This is likely going to be a bit of a ramble, so I am warning you of that right off the hit of the throttle here. People have asked me if the races I announce run together. For the most part the answer is no. Yes, there are events where nothing particularly exciting happens and I go on my merry way to the next one but then there are some stunners and the NHRA contest last weekend in Denver was one of those. It is a race I will never forget being at for multiple reasons. Between the beginning of a new set of pro stock rules that few (if anyone) actually saw coming, the mind blowing finals in pro stock, and top fuel, some racer pranks that we made you privvy too this week, and a long conversation with legendary track operator/owner John Bandimere, I was three days that will forever be close to the top for my drag racing all time highlights. The race came on the heels of some major announcements by NHRA that all signs point to being extremely positive for getting the sport in front of a bunch of different people and raising its profile to where I and many others think it should rightfully be. The way the news has been flying out of California has really been something and I am reasonably sure that there is more where it came from and we’ll be learning about it all over the coming weeks and months.

Now, that being said, the Denver race had two things that most every other NHRA race I have been too lacked on the competition side. Menace and tumult. I had been longing to figure out the attitude, feeling, and overall “thing” I thought the sport was needing and had lost and it took a YouTube video featuring a Keith Olbermann monologue from his sports show to deliver it. Olbermann is a really smart guy. I am not on board with his politics but when it comes to sports, he is one of the best that there is. Every person that has ever worked with him described the guy as being a royal pain in the ass but also the most brilliant person they had ever met. So here we are.

Watch the video below (and continue reading after it). This is a couple minute piece about how baseball has lost its “menace” over the years and I think it DIRECTLY applies to big league drag racing in all of its forms across the country. My struggle was always trying to define the difference between professional wrestling over the top stuff and genuine, emotionally charged racing and personalities. He does it to a T. Please watch the video, insert the word drag racing for baseball and continue reading.

So, now that you have seen it, what do you think? I have long maintained that the worst thing that ever happened to drag racing was seeing two competing drivers (ESPECIALLY AFTER A FINAL) hugging each other at the turnoff. Garlits, Shirley, Snake, and the rest of the pantheon of greats in this sport sure as hell did not. Allen Johnson did not and it it made the whole pro stock final even better. How much of the balloon would have been deflated if AJ walked over there and said, “Good one, buddy! Give me 5!” Instead, Johnson paced around like an angry animal away from the camera and launched a water bottle into low Earth orbit. THANK GOD. PASSION, ANGER…MENACE. This meant a lot to him and he lost. This was a human and genuine reaction that made for an incredible split screen with Morgan talking about the win and Johnson losing his mind in the background. It was great and I am not celebrating Johnson’s loss but I am celebrating his fire and passion. A new person that turned this on to see the burndown would have watched and completely understood that it was a huge deal to have won or lost that race. Every final should look like that.

Onto the tumult. The pro stock rules changes. These are changes this class has not seen the likes of since 1982. The thing in its current state is not sustainable. It has been shedding cars over the years and the decline has become very noticeable over the last couple of seasons. Taking the “free money” days of pre-2008 out of the equation, it wasn’t uncommon to have 17 cars at each race but now it is trending below that at several like Denver. Every rule change in the world will not change the nature of pro stock. It is a class of domination and always will be. There have been less than 60 people to ever hold the #1 qualifying spot in over 600 events it has been contested and about as many winners. That element will not change if there are 10 cars or 50 cars showing up. What will change with these new rules is how the fans see the class and how the cars look going down the track. I want the wheelies, I want the unpredictability, and I want everything that comes with it. Fired up drivers, burndowns when guys know they are out matched and have nothing else to try, etc. This is the stuff that makes the sport what it is. Drag racing is bombastic. It is confrontational by its very nature and we started to see some of that at the end of the weekend in Denver.

Lastly, and maybe this is just me, but on the whole Gulliver thing. Even if you have not read the book, you likely know the story about Gulliver and the tiny people of Lilliput. To them, Gulliver was a giant and they were afraid so when he laid down to sleep, the tiny people basically tied him to the ground with a bunch of ropes. He was able to get out of that situation after he woke up and muscled his way out. It seems that drag racing’s version of Gulliver may finally be starting to strain against the ropes that have had him tied to the ground over the last several years. If the early returns say anything about the recent personnel, management approach, and rules changes, things could really start getting interesting in the not too distant future.

What do you think? Unbridled optimism or is there something really going on?