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8/31/04
Just wondering about 50
years of the U.S. Nationals
Just Wondering ... At the 1954 U.S.Nationals
would any of those competitors thought or believed that fifty years later
drag racing’s major sanctioning bodies would
be making and enforcing rules designed to handicap tuners
and slow down their quickest and fastest classes: Top
Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Mod and Pro Stock!
Just Wondering ... Would any of the racers present 50
years ago ever have believed that there would be close
to 1,000 entries for the Nationals and probably a couple
of hundred more that would be refused entries?
Just Wondering ... How
the price of a room at the Hotel Zarah in downtown Great
Bend, Kansas 50 years ago compares to the price of a room
at the Hilton downtown Indianapolis in 2004.
Just Wondering ... Why didn’t NHRA increase the
fields for the professional classes to 32 cars just for
the 50th annual U.S. Nationals? If they really wanted to
bring new teams, sponsors and drivers to the sport they’d
open up the field at Indy. It works at Daytona and used
to work at “The Brickyard” in the pre IRL/CART
era.
Just Wondering ... Why couldn’t NHRA at least award
double points for the 50th U.S. Nationals making it important
to the fans, media, and racers beyond its historical significance?
NHRA will have to do something to make the U.S. Nationals
significant in terms of determining the national championships
before the national media will view it as something other
than just one more race on the NHRA tour.
Just Wondering ... Why do promoters of big races such
as the U.S. Nationals seem to believe that size of the
payouts will lend importance and legitimacy to any race?
In almost 30 years of covering motorsports I’ve never
seen a big crowd of fans hang around for the awarding of
a check nor had an editor assign me to cover a race based
upon the payout. These guys obviously never paid attention
to the old adage “You can’t buy respect; you
have to earn it.” It applies to racing and specific
races, believe me.
Just Wondering ... How
many of the racers at Great Bend’s
U.S. Nationals 50 years ago would have believed that a
major TV network would devote broadcast time to the U.S.
Nationals much less 12 hours of live coverage ?
Just Wondering ... Am I the only one who thinks that Indy
today has just become too sanitized and politically correct
for its own good? Thank the racing gods that the campground
across the road from the Pro Mod pits at least retains
some of the flavor and attitude of the U.S. Nationals of
the sixties and seventies.
Just Wondering ... What the racers at Great Bend would
have said if you told them that in 50 years the U.S. Nationals’ largest
classes would be ones where if the car went too quick the
slower car would be declared the winner? They’d have
laughed you off of the premises, I’d bet.
Just Wondering ... Wouldn’t it be really neat at
the 50th U.S. Nationals if they allowed a few of those “Cacklefest” cars
to make a lap or at least a burnout instead of just parading
them around like some old pitiful, washed up athlete who
can’t hit a curve any more? Cacklefests were cool
the first 25 times, but now they are just getting boring
to anyone over the age of 25.
Just Wondering ... Who answers those NHRA exit poles that
tell the management that fans just don’t care about
Pro Mods and how come I never get those kinds of letters
here? Doesn’t anyone count the butts in the seats
when the cars run?
Just Wondering ... What exactly is so special about the
U.S. Nationals that fans and racers feel compelled to go?
Best answer gets a DRO limited edition hat.
Just Wondering ... If Indy is so special to so many, why
do I and many others in my business get so many calls from
ex-drivers and crew for free tickets? I’m talking
about people with good jobs and successful businesses saying
that if they can’t get a freebie they just won’t
go. I guess the U.S. Nationals is only special if you don’t
have to buy a ticket to get in.
Just Wondering ... If the Nationals is such a special
place, how come all of the recent “improvements” have
been: a new tower, more seats, and more suites? When
is NHRA going to find a way to pave the Pro pits and at
least level the cow pasture that the Sportsman have to
pit on? Shouldn’t the greatest race in drag racing
where so many racers have to live and work in the pits
for a week have a parking area for them that isn’t
the “pits”?
Just Wondering ... Whatever happened to the thousands
of Harleys that used to be parked on the grounds during
the U.S. Nationals? Maybe those guys were there for Fuel
Bikes and just don’t give a s**t about gas-burning
Pro Stock bikes!
Just Wondering ... Did you know that at the U.S. Nationals
50 years ago there were bikes competing but they only got
to run class eliminations?
Just Wondering ... Despite some shortcomings mentioned here,
is there a more dramatic “moment’ in drag racing
than when the first pair of fuel cars fire up on Monday after
all of the pomp and circumstance is finished and it time
to start racing at the U.S. freakin’ Nationals, man! 
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