The big topic making the rounds this week in the sport of drag racing has undoubtedly been the unconfirmed rumor that current NHRA Pro Stock points leader Erica Enders-Stevens, who has won four times already this season in her Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro, may sit out two of the three upcoming Western Swing races, in Sonoma and Seattle.

Enders-Stevens is entered at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals this weekend in Denver, but is noticeably absent from the entry list for the NHRA Sonoma Nationals and the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Northwest Nationals, which at present have just 14 and 13 Pro Stock cars entered, respectively — short of the traditional 16-car qualified field.

With a 241 point lead over second-place Allen Johnson in the standings and some 682 points separating her from No. 10 Jonathan Gray, it’s a mathematical longshot that Enders-Stevens could fall from Countdown contention even if she sat out the remainder of the regular season races, but what makes this story compelling is that the points leader of an NHRA professional category — and a very marketable driver at that — being unable to compete at all of the events on the schedule shows there is a certifiable disconnect with Corporate America and drag racing.

Of course, aside from the short fields that the NHRA is facing in their once-vibrant Pro Stock eliminator at two of their three upcoming races, the situation brings to light another conundrum the organization may soon have to face: with the number of full-time teams in the professional categories dwindling, we could see more and more teams that are surefire locks to make the Countdown skipping multiple events to save their bennies for the championship run later in the year. 

At present, there are just twelve full-time teams competing in Pro Stock, meaning many of those sitting pretty in the points could miss a race or three (or more) and still be well inside the Countdown come Charlotte in the fall. The same theory holds true in the nitro categories. Truth be told, the Elite Motorsports team is just doing what they have to to prime themselves financially for a run at the title — no one can blame them for looking at their race team for exactly what it is: a business — but the fact that the option is available to them to do so doesn’t bode particularly well for the health of the factory hot rod class.

Photo courtesy NHRA/National Dragster