Road to the future award

[bigshow2966]

Just asking, but what did Chad Head do? I thought I followed racing fairly closely, but I had to Google him to find out who he is. I figured he was Jim Head's kid.

[Dave Ley]

She had more round wins that any of the other candidates (10).

[Jim Kaekel]

Originally Posted by Dave Ley

She had more round wins that any of the other candidates (10).

My cat could have as many wins when placed in a top notch car with a professional team of mechanics doing all the work. If she had to race like the rest of us (drive the hauler, actually work on the car, pay her own bills, etc., etc.) she would be lost.

[dartman]

Originally Posted by Jim Kaekel

My cat could have as many wins when placed in a top notch car with a professional team of mechanics doing all the work. If she had to race like the rest of us (drive the hauler, actually work on the car, pay her own bills, etc., etc.) she would be lost.

yep, but she doesn't have to race like the rest of us.

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by Dave Ley

She had more round wins that any of the other candidates (10).

There ya go.

[Superfan1]

Who really cares?

[The Hawk]

It`ll be good for more die cast collectable sales!

[shoe guru]

Money talks

[Julie Jordan]

Kevin McKenna posted this on the Nitromater site, his explanation as to how he voted. It seems to be a well-rounded group of people who vote.

As a member of the voting panel, I cast my ballot for Brittany and I'll explain exactly why I choose to do so. Flame away if you feel so inclined but hopefully this will help some of you understand the thought process of at least one voter.

My first instinct would have been to vote for Adam Arana because he was the only rookie to make the Countdown and he did ride to a final round in Epping. Adam also scored bonus points with me simply because he had almost no experience before his debut in Gainesville. (on a personal note, I am a big bike fan and have a very solid relationship with the entire Arana family).

However, as the season progressed, Adam's development not only stalled, but he regressed as a rider. In 16 events, Adam had six red-lights and four holeshot losses. His last round win came in Denver which made him 0-for the Countdown and as a result, he dropped to tenth in the points. For those reasons, I could not in good conscience vote for him.

That left the choice between Brittany Force and Chad Head and if the award was determined solely by driving ability, I would have voted for Chad. Hands down. However, when I weighed all the factors I elected to go with Brittany.

By almost every measuring stick, Chad had an awesome year. He ran 4.01 and got the final in Reading and the Four-Wide in Charlotte. Hell, he even got his father to praise his driving ability and that might be the most prestigious award ANY driver could ever hope to receive. Yes, it was very close, almost a coin toss but in the end, I went with Brittany.

When I looked at Brittany's season, it was obvious that she made steady progress leading up to her first semifinal this weekend in Pomona. Her ten round wins included victories against Doug Kalitta (twice) Brandon Bernstein (twice), Spencer Massey (twice), and David Grubnic. Personally, I felt like she never looked out of place in the car and given the number of quality teams in Top Fuel, I think she more than held her own.

If you read the not-so-fine print, the ballot asks each voter to include additional criteria including fan popularity, media interaction and potential for future stardom and in those areas, Brittany was the clear cut winner. I can understand that many purists feel that the award should go strictly to the best driver and there is a part of me that agrees with that but in the end, I simply felt that she best fit the current "spirit" of the award.

As a side note, I'm not sure that everyone understands that the award is not chosen by NHRA but is the result of a vote among more than 100 members of the media. Teams my lobby heavily for their particular driver/rider but there is no internal pressure here to vote one way or another and I have no reason whatsoever to question the integrity of those tabulating the votes. Hopefully that squashes any conspiracy theories.

While I am not privy to the final numbers it was my understanding that the final vote was very close. In the end, I suppose we should all be happy to be having this debate since it means that there no shortage of talented up-and-coming drivers entering the pro classes.

[jmcarter]

Thanks for posting that Julie, I had no idea the voting media had that full list of things to consider and it helps me better understand the vote. Clearly, it has less to do with the talent of the candidates than it should and in the case of TF and FC (still think the WJ "Ray Charles" quote is classic) there is so much riding on the talents and funding of the respective crews that it's almost a team award rather than an individual accomplishment. With similar criteria the NASCAR Rookie of the Year award will no doubt go to Danica.