Just Wondering … Do consistently “short” fields in professional motorsports classes diminish the relevance and popularity of those classes?

Just Wondering … Will the supply of Nostalgia F/C and T/F teams ever meet the demand from track operators? Not any time soon. If ever there was a doubt that “local” dragstrip operators believe their fans want nitro racing consider that this year between the first weekend in July and the third weekend in August there are 12 or 13 races scheduled for N/FC and N/TF cars and all of those races are on in the West and Midwest U.S. and advertise six or eight-car fields.

Just Wondering … Will the U.S. Nationals at Indy continue to offer the pro race teams bonus points as they did in 2016?

Just Wondering … With no pro series in 2017 and a very limited sportsman schedule, other than insurance what does the IHRA offer it members and member tracks to keep them in the IHRA fold? Not much and that is a shame because the one revenue stream the owners of the IHRA could always count on in the past were the fees and dues from track sanctioning and memberships.

Just Wondering … Will Richie Crampton have to immigrate back to Australia to get another full-time Top Fuel ride?

Just Wondering … Has any previous NHRA president initiated made more drastic changes than current president Peter Clifford? The answer is a resounding no! Have any of those decisions increased the popularity of the sport or decreased the cost to race? Again, my opinion is no!

Just Wondering … Does NHRA national event drag racing need another “4 wide” race like the current race at zMax Dragway? I hear that Bruton Smith is leaning towards making his Strip at LVMS a four-lane track and making the first race of the year at Vegas a “4 wide” event. Will West Coast fans buy more tickets to see that kind of racing than Southern fans have? I think sooner or later we will know that answer.

Just Wondering … With both the IHRA and NHRA gradually losing memberships, isn’t it odd that both sanctioning bodies would raise their membership fees? The raising of IHRA membership fees especially boggles the imagination.

Just Wondering … Why doesn’t the PDRA -- which has exactly one class that I would always buy a ticket to watch, Pro Extreme -- do more to promote that class? It is in fact the only class in drag racing that I would gladly pay to watch and that includes current nitro classes. Pro Extreme doorslammers are the only class left in organized professional drag racing, in my opinion, that is even close to being an “unlimited” heads-up drag class. Oh, and they are the quickest and fastest eighth-mile doorslammers on the planet to boot.

PDRA Pro Extreme represents to me the ultimate drag racing. Pro Extreme cars are very expensive to race, dangerous to drive, and prone to either go like hell or crash. In other words, everything a drag car is supposed to be.

Just Wondering … What can the NHRA do about the too short Pomona shutdown area for most pro class cars? Right now it is borderline safe for pro cars; if there is any glitch by the driver of a fast car during the shutdown procedure he or she is almost guaranteed to run off the end of the track. NHRA and the sport are extremely fortunate that when 69-year-old Gary Densham ran his F/C into the sand at last year’s Winternationals that he wasn’t severely injured.

Just Wondering … Is it just me or is there just not enough on-track action in the FOX Sports broadcast? Am I the only one who has seen enough instructional how-to videos about pro drag cars during NHRA race coverage to last a lifetime? How many new fans are the broadcasts attracting? And how many old fans are they losing? NASCAR broadcasts show nearly continuous action during one of their 2-3 hour broadcast versus the noticeable lack of action on current NHRA broadcasts.

Just Wondering … Remember when the ADRL was synonymous with eighth-mile outlaw doorslammer racing? Now the Scruggs family-backed PDRA series is the premier eighth-mile doorslammer series in the sport (the PDRA does have a couple of dragster classes too). And the newest iteration of the ADRL now owned by Jeff Biegun with Kenny Nowling as the CEO has added alcohol classes and runs anywhere from eighth-mile to one thousand feet to quarter-mile depending on the class.

Just Wondering … Why hasn’t the NHRA found a way to lure Toyota into one of the pro or sportsman doorslammer classes? I would think that a Camry Pro Mod with a turbocharged TRD V-8 for power or maybe a couple of Stock/Super Stock entries would get some attention. Surely Camry Funny Car bodies are selling Camry’s at the dealerships … aren’t they?