Pssst! Hey Alan! How about quote the whole statement before calling a statement stupid, huh?

What I said was -
This statement is 100% true. Obviously, we can't take the fan out of the equation, which was the whole point I am making. Getting rid of Friday night qualifying just isn't a possibility so something has to be done to keep qualifying from being a one round set it to kill affair. The new format should take care of the problem, let's give it a few races and see how it works out.

I would have preferred that they just take the top X amount from each day. Ok I would have preferred not counting Friday night towards qualifying. Have them run it for them fans, put special money up for the racers.

I think it will really stink when a 4.70 gets bumped for a 6 second pass later in the hot weather tracks. I also fear that on the saturday smoke fest sessions we will see more oil downs and down time. In the past if you smoked it you got off and coasted. Now we'll see people pedaliing it trying to get the fast 4 sat time.

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Tact is for those not witty enough for sarcasm

Unless they hold another good air run Saturday Night for ballance then it's a good move.
Most of the season Saturday runs are a waste as far as qualifying in a fast field and even the announcers say what an uphill battle it is to Qualify on Saturday.

Even good cars qualify on Saturday after washing out Fri. , TJ did it this week but it's not the norm.

Most of the season Friday Night Qualifying is the benchmark .
Leaving four slots open for Saturday gives cash strapped racers a reason to run.

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I think I'm going to like the change. To be honest I had trouble watching the Sat qual show because I knew in the summer that the passes would be "tune up" runs for sunday or 80 foot smoke then idle down. I'm excited to go to HPT and watch the Sat quals were before I would watch Friday night then head back to the RV as soon as we made our passes Sat and wait to be called back up. Same with the new countdown, wasn't real happy with last year, mainly the part they got rid of.

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Nemo

The race in question was Joliet, Mike was also low et for the first round on Friday. That race is probably the reason for the changes to the qualifying format.

Take the fans out of the equation. Well have a good time finding sponsors after you take the fans out of the equation. I 'm so sick of this crap. I grew up on wednesday night funny car meets and I don't remember any of those men and I mean men whining about it. Deal with it nhra teams. Deal with it.

freaking whiners. how many chances do the nascar guys get to qualify? oh yeah, ONE.

seriously . This is pitiful.

where have you gone, Al Hofmann.

p.s didn't mean to be redundant Alan. I just went off when I read that. Hadn't gotten to your reply yet.

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I'm still DamnYankee

"A Friday night run in a Funny Car is just really intense" - Whit Bazemore

If they can't follow it, send em to nascar.
there's a lot about drag racing the average person doesn't get. holeshots, deep staging, handicap starts, why the faster speed doesn't always win...etc etc.
Not a reason to throw out a good idea.

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I'm still DamnYankee

"A Friday night run in a Funny Car is just really intense" - Whit Bazemore

NASCAR? One Shot!

...and how many positions do they qualify?

... and how many Past Champions get to bump in?

...and how many top points leaders get to bump in?

...and how many etc., etc. etc.

How about just one round of side by side shoot out on Friday night and the eight quickest winners come back on Sunday? Dumb idea too, isn't it?

With rain, heat, cold, one lane race tracks, etc. across the year, this is at least an attempt to do something for anyone without a "fair" chance on Friday night. This will likely get changed over time. The new 2008 Top Ten end of year "game" isn't perfect, but it's better than last year!!

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David Gerard

That is exactly what I am talking about Alan. We agree, I think the new format is great and a vast improvement. I think everyone is misunderstanding my position. My point is that there is exactly one reason to run Friday nights - the fans. The teams dont' benefit anything by running then and as your example illustrates, it can really suck if you miss the kill setting by a hair. Obviously you can't take Friday night nitro away from the fans so you have to account for the rest of qualifying having significantly worse conditions in comparison. For kicks, I looked up the first 10 races of last year, here is what I found in TF-

1. Saturday qualifying was late, all but 3 drivers ran fastest in rd 4
2. lots of shuffling, 7 of top 16 did not improve
3. lots of shuffling, 5 of top 8 did not improve
4. rain Saturday
5. 1-4 set Friday night in spite of great conditions Saturday
6. 1-13 set Friday night, only 2 drivers improved #13 and #16
7. rain Friday
8. rain Friday night
9. 1-18 set Friday night
10. 1-15 set Friday night

7 races that had both days qualifying, of which 57% of the time the driver ran fastest on Friday night. And that's just Feb-Jun, you can bet that it gets worse in July and August.