[Dan Bennett]

I'm getting ready to dive into a foxhole, but my opinion is that some people are not understanding what the reports are about.

Not the best analogy, but I've never seen any racer be offended by being left off the Tricky Tipster list. That was simply one person's (who changed over time) gut feeling considering performance levels, recent wins, and driving ability. The list here simply takes that from a gut feeling to a more specific analysis.

I may be leaving some things out, but what gets you on the list is a number of things: recent reaction times, ability to run under the index, past success at a given track, ability to drive the stripe, and performance in eliminations so far this year.

If you're being honest, those are the same things most racers would consider as they dial their car and plan their race.

Being able to put numbers on things is much more accurate than gut feelings. In the days before 60' clocks, you'd hear about one car hooking better than the other. But when we got numbers, sometimes it was a case of a slower 60 but a better reaction.

So they're looking at a lot of cold hard facts. And putting a rating on who is doing a better job. No, it is not 100% accurate since all of us have seen those occasions where the "impossible" or unlikely happens.

It's an argument for another day, but those that think statistical analysis is not needed in drag racing probably should yank the data systems out of their cars and ask the track operator to shut off the clocks and just leave the win light.