What's wrong with Stock?

[Greg Hill]

I'm a little bit hesitant to get in to this because it's been beat to death since 2008 when the first Cobrajets were announced. My good friend Bruce Noland was probably the first person to warn us about the potential of these new purpose built factory race cars. I remember him saying that he talked with some of the Ford racing guys at the sema show and that they told him those cars should run 9.20's. Fast forward 6 years and the fastest stockers are running 8.50's @ 150mph. My personal opinion is that cars running this fast have no business in Stock.

I think the new cars are good for NHRA racing just not good for stock eliminator. Between rules that are made only for the new cars and BOGUS horsepower ratings,they have made those of us who run old cars who have to run against the new cars in the same class, largely uncompetitive. Given who runs NHRA and their lack of knowledge and not caring we probably should not be surprised. None of the top management has any understanding of the roots and tradition of stock, plus they are very short sighted and have no vision for the future. If they were forward looking they would showcase these new cars with the pros, not put them in with stock to beat up on the real stockers at 8:00 A.M.

To do this they should make 5 or 6 FX classes with their own indexes and AHFS and run them just like comp. Maybe a 32 car field at most nationals and 64 at Indy. No dialing in, no breakout. My feeling is that this would give the manufacturers more visibility and give the racers an opportunity for some serious sponsorship dollars. Just imagine Charley Downing getting chased down by David Barton. A little 281 c.i. Versus the mighty 426 Hemi. The manufacturers and NHRA could really promote this and make it a big part of the SHOW!

If people want to run the newer cars in stock they should run cars and motors that are made and sold to the public. You could give these newer cars a reduction in shipping weight so they don't have to be so heavy and maybe some hp reductions because these motors already have a lot of things the older racers use.

This doesn't have to be an either or proposition. It could be a win win for everyone. I will say one other thing, as long as the traditional stockers continue to support what's going on and attending National events, nothing is probably going to change. 2/3 of the cars that entered Indy were older than 2008. Take those entry fees as well as crew fees away, you have a substantial source of revenue decline for NHRA.

An example of what's really wrong is that Scott Burton left Indy before eliminations because he had a heads up run with a new car that had him covered by 4 or 5 tenths. Any of you that know Scott know that he has a very fast traditional stocker that he has worked his *** off over the years to make fast. This is WRONG!