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. DI DI DI DI DI DI DI 76 | D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com DI DI DI 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.