And you want me to believe that the geniuses that get a Top Fuel dragster down the 1,000-foot track in 3.7 seconds can’t figure out how to better contain the engine oil when a rod kicks out of the block?

I’m sorry. I believe in science, I believe in American ingenuity, and I believe that engineers can solve the unsolvable. Today’s passenger cars can make 707 horsepower (in the case of my favorite brand’s Hellcat Challenger), while getting 20 MPG, with air conditioned comfort, amazingly low pollution emissions, phenomenal handling and braking while protecting its passengers to a level that was unimaginable 20 years ago.

The NHRA has laid down the law the way President Kennedy laid down the seemingly impossible goal of going to the moon in the 1961. Do you know why, when Kennedy said, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth,” he included the “returning him safely to the Earth,” part? It’s because some people were willing to volunteer and others were willing to let them do it, to launch a one-way suicide mission to the moon. There were people eager to do it and others thinking that it was a viable option, to launch a man or men to the moon and let them die there just to get there first. And the reality is that it would indeed have been a lot easier to do that. But Kennedy insisted that we bring them back because that’s the American way. And we did it. Because that’s what Americans do, we innovate and make the impossible possible.

So here’s what I believe. I believe that if the NHRA sticks to its guns and insists on a zero tolerance policy on oil-downs that the teams will find better ways to contain the oil when an engine lets go. Double thickness engine diapers, Kevlar mesh layered into engine diapers and bolted to engine hard points that help contain the parts and the oil, Kevlar containment pans with absorbent material, or some other innovation I’m not even thinking of. Don Schumacher has pioneered capsules that contain and protect the driver, and the teams can come up with engine capsules that contain and retain the engine oil in a failure.

Quit whining, quit moaning. Get to work! Innovate, test, develop, and find a better way to contain engine oil when the engine lets go. No one expects the teams to detune the cars to make them less likely to oil down. Hell, that’s pointless, and if you don’t believe me just look at nostalgia fuel racing. The cars in the nostalgia classes run a full second and a half slower than the NHRA Mello Yello fuel cars do, yet I have seen them run at Famoso Raceway in California and oil down the track just as frequently.

It’s not about detuning the engines; it’s about better solutions for containing the inevitable mess that will occur when you pour nitro into the fuel tank. I choose to believe in the crew chiefs, aftermarket companies, and the American spirit of innovation. We figured out how to make an airplane fly, put a man on the moon, and put a computer in the hands of everyone. We can figure out how to better trap a few gallons of oil.