Racing Jack - Why NHRA is in Big Trouble!

[JGrossijr]

Interesting insights from Racing Jack about the overall decline in NHRA drag racing attendance and TV viewership


Follow up video

[Jeff Niceswanger]

Maybe it's because I'm old, but class racing is not what I enjoyed (anymore). Really glad I got started in the heydays of NHRA. There just too many dam classes. I remember one year at Columbus? Kyle Brothers GT/DA Firebird had 4 heads ups in the eliminator. FOUR ! Class at Indy had 8 or more cars in our class. Class's more resembled what A/SA has now, you just couldn't seem to stay away from heads up runs. Thats what John and I fell in love with. This bracket racing/hide from AHFS? Its ok, as long as you didn't race when we had the constant threat of heads ups all the time. I realize this does not have anything to do with butts in the seats, but from my perspective it's the most disappointing thing about modern day class racing.

[Mike Pearson]

Originally Posted by Jeff Niceswanger

Maybe it's because I'm old, but class racing is not what I enjoyed (anymore). Really glad I got started in the heydays of NHRA. There just too many dam classes. I remember one year at Columbus? Kyle Brothers GT/DA Firebird had 4 heads ups in the eliminator. FOUR ! Class at Indy had 8 or more cars in our class. Class's more resembled what A/SA has now, you just couldn't seem to stay away from heads up runs. Thats what John and I fell in love with. This bracket racing/hide from AHFS? Its ok, as long as you didn't race when we had the constant threat of heads ups all the time. I realize this does not have anything to do with butts in the seats, but from my perspective it's the most disappointing thing about modern day class racing.

Most of what you are taking about is a direct result of the reduced quota in the sportsman categories. You are not going to get many heads up with only 50 car fields. Indy still has a 128 car field but when the AHFS is on then some will sandbag to avoid a hit. You are right there are too many categories now.