – decried Armstrong’s suggestions, some of them actually saying, “He doesn’t know what’s going on out here. He‘s not out here every week,” as if he’d forgotten everything that had made him one of the most brilliant individuals to have ever been involved in the sport.
So, recognizing that this isn’t going to go down well with a lot of people, I’ll forge ahead regardless, because if some things about professional drag racing don’t start changing, and I mean changing in short order, our already declining attendance is going to disappear altogether.
As the title states, racing is one of the primary problems with today’s NHRA Drag Racing agenda. Wait! Isn’t this supposed to be about racing? Well, yes and no. Pure drag racing is one thing, but without an aspect of showmanship thrown in the activity is without soul, without charisma and without a hook to bring in the casual fan. And without that casual fan we’re going nowhere because there aren’t enough hard core fans to fill the seats and make the endeavor profitable.
