Wolf’s Word: Mission Accomplished With The NHRA Countdown. Again.

In August of 2006, the National Hot Rod Association revealed one of the most significant and groundbreaking changes to its championship drag racing format in the 55 years of the organizations’ existence. Known as the Countdown to the Championship, the playoff-style format that would ultimately crown the series’ professional champions was drag racing’s play on The Chase for the Nextel Cup, implemented by NASCAR two years prior.

Realizing the need to improve its product to compete with stick-and-ball sports in the increasingly competitive sports entertainment marketplace, NASCAR and the NHRA led auto racing into a non-traditional era of auto racing entertainment with similar formats designed to promote excitingly-close championship battles in the seasons final races, ultimately creating a situation that would sell more tickets, increasing television ratings, and keep auto racing neck-and-neck with other forms of sports.

It wasn’t that drag racing necessarily needed a shot in the arm, as evidenced by Tony Schumacher’s historic, come-from-behind title run — known as “The Run” — at Pomona in 2006 that wasn’t decided until the final 4.42 seconds of the 2006 season. As it was a befitting sendoff for the decades-old championship points system, and one that only further fueled the criticism of the new Countdown format, but Compton and company in Glendora knew it was time for a change, and a change is what they made. In the face of the critics, the Countdown worked. And then it worked again. And then it worked again.

In the ensuing five seasons with the Countdown to the Championship in place, there have been titles crowned with a race or two to spare, and there have been champions crowned who didn’t score the most points end-to-end, but there’s little doubt that it’s created season-ending drama that’s a surefire bet. Five years in, it’s fair to say we just witnessed one of the most incredible endings to a season of drag racing ever. Perhaps THE greatest.

In the face of the critics, the Countdown worked. And then it worked again. And then it worked again.

While the Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle titles were largely decided by the time the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series tour left Las Vegas, the battles in the two nitro categories were far from over.

Under the Countdown system, the points are reset following the conclusion of the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, thereby creating an incredibly slim margin for error in a period of just six short races. As a result, just like in stick-and-ball sports, any team in the playoffs can win it, and the title picture take a 360-degree turn from one race to the next. In Top Fuel, Antron Brown, who appeared to have a lock on his first championship, fell in the first round of the Big O Tires Nationals, and just like that, everything changed as the series shifted to Pomona.

Likewise, teammates Jack Beckman and Ron Capps, who had trade crew chiefs earlier in the year and were locked together in a tight championship battle, entered Pomona with a mere four points separating them.

The stage was set for a dramatic conclusion that perfectly illustrated the vision the NHRA brass had in mind when they formulated the Countdown system, and it produced an ending that even NASCAR has struggled to replicate in their 10-race playoff series.

Beckman and Capps battled tooth and nail down to the semifinals, and following another unfortunate early exit by Brown, the Top Fuel championship wasn’t decided until the final run of the season in an epic but filed come-from-behind bid. Not surprisingly, Tony Schumacher was smack dab in the middle of it. With record performances in the pro and sportsman ranks and all-time quick fields, the Auto Club Finals was everything you could want in a season finale.

At some point this offseason, a statistician of a fan with a pen, a paper, and too much free time will tally up the qualifying bonus points and the round wins and shout from the perches of their keyboards how the championship would’ve played out “the old way,” but the fact remains, everyone plays in the same sandbox.

Once again, the Countdown worked. And not unlike death and taxes, it will work again next season, producing another tension-filled fall of exciting drag racing. Now the only question we have is: is it February yet?