Again, if you're going to compare round money, you need to also compare entry fees (let along time off work for additional days)
Earliest start time for IHRA is 9am, which starts with Hot Rod. Stock is second out. Super Stock is either 4th or 5th in the run order. They try to stagger the door car and dragster classes -- helps to keep bald spots from forming.
Last year, I won Piedmont. It was 5:33pm.
Semi at Douglas, GA, 6:14pm
Semi at Maryland, 4:55pm
Runner-up at Kinston, 5:30pm
Carolina Dragway's double-header Pro-Am experienced a lot of rain last year, and had tremendous problems with the track to start out with. Instead of telling everyone "deal with it", they took *many* hours to scrape the *entire* track, re-prep, and make it RIGHT. Still gave everyone two time trials, ran a complete show, and yes, we finished up at 2:30am. I was tired, but happy to be in the winner's circle. Oh, BTW, that was Saturday night. We got another time trial Sunday morning, and ran another complete race. I won that one, too, at 4:34pm.
So.... 5:30 is *late* for some people?