The NHRA is ratcheting up the pressure on Top Fuel and Funny Car teams when it comes to oildowns, and already some front-runners have felt the sting.

Meanwhile, every racer has added the threat of losing precious points and money to the list of dangers to watch out for each pass down the track.

Matt Hagan (near lane)The NHRA is ratcheting up the pressure on Top Fuel and Funny Car teams when it comes to oildowns, and already some front-runners have felt the sting.

Meanwhile, every racer has added the threat of losing precious points and money to the list of dangers to watch out for each pass down the track.

Oildown offenders will be fined $1,000 and receive a five-point deduction following its first oildown violation of the season. A second infraction will result in a $2,000 fine and a 10-point deduction. The third violation will bring a $4,000 fine and loss of 15 points.          

Monetary fines and point deductions continue to increase on a scale for each additional oildown violation. The 10th violation will result in an $18,000 fine and a 50-point penalty.

Even on the first day of the new season, Funny Car champions Matt Hagan and Jack Beckman experienced troubles that left Don Schumacher Racing lighter in the wallet. Bob Bode’s engine blew up Saturday in the third overall qualifying session, causing a 20-minute clean-up delay. Jeff Arend followed 15 minutes later with an oildown in Steve Plueger’s ’10 Chevy Impala and a second oildown/fire on Sunday.  A few more happened on race day, including Doug Kalitta’s first this year for the Top Fuel class.

Last year, only five fulltime nitro racers had clean records. Shawn Langdon was the lone standout in Top Fuel. Tim Wilkerson, John Force, Courtney Force, and Del Worsham had exemplary slates in Funny Car.

Doug KalittaDuring the 2015 season-opening weekend at Pomona, Calif., six drivers called out the Safety Safari crew for oildowns, including one who did it twice. The total down-time was 1 hour, 33 minutes, compared to the previous year's event, which had six oildowns for one hour, nine minutes of idle time. So, at least for the first race of the season (for which teams have had plenty of time to prepare by acquiring the proper parts and honing their servicing skills), the number of oildowns was the same. All that was different was the clean-up time, which actually was worse this February.

In total at the 2015 Winternationals, the NHRA collected $8,000 in fines, and racers lost a total of 40 points.

Those point dings did have an effect on the standings. The loss of five points cost Kalitta his shot at fifth place. Funny Car's Chad Head could have been No. 11 heading into the Phoenix race instead of No. 15. Bob Bode left Auto Club Raceway No. 8 but could have been tied with John Hale for No. 7.

The sanctioning body docked Arend 15 points, almost half of his earned points for the event, and he had only 16 to show for the weekend. And to add to Beckman's frustration of not qualifying and losing to rain his final chance to try to make the field, the 2012 Funny Car champion wound up with a measly five points. His oildown took away half of the points he earned and put him in an 18th-place hole.

Some, such as team owners Bill Miller and Bob Vandergriff, have contended that the damaged parts and pieces are financial punishment enough and the penalty affects teams that can afford it the least.

Graham Light, NHRA’s senior vice president of racing operations, expressed little sympathy in this case.

Tommy Johnson Jr.“We offer race teams considerable input on how to avoid oildowns,” he said. “But the responsibility still lies with the team. In 2014, oildowns contributed to significant delays over the course of each race weekend. As we increase the number of live TV broadcasts, we have to make sure that our events stay on schedule.”

The NHRA, perhaps in response to grousing by a significant number of teams, announced during Friday's racing at Pomona an incentive program that will reward individual Top Fuel and Funny Car teams who make it through the 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season without an oildown.

A bonus fund of $50,000 will be divided among the top 10 nitro race teams with the greatest number of oil-free runs at season’s end.

In 2014, 27 nitro teams out of a total of 74 raced all season without an oil violation. John Force had the most oil-free runs in Funny Car with 160, and Langdon made the most Top Fuel oil-free runs with 154. Such statistics once might have fueled the converse complaint that the already-well-funded teams simply could get richer. However, even those two teams could use the extra cash today.)

These new dynamics have made drivers extra-conscious of the possibility of an oildown. Pomona's Friday provisional Funny Car leader, Tommy Johnson Jr., indicated the fear of a stiff oildown penalty affected his decision-making process during his first run of the year. He said it "came into play during the run."

Jeff ArendJohnson said, “Our car drove the tire off at mid-track, which we don’t do a lot. It came loose. There’s a bump out in the right lane. There’s a significant bump that we have to try and maneuver out there. And our car hit the bump, and it actually started spinning the tire. I knew what it was doing, and I drove it for a ways, hoping that it would either recover or we could get it to the finish line with a halfway-decent run. I drove it to the point where I felt the thing start to go the other direction and nose over a little bit, then clicked it, because I did not want to get an oildown. I thought, ‘You know, it’s not worth it. We’ll come back the next run and make it.’

“It’s forefront in every driver’s mind at this point. If it isn’t,” Johnson said with a word of advice, presumably to team owners, “then maybe you ought to think about your driver.”

Johnson said, “I’ve always had a very good seat-of-the-pants feel for what the car’s doing. I drive a lot by sound and feel, with vision. I pay attention. I know how these things work and what’s right and what’s wrong. Sometimes it’s a split-second decision, and you hope you make the right one.”

Kalitta, Top Fuel’s provisional No. 1 qualifier that same day, said then that he understood and supported the reasons for the ruling and indicated he would adjust to it.

He said, “We’re trying to put on a good show for the fans and the TV coverage. The live shows are real important to our sport. I’m sure it was a tough decision to impose that kind of rules, but everybody’s in the same boat. It’s just a matter of growing the sport with the live TV, in my opinion. So we’re just going to have to try to make the best out of it.”

Bob Bode Courtney Force straddled the fence a bit.

The Pomona Funny Car top qualifier said, “I understand. I see both sides of it. It’s unfortunate for the teams when you’re getting penalized. But then again, you want the fans out here to enjoy their time and have fun with it and not have to sit up the stands. It is a little bit of a boost that some of the drivers need, but it’s definitely a bummer when you’re getting fined.”

She had a perfect record last year, but she said these new rules definitely are a consideration this season.

“That’s something that is on every driver’s and every team’s mind right now. You don’t want to be the one doing it,” Force said. “It hasn’t been a huge worry of mine – yet. But we’re doing the best we can to keep from oiling the track and have another clean slate.

“When you have that in the back of your mind – you know you’re going to get penalized and people are watching – you definitely try to catch it quicker as a driver and know if something’s going wrong. You don’t want to be the person who’s holding everybody up and making everyone wait so they clean up the mess. It’s definitely on your radar,” she said.

Monetary fines will be in effect at all 24 events. However, points penalties will be waived during the six-race Countdown to the Championship.

Light said the NHRA uses funds collected from fines for equipment purchases, personnel training, new technology, and support of the NHRA Safety Safari.

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