NHRA chasing NASCAR

INDIANAPOLIS – NASCAR's Chase apparently is catching on.

The National Hot Rod Association for years has been forced to crown its drag racing champions before the end of the season due to its points system. There had been discussions for years about changing the system, but it took last year's Funny Car title run – combined with NASCAR's successful Chase system – to convince NHRA officials to change their championship format.

While some of the other divisions were runaways, the Funny Car title fight between Gary Scelzi, Ron Capps and John Force went down to the season finale in Pomona, Calif., with Scelzi ultimately coming out on top.

"There was a level of excitement and interest with our fans and sponsors that was unprecedented," NHRA president Tom Compton said. "We kept saying that if only we could duplicate this kind of interest every year."

Enter the NHRA's new "Countdown to the Championship."

Similar in design to NASCAR's Chase, the NHRA's system begins after the 17th of 26 races.

Beginning with race 18, the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, the top eight in each professional category (Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Bike) will compete in a four-race playoff series to determine a field of four.

As this "Countdown to Four" begins, the top eight in each category will have their points adjusted. First place in the standings will begin the countdown with 2,070 points, second place with 2,060 points and so on down to eighth place starting with 2,000 points.

For races 22 and 23, tabbed the "Countdown to One," the top four in each category have their points adjusted again. First place in the standings will begin the final two races with 3,030 points, second place with 3,020 points, third place with 3,010 points and fourth place with 3,000 points.

The championship in each class will then be determined at the final two races of the season in Las Vegas and Pomona, Calif., among the top four points holders in each class.

Reaction to the new format has mirrored the initial reaction within the NASCAR community when the Chase was first announced.

There are two distinct camps.

"I think it's great if it makes for better entertainment for the fans," said two-time Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon.

Dixon's sentiments are echoed by brothers Cruz and Tony Pedregon, who are both past Funny Car champions.

"I like that the fans get to watch a championship go down to the final race of the season," Tony Pedregon said.

"Of course, there's no room for error," said brother Cruz. "But I like that. That's what drag racing is all about. When you get to that part of the season, you just can't make any mistakes."

Others are not quite as supportive. Many have pointed out the possibility that a racer could have a very successful season which would win the championship in the current system, but that racer could fall short of a title by losing one of the final four races and being eliminated from contention.

"We understand that this puts more pressure on teams to perform at the top of their game at for the final six races, but we feel that NHRA needed some kind of playoff system for the final portion of its season," Compton said. "We believe we've put in place a program that has all the ingredients of producing [exciting] finishes in all four of our professional categories every year."

NASCAR spokesperson Ramsey Poston says that NASCAR is flattered that both the PGA and now NHRA are adopting season-ending playoff systems similar to NASCAR's Chase.

"There was quite a bit of resistance to the Chase when it was first introduced in NASCAR, but it has since proven to be a successful formula," Poston said. "I expect that the NHRA will find a similar level of resistance when it starts its new playoff system."

Compton adds that there are still details to be worked out before the start of the Countdown next season and that a review of the new playoff format will be made after its first season.

NASCAR and the NHRA have far more in common than championship formats.

In fact, the two series have more in common with each other than any other type of racing.

Both can trace their roots to post-World War II America, when after nearly a half-decade of war, young men on both the West Coast and in the South were able to reignite their passion for speed that had begun in the late 1930s.

In the South, where NASCAR originated on the beaches of Florida, it was all about being fast in a straight line, then turning and running another straight line back to the start. One continuous loop, over and over again.

Out west, racers also were going fast in a straight line, but for them that was enough. They took to the deserts and abandoned military airfields of California and ran as fast as they could, but with no turning and racing back to the start.

Now, nearly 60 years after its first organized races, NASCAR is the modern day version of what took place on the beaches of Florida.

And the racers from the West Coast, the "hot rodders," as they called themselves, now are the NHRA.

Each group was led by a strong and charismatic leader who had a vision about the future of the sport.

Bill France Sr. organized the early beach racers, and after a decade of racing on the sands, worked to build race tracks for them to compete on, including his own Daytona International Speedway.

A half-century later, his organization races nationwide and has grown into the country's most popular form of motorsport.

The hot rodders were led by Wally Parks, who saw a need for finding the racers a place where they could compete against one another with some level of safety, and not on streets or highways.

Over the years, drag racing grew in popularity and even had popular songs written about it, including "Little Deuce Coupe," "Little Old Lady from Pasadena" and "409." Also, a whole segment of production automobile, "the muscle car," drew its inspiration from dragsters.

But at the soul of both stock car racing and drag racing is pure American horsepower.

Stock cars use gasoline and produce over 700 horsepower from an engine designed to run at full-throttle for 500 miles at speeds approaching 200 mph.

In drag racing, the engine design is similar to stock cars, but the fastest dragsters use a mix of nitromethane (a fuel developed more than 80 years ago for airplanes) and a supercharger to force that fuel and air into the engine to produce over 7,000 horsepower. That's enough to power a car down a quarter-mile track in just over 4½ seconds at over 330 mph.

At one time, each form of racing had its own fan base. Stock car fans would joke about how no one could enjoy a race that ended in just a few seconds, while drag racing fans boasted that their sport was all about pure brute horsepower and blinding speed.

The distinction between the fans no longer exists to that degree, though there are still purists from each camp. And both the NHRA and NASCAR have grown from humble origins into multimillion- dollar sports with support from Fortune 500 corporations. The two series also share several racing facilities. including Las Vegas, Bristol and Chicago.

"We have a good relationship with NASCAR," said Compton, the NHRA president. "[NASCAR president] Mike Helton has attended our races as well as others within the organization."

Compton says that the two organizations have closely watched how each has handled specific issues involving sponsorship and marketing so that one might learn from the other's example, as both sports are heavily sponsor-driven.

Both series also have a long list of drivers considered to be racing legends – the NHRA list includes names like Don "The Snake" Prudhomme, Shirley Muldowney, Connie Kalitta and "Big Daddy" Don Garlits – complete with movies being made about some.

The Big Go

When talking big-time American racing, one must talk Indianapolis.

Not only does it play host to one of NASCAR's biggest races (the Brickyard) and the most famous race in the world (the Indianapolis 500), but Indianapolis also is home to the NHRA's biggest and most prestigious event, the U.S. Nationals.

Also known as the "Big Go," the event took place this past weekend. The 52nd U.S. Nationals drew participants from across the country for five days of racing. Tony Schumacher, Robert Hight, Greg Anderson and Matt Smith were the winners in the NHRA's four major categories.

Winning the U.S. Nationals is like winning the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400 or the Indy 500. It can make a racer's career or just salvage what otherwise may be a frustrating season.

"This is the race you want to win, this is all about where we come from, this is Indy," said three-time U.S. Nationals winner Kenny Bernstein, who has won the event in both the Top Fuel and Funny Car categories.

One of the sport's legends and a former NASCAR team owner, Bernstein retired from drag racing after the 2002 season but announced this week that he will return to competition behind the wheel of a Funny Car in 2007.

The experience

Drag racing is an absolute assault on one's senses.

The cars have swoopy, exotic-looking bodies, and colorful and more creative sponsor paint schemes than anything seen in NASCAR.

It also is extremely loud. Earplugs are essential.

When the sport's two top classes, Top Fuel and Funny Car, hit the track, the ground shakes and the nitromethane fuel makes your eyes tear up and your throat burn as it powers the dragsters from one end of the track to the other at a speed that at first seems too fast to comprehend.

This is literally a "don't blink or you'll miss it" kind of sport.

Drivers get one chance to win, and if they don't – many races are won or lost by a margin of a thousandth of a second – they go home. There's no second chance, no stopping in the pits for tires and an adjustment.

There's nothing in stock car racing that compares with the sheer level of anticipation and excitement when two 7,000-horsepower racers pull up to the starting line to prepare to do battle against each other.

It gets your adrenaline pumping more than anything else one will ever experience.