Graham Light bore a facial expression exhibiting a combination of exhaustion and frustration. The NHRA VP of Operations had concluded a weekend which created nearly seven hours of clean-up downtime from fires, wrecks and oil spilling onto the racing surface.

With one of the largest crowds to have ever attended the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals, the second of two national events hosted by the Strip at Las Vegas, he felt the need to reach out to the paying customer.

“I want to apologize for the quality of the show,” said Light, speaking in a one on one interview. “This oil down issue is becoming more of a problem and a problem we have to resolve with the teams. We will resolve it. This is unacceptable.”

Graham Light bore a facial expression exhibiting a combination of exhaustion and frustration. The NHRA VP of Operations had concluded a weekend which created nearly seven hours of clean-up downtime from fires, wrecks and oil spilling onto the racing surface.

With one of the largest crowds to have ever attended the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals, the second of two national events hosted by the Strip at Las Vegas, he felt the need to reach out to the paying customer.

“I want to apologize for the quality of the show,” said Light, speaking in a one on one interview. “This oil down issue is becoming more of a problem and a problem we have to resolve with the teams. We will resolve it. This is unacceptable.”

Saturday was the worst day of the four day event as over four hours of race time was consumed with the clean-up of spilled oil.  Almost two hours of the downtime was attributed to the Top Fuel class alone. The NASCAR Truck race in Talladega began as the first Pro Stock Motorcycles began qualifying on Saturday. The entire race was completed before the entire pro session was complete.

Chris Blair, General Manager for LVMS, understands that even though the situation is out of his hands, it’s unacceptable.

“This is one of the things you get into when you have live events,” Blair said. “You can’t control this. You have weather delays and this is a different kind of fluid we are dealing with. The NHRA did all they could do and while the teams didn’t mean to do this, it’s one of those things where the moon aligned and it’s a tough situation. It was a bad event and we hate it for the fans. Everyone feels bad for what has happened, even the drivers.”

LVMS will host an NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event next weekend and in a show of good faith has offered free Sunday entry for any race fan who attended this event, with their ticket stub.

“We have a lot of competition for entertainment dollars,” admitted Blair. “We want to throw as much at the fans as we can to let them know we appreciate them.”

As for the oildowns, sources close to the NHRA have told Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com that the sanctioning body has started working on plans to reintroduce oil down penalties designed to keep the racing clean and preserve the show. They also reportedly plan to take a close look at the containment devices and ways to improve them.

The details of a rumored plan is unknown but for 14-time champion John Force, the weekend drove him to point out something needs to be done.

“We've got to do something. All that down time is bad for our TV. It's bad for the racers. I don't think they should take away points. I think they should charge you money.
 
"Remember, you had a lot of cars here. You had guys who hadn't run all year. You had guys testing for Pomona and learning how to run their cars. Some of them did a pretty good job."
 
Force isn’t certain the NHRA should do something with only one race left on the schedule.
 
"I don't know about that,” he admitted. “That would be like the NFL putting in a no-tackling rule during the season."

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