I am taken back to Eric Medlens trip into the beach at Pomona just a few short years ago in 05. Blew it up in the lights, and Pomona is pretty short. It broke the chassis, and made a mess out of it. They got it welded up and got it to the line, and all he did was make a blip at the hit and just hoped Tony Pedregon would make a mistake. I don't think Force made as big of a deal back then as he did today.

I am as big a Robert Hight/Jimmy Prock fan as anybody, and I see it from both ways about bringing out a spare car on raceday.

Looking at the FC qualifying sheet, I am sure all but one team had a back up car of some sort in the trailer. How close to being ready to run, I don't know, but I would assume they would have enough parts to assemble an extra car given the right amount of time. I don't see it being anymore of an expense to have all the extra parts on a car, just more work to get your extra rear end, or whatever if they are attatched to the other car if they need it for the primary.

One example of the back up car being ready to run was Doug Kalitta last year at the finals. Primary car folded up, they took out the back up for the next session and and went 4.4 like nothing ever happened.

Can we really compare it to Nascar? In Nascar, if one crashes out, there are still 42 other cars still going. In this case, there had to be a bye run. Fans don't pay to see by runs, but, on the other hand-- TDR (That's drag racing).

It seems only 15-20 years ago just having a spare body was a luxary. There was more then one instance where teams had to cut off parts of a body from another team to patch up their damaged one to make next round.

Maybe times have changed to where it's ok to bring out another car during race day????

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Okay, Dunn's right, 40 plus years ago no one had back up cars and the "break rule" came into play, at least in 'bought in shows'... but then in the other leagues, you can't swap a motor during pit stops....

John's right... car hits both walls, it's tweaked and unsafe... and I really believe that if a 'bucks down' team needed pipes on race day because of something like happened today, JFR would loan them the pipes if asked, or The Don, or Team Torco/Lucas...

But hey, Team AAA, JFR racing, Eric (hop), Jimmy, John M, Gudio, and both GTX teams, You guys done good today....

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It's a double-edged sword as has been stated - quite well, I might add:

On one hand, allowing a replacement chassis to be run could benefit the team cars and the better funded. If you want to see the end result of something, look at the extremes where sufficient funding could even have another identical car (or even more) always waiting in the wings. That would put most others at an extreme disadvantage.

On the other hand, had there been a spare bare chassis available to this team today, I have every reason to believe this teamwork display we witnessed could've produced a viable competitor - one without any specific on track advantage beyond that of survivability in such a crisis. There's a good argument for both positions.

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The way I see it is with the money it costs them to race they should be allowed a backup car. Jim Heads single cost the fans a chance to see a good race because Robert wasnt there. You would think nhra would change the rule since its in the best interest for them and the fans and the racers involved. I think for the millions spent they should be allowed a backup, just my opinion!!

If he was truly interested in safety, they would revert to the rule that they had in the late 70’s early 80’s. If you lost control of your car. IE crossed the centerline or hit the wall even after the finish line you were disqualified. You could only cross the centerline when you were exiting the track or to avoid someone in your lane. I watch a TF car get disqualified on a single (bye) run at the 79 US nationals for crossing the centerline.

PS Kelly this would slove the "single" issue

I like the idea of getting a bare bone chassis teched before the start of eliminations. It would have to be secured in a location and monitored by the NHRA so no funny business happen. Only way for a team to get access to the chassis is to have a major chassis failure during eliminations. Next I think they should limit the amount of people that could actually work on the car. Since Force has pretty much 4 full teams to work on the car. I don't think that is fair to the smaller budgeted teams. I say limit the team members to maybe 10 people and have them fight it out to get the car back to the starting line. JMO

Shannon

The way I see it is this, if you break the frame, thats it, you are done for the day. If you hurt the body then the replacement has to have the same stickers/sponsers on it, no swapping a AAA for a Castrol, the car has to look the same for all 4 rounds. Multi Car teams have a huge funding advantage as it is, giving them the back-up rule just increases it. The whole point of a sanctioning body is to 1) make it safe 2) make it equal or as equal as possible. Any other racing sanction has a rule of no back-up, why should this be any different. And if you do allow it, how go you govern it? What would stop a team (and I will use DSR as an example) from using a losing car as the back-up. Say Capps has that fastest ride on the property and is #1 qualifier, and is running 2 tenths faster than anyone and goes out second round on a red light, and Beckman puts his car in the litter and tweaks it all up, with the back-up rule, they could use Capps car to go back out and run again and sweep (and before any one argues, yes it could break, or red light again) but you can see the advantage, and what if that run is against some one like Head like it was today.

Lot's of great points here, folks. Because of the number of cars running in front of the fans, you simply cannot make the NHRA/NASCAR comparison. The opportunity for a safe, side-by-side race must exist for our sport.

I like Wes' idea of having a backup ready to go that has already been through tech. That seems like a very viable solution.

What troubles me is, and correct me if I'm wrong because I don't have the rulebook in front of me, but if I as a sportsman racer smack the wall twice, I didn't think I was allowed to compete until the chassis has been not only looked at, but completely recertified. Again, I don't have the rulebook handy, but I was told that by an official @ Indy once. Whether he knew what he was talking about or not is obviously the question. But if he's right, then it seems that the rules are more stringent on my 195mph altered than they are on the fastest cars in the world.......................Again, I don't know, so if I'm wrong, I'll apologize now.

I'm sure most of you are right and that no crewchief in their right mind would put a questionable chassis under a driver and take it to the line with the intent of running it, but the problem is that with this rule, NHRA allows the opportunity to do so, and that's just plain scary.

Sean D

My opinion is...the teams should be able to pull out a spare chassis if the original car is presumed damaged from an incident. Given the money these teams/sponsors are spending, the money it costs fans, and the safety aspect a spare chassis should be brought out so the teams, sponsors, and fans are allowed to have/see a good, safe race.

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After watching the "thrash" today, I have to say that I truly am impressed. Not that I wasn't impressed before today but now I have an entirely new appreciation for the capabilities of these folks. I literally stood right at the edge of the Hight pit from before the car was returned on a flatbed to the time they rolled it out to go to the line. The entire time it looked like a bunch of ants on dead mouse. There were so many people working on the car that there were times when you couldn't even see the car.

I snapped off a ton of pics but I won't really have a chance to see if any of 'em came out well until I get home tomorrow.

Congrats to Team Force for putting that charbroiler back together, I can't wait to get home and see the TV show to see how the whole thing was portrayed.

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Maybe Force outta go talk to the guy who came up with the 85% and rev-limiters rule. Or next time one of his deals is spinning the tires and mixing up cylinders, his driver(s) should get their foot of the throttle.

Pull out another car after crashing one in eliminations?...why not start "buy backs" in nitro racing too. Give me a damn break.

As far as the crew busting thier asses, that's what they are paid to do...their the indians and until a chief leans out the trailer door and tells them to shut it down.

I understand smaller budget teams are at a disadvantage already but you shouldnt penalize the big teams either. And really, how many of the teams that actually qualify dont have a spare chassis? And as far as limiting crew members, even if some no name got in that situation there would be 3 or 4 other teams over there helping them so thats not valid. Its the nature of the beast. Sue somebody b/c they got a sponsor and can keep it unlike others.

I like the no pts but you can run for the win and money with a back up car. Thats fine. Thats the best solution I've heard. Safety should be first, the show 2nd.

This was far from your "normal" ass-busting.

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Good point, Tony. But I think even you would agree that between allowing another car to be pulled out or being allowed to run a car that has just been stuffed into the wall, being allowed to pull out another one is the much lesser of two evils, right?

Like I said before, just having the opportunity to run the crashed car is nuts. You should be able to pull another one out, or forced to park it.

Sean D

Well said Tony.