I too was extremely happy to see Eddie win the Championship, he was the most consistant throughout the Countdown, therefore he does deserve the prize..............

HOWEVER

I have to agree with Justin, that was a real embarrassment for the sport and NHRA, and it definitely showed on the broadcast.

HUH! A Vance and Hines bike is a leaker?

Lance,

I can only agree because of the system. Chip Rivas wins 3 of the last 6 races and doesn't win the championship because of the most blantant dive in drag racing history!?!?

Nothing against Eddie personally but if he couldn't beat his teammate heads up in the semi and then beat Rivas in the final to keep Chip from winning the championship then he doesn't deserve the crown. His title will forever be tainted in my opinion.

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Greg Stanley
Stanman Design & Fabrication

Greg, that was a very uncomfortable "Victory" interview with Eddie K. after his run. You could see the embarassment in his face, but he put on his best corporate-speak after that. The "blatant" dive was way too obvious and cutting a .361 light and winning is an insult to every drag racer's intelligence. I thought NHRA had issued an edict a year or more ago that "blatant" dives would not be tolerated and even penalized with fines? Was that just a bunch of words? Again, I agree with why it happened, but to be that obvious has to make NHRA feel like they have "egg on their face" after that non-race to decide the championship. Lucky for NHRA it didn't happen in the top Nitro classes like Funny Car or Top Fuel (this year). At least Cruz earned his and won the championship and the race in dominating style. I still thought it was bogus that they felt the need to show Cruz primping for the cameras RIGHT AWAY when there was still a funny car race going on in the background. They had to show that run on video replay. Why not show Cruz's trophy presentation on video replay?

Just adding my 2 cents...

You know Iv,e heard of team orders before, but I guess Iv,e never seen them carried out as blatently, as was witnessed in the hines-krawiec pro bike race. Krawiec had a 3 something, something light, and hines had a .006 light I believe. While krawiec was trying to catch hines, matt was doing everything he could to let his teammate catch up, save pull his engine kill strap. I think it was byron hines trying not to laugh in his intervew. And chris riva,s who had ran just before them, and who could have stayed in the hunt, had krawiec lost , was picking his lower jaw up off his leathers, when they put him on camera. This new system has to be a joke, I was laughing my arse off, watching these charades.

Some of you guys kill me! First off, stop crying about the Countdown, your crying will not change the format (obviously since it is still here and the "Petition" failed miserably), it is what it is and you can't do a thing about it. Secondly, diving has been around for years and any team would have done the same thing given that particular situation. Some of you guys are taking away some of the glory Eddie deserves given he did what he had to and was playing within the rules! Congrats to Eddie Krawiec, the 2008 Powerade CHAMP!

I don't think its good for the sport when this kind of stuff happens. Can you imagine the same thing in the NFL if one guy owned 2 teams and had one team clearly throw a game in the playoffs and then in addition made light about the situation to the press?

But I don't know what can be done about it, other than not allowing teams to own more than one car in a particular class. That rule actually might do some good for the sport, instead of 4 funny cars, teams like Force would field Top Fuel, Funny Car and a Pro Stock bike and car. He'd probably end up with more total air time that way, and the sponsors would be just as happy, and dives would be a thing of the past.

You could even have a separate "Team Championship" for the team that has the best combined results.

Actually thinking more about it I think this would be the best way to go, but I realize the chances of it happening are pretty slim.

A variation is to allow multi-car teams, but only allow primary sponsors (like H-D) to only sponsor one entry per class. This isn't bulletproof diving protection, but the sponsor pressure would eliminate a lot of diving. Actually this may be in place in NASCAR, I don't remember them every having more than one car with the same primary sponsor.

Paul T.

Very well put, on the other side if Eddie went out there an red-lit and lost and Rivas went on to win the championship, everyone would be talking about what a bunch of idiots the V&H team are. Is there really a graceful way to carry out team orders? It's the same thing in vegas when robert raced neff, neff mysteriously blows the tires off. It's a little harder to not make it obvious on the bikes, sans hines redlighting. At the end of the day, Eddie WON this championship. He beat ellis in 2nd round on a holeshot for heaven's sake.

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07 GM Racing/Mobil 1 Cobalt
8.96 @ 160 (FWD Street Car)

Paul come on now even you have to admit that it looked really, really bad.

Remember in F1 a few years back one teammate pulled over so the other, who was in points contention, could get the win. F1 was so embarrassed that they stripped the win.


I get that it happens and I understand why even but good lord did that look horrible. I can't imagine that it is the type of publicity the nhra would want.

As for the countdown. Quit complaining about the complainers Changes already happened after year one....and seeing the farce this year I would expect more changes next year. Sorry that I can't just be a stooge and go along with any change to the sport I lovem, when I predicted and now have seen how bad it is. hell its even worse that I feared

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Pick The Winners
Click here for NHRA Points Petition

I suspect that the V&H "plan" was for Andrew to red-light. When he missed the red by just a tiny bit, he had to improvise and it sure wasn't pretty.

It's unfortunate the way Eddie won the championship, but V&H did what they had to do for HD to win the title. Can't take anything away from them for doing it, it was just ugly. A few years down the road, most people won't remember "the incident" and Eddie will always have 2008 PSB champion on his resume.

FYI - I don't know Eddie personally, but did attend a PSB racer's BBQ in his back yard at Indy this year. He is a very nice guy and should represent NHRA well as a champion.

Well, Justin, maybe it looked so bad cause they couldn't get the bike to go up in smoke at the hit! (Only kiddin, Justin--you know what I'm talking about!)

Your opinion is it is bad, but there are many people who like the Countdown and don't think it is bad. So, myself and the others who support the Countdown are stooges. I am glad to see you are so frustrated that the NHRA is moving further away from the "classic" series (points and qualifying formats) you love that you have now resorted to name calling. Wow! Hopefully your schooling will teach you a thing or two about effective communication and not alienating people into categories just because they don't have the same view as you. You can make the same statement many ways without calling people stooges.

Was it just me or did Compton look very unhappy when he shook hands and stood beside Eddie?
I really understand why they did it but it sure came off making them look like fools.
I had to laugh when they spoke to Matt, it was quite obvious he just wanted to get out of there before they had a chance to ask him the question about the Krawick/Hines joke.
Oh well, it is what it is. Congrats on your championship Eddie!

It's threads like this one that show how many young and new fans this sport now has.

Apparently none of you were around when Beck and Minor raced each other!

I was just thinkin' that, Bill! Man, did Larry catch the s*** for that one for a long long time. And I always remember Kurt Johnson's famous "at least I still have a job" sign!