Drag Illustrated Issue 153, February 2020 | Page 76
DRAG ILLUSTRATED ROUNDTABLE
Drivers and promoters alike realize that the
drag racing experience has to be truly attrac-
tive since fans have so many ways to spend
their disposable time and money in 2020.
Outside of your own series or class, what has
you most excited about the 2020 season?
CM: Pro Mod. I love Pro Mod cars. With all the
rule changes that they’ve had – a lot of safety
stuff, big nitrous motors, ProCharger motors –
Pro Mod. Who’s going to show up that we’ve not
seen before? I’m talking guys who haven’t run
NHRA Pro Mod before. Tommy Franklin – is he
going to run? That would be really interesting.
A guy who owns a national event track with Pro
Mod – will he be there? How crazy would that
be? How many of the big giant Musi motors will
show up? How many ProCharger cars? That’s
what I’m watching outside of the nitro classes. I
think they’re really cool.
CG: At the end of the day, I’m a drag racing fan. I
love this stuff. Just knowing that the sport is still
alive has me excited. If you really sit back and
look at it, it’s growing. It may not be growing in
the genre where I want to see it grow since I’m
a nitro junky. I don’t get into small-tire Ford
Mustangs or nitrous-breathing anything. I run on
nitro and things like that. That’s definitely slow-
er growing than things you see on TV or com-
puter-tuned, fuel-injected stuff. But it’s all good
because it’s all drag racing. That’s just evolution
and I understand that. Watching the sport evolve
into computer-tuned things and turbochargers
and small tires and all that, that’s great. It all
came from the same place, and that was on a
non-prepped track with a bunch of nitro-burning,
stock stuff built by hot rodders.
I’m excited about the evolution of the sport.
It’s exciting to see the sport evolve, who’s doing
what. Everything is always changing a little bit.
It’s comforting to know that there’s enough in-
terest, even from new people, that companies
are building new products and chassis builders
are building new race cars. It’s reassuring to see
that we’re still going down the road and the ball
is still rolling.
DK: I get to watch my family race. My sister,
Daria, is racing Stock Eliminator and my dad
[Dave] is racing Factory Stock. The only races
that I wasn’t at last year, that was the only reason
I tuned into those races was to watch those cars
go down the racetrack. That’s really what I’m
excited about.
TC: I’d say probably the biggest story is John
Force has been the biggest name in NHRA for as
long as I’ve been alive and been around the sport.
Last season, he had probably his best chance at
winning a championship since his champion-
ship-dominant days in the late ‘90s and early
2000s. John, at his age, should probably be one
of the guys on the outside, but we all know John’s
not going to get out of the car. I’m very interested
to see if that team can continue that success and
if John can take home another championship at
his age. Does that really just cap off a storybook
career, or does he keep fighting it out after this
season? I think that’s a big story that everybody is
keeping an eye on and thinking about in the back
of their mind. With the way that team performed
at the end of last year, I think that’s something
to watch.
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Issue 153
the racetracks thrive. Not just at the gate, but in
the marketing and sponsorships. That’s on the
racetrack side, individual promoters, series and
racers. When companies are doing good, they’re
helping the racers. When they’re not doing good,
they’re not helping the tracks and that becomes
a struggle.
That’s why we have to educate people that this
is an expensive sport, and a lot of it is the things
you don’t see or think of. There’s overhead num-
bers that people seem to forget at times. I’ve done
it myself. But somebody has to pay the water
bill so they can spray water down in the water
box so you can do a burnout, or somebody has
to pay the power bill to turn the lights on so you
can race at night and break records under the
lights. Losing part of the economy and losing
marketing partners affects the racetracks. How
many of those tracks go to only running during
the day just to save that money? It also affects
people in the stands. If people don’t have the
money to go, they can’t come. At the end of the
day, this is an entertainment business. That’s my
biggest concern, the economy.