NHRA rule bending favors Force
Time to take a break from NASCAR and the Sprint Cup points Chase. We can wait a week before again pondering whether Kyle Busch will finish in the top 12 to qualify for the playoffs.
This week we're barreling straight ahead into a rare drag racing controversy.
If the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series wasn't such an afterthought in the media, racing pundits coast to coast would be weighing in with their opinions this week, typing themselves into carpal tunnel syndrome and roaring like nitro engines.
But drag racing survives on the periphery of motor sports, even when the controversy involves John Force.
The 14-time Funny Car season champion will spend much of this weekend at the NHRA national event near Reading, Pa., explaining if his team skirted NHRA restrictions by testing a teammate's car Monday.
On Sunday after making the semifinals at Brainerd, Minn., Force announced he would be switching cars with Robert Hight, his son-in-law, for the next two events to try to get Hight's car into the championship runoff.
At the start of the year Hight was the John Force Racing driver most expected to challenge for the season championship. But Hight and crew chief Jimmy Prock have struggled; at Brainerd they failed to qualify for the second time this season.
Instead of Hight leading the Force drivers, he is 12th in the standings. The team is led by Ashley Force Hood (third), followed by Force (eighth) and Mike Neff (ninth).
Only the top 10 drivers after two more races can compete for the NHRA championship over the final six events. (Akin to the Sprint Cup Chase, NHRA calls its playoffs the Countdown.)
In NHRA points stay with the race car, not the driver, and Hight already had used his season allotment of four test days.
Switching drivers isn't the issue. The brouhaha is that Force seems to have found a loophole in the testing policy or at least was given the blessing of NHRA senior vice president Graham Light to test Hight's car.
Force is confident his 100-point lead over the 11th-place driver will hold up to get his car/team into the Countdown. Regardless of whether he succeeds in getting Hight's car/team into the top 10 after the U.S. Nationals on Labor Day weekend, the drivers intend to switch back to their original cars after that event.
The NHRA needs to dock Force any points he earns this week, as the original testing edict stipulates. But still, that's a mockery of the rule's intent.
To save teams money, NASCAR did away with testing this year, but only at NASCAR-sanctioned tracks, which sent many Cup teams to facilities that don't host NASCAR events. The NHRA restricted drivers/cars to four test days from February through the end of the season.
Time to roll the black stealth helicopters onto the tarmac, because conspiracy theorists are ready to pounce on the NHRA for apparently amending its policy to appease Force.
Why would the NHRA revise its restrictions? Force has been a Ford-supported team for years, and the NHRA recently announced Ford will become the official car and truck sponsor for the association after General Motors took the off-ramp into bankruptcy.
Force will be trying to qualify Hight's car, which is sponsored by Auto Club of Southern California, which also sponsors the NHRA's Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Calif., and its Auto Club Finals at the same track.
Regardless if you're a Force fan, the reinterpretation by the NHRA of its testing ban reeks of favoritism.
The biggest nightmare for the NHRA, Force and any semblance of honor in drag racing would be if Force's switch pays off with an added boost from testing that moves Hight into the top 10.
And what if Hight goes on to win the championship?
Force must be the most powerful man in the NHRA. He's certainly the most popular, but that should not put him above the rules.
It's not always a victory if you beat the system.
Jeff Wolf's motor sports column is published Friday. He can be reached at 383-0247 or jwolf@reviewjournal.com. Visit Wolf's motor sports blog at lvrj.com/blogs/heavypedal/ throughout the week.
