NHRA

NASCAR has become ridiculous with its lack of access.

When I returned to Indiana in '04, I covered the Brickyard and USGP at Indy and it was easier for me to get access to the hoity-toity F1 drivers and supposedly exclusive paddock than it was a hot pass.

 

Watching them roll through the starting grid is tremendous.

Edit: IJAG's clip

 

Basically with NASCAR if you aren't one of their TV partners then you are just a bother, and I'm pretty sure that goes for most of the print people who travel each week. There used to be a time when NASCAR people called you - like the NHRA PR folks do now - with story ideas. Now if you are lucky enough to get in touch with anyone they give you the runaround. That's not all inclusive there are still a few who are pretty good to work with.

 

I covered one NHRA event in my career. It rained all day and I saw a total of one race. Despite that still got some great stuff. PR people were more than helpful even though I didn't really need them. I just walked up to random racers at their trailers and just started shooting the shit. Some pit crews even offered me beer. I politely declined.

 

I too love Wahd Buhdon's accent. Of course, growing up Down Here I don't have a problem understanding a word he says.

Back to the original post: We run NHRA in agate. That's it. If we had 12 pages on a Sunday, we'd still run it in agate.

 

Not to mention Tony Stewart was at the US Nationals on Monday supporting Tony Schumacher so that's quite appropriate for this thread. Watched the event all day and the Force-Pedregon stuff that went down is what legends are made of. People down here in Southern Virginia are pretty upset that the NHRA isn't coming back to Virginia next year. Track is too fucking cheap to bring anything in that somebody would actually want to see. But the NHRA is a tough sport to figure out as to why it hasn't gained national exposure like NASCAR for these reasons. NHRA should be No. 1 for these reasons.

1. It has successful female and minority drivers and has had them since the 70s.
2. It's fan base is definitely multi-cultural. Go to any event and you will see plenty of blacks, hispanics, whites, etc. all mixed in together.
3. The ticket prices are cheap. 35 to 40 bucks on raceday compared to NASCAR's 70 to 80 bucks.
4. As mentioned on here, the access to the drivers is awesome.
5. Something else worth mentioning is there is a lot of gambling in the grandstands at NHRA events, which would make you think there is enough interest among people to actually consider making this a part of the Vegas odds.

 

I've never had a problem understanding him either, but I grew up in a hick town.

 

I think part of the problem is that the sport didn't keep up with the times in terms of trying to bring in new fans. When I was a kid the NHRA was much more well known than NASCAR. I would venture that only the Indianapolis 500 surpassed it in public awareness in the States. I remember having some drag racing trading cards. And the Snake & Mongoose drag racing set is one of the most popular Hot Wheels sets of all time.

To me it seems like a lot of the track operators hosting NHRA events didn't bother to make improvements to their facilities. And don't get me wrong, there were plenty of track operators that hosted NASCAR events that did the exact same thing [Texas World Speedway in College Station is testament to that]. But while NASCAR started giving track operators the ulitmatum to "fix it up or lose your race(s)" the NHRA continued to show up at the same in-need-of-repair facilities year after year. I'm all for loyalty and being true to the people that were there in the beginning. But if you want to bring in new fans you've got to make some changes to get their butts in the seats. Take the track in Ennis for example. The rest of my family has made it known that they will not attend another event there until they cover the stands so you don't have to sit in the sun all day. They're also not crazy about having to park out in a field because there's little if any paved parking. The only people in the parking lot that are happy when it rains are the guys in tow trucks making $40 a pop pulling vehicles out of the mud.

But maybe the NHRA is content with where they stand in this country's motorsports hierarchy. As far as I can tell they've never made a big deal out of their female or minority drivers the way that NASCAR [and to a lesser degree the IRL] do. They have a loyal fan base that continues to show up for each event. Some of the tracks they race at have state-of-the-art facilities. They have a television presence via the races and shows like the one a few years back about Ashley Force. Maybe they've looked at how NASCAR has changed over the past 30 years and decided that it's not for them. They're happy the way things are right now.

 

I poke fun, but Ward always has been one of my favorites.

 

In the spirit of all the talk of numerology today, isn't it odd when you consider that Ward and Jeff Burton have both driven for the same sponsor (Cat) and the same car number (31) during their careers in Cup. However in Busch, Ward drove the Hardee's 2 car and Jeff drove the 8 TIC Financial car for Fil Martocci and the 9 car for Roush eventually.

 

After watching the sport for years on TV, I finally went to my first NHRA event in Seattle area (Pacific Raceways) in '03. Went back the next two years to cover it (photos and stories). Incredible experience being ground level when the cars take off. If you have heart problems, don't go. The vibrations are that strong. As long as you don't think about the times cars have exploded at the starting line, it's all good.
Having said that, I've never quite understood all the money big teams spend in the sport. Big sponsors, all kinds of time and money spent in wind tunnels (in Funny Cars at least), all for a 4-second pass. Seems kind of pointless to me, and I'm a big racing fan.
Like Sprint car, NHRA is perfect for tape-delayed TV coverage. Way too much downtime for live TV, much like Sprint cars with the red flags.