There were no winners on Sunday in Concord, period.

The NHRA fans lost. Racers lost. The NHRA lost, and zMax Dragway lost.

Even the solution to rectify a doomed race day was a losing proposition for all parties involved. zMax Dragway did come back to provide the displaced race fans with a 100-percent replacement policy on their Sunday tickets.

There were no winners on Sunday in Concord, period.

The NHRA fans lost. Racers lost. The NHRA lost, and zMax Dragway lost.

Even the solution to rectify a doomed race day was a losing proposition for all parties involved. zMax Dragway did come back to provide the displaced race fans with a 100-percent replacement policy on their Sunday tickets.

The NHRA postponed the final day of eliminations for the Pep Boys NHRA Carolina Nationals. They are moving west to Ennis, Texas to the next event and taking the eliminations from zMax with them.

Did the NHRA have a choice? No, they didn't.

Some will argue the NHRA made the decision without a care or concern for the racers, but the facts are the facts. The track was chipping concrete; rubber was peeling up and one too many cars crashed. Thge Pro Stock issue wasn't the typical track prep differences, these cars were loose long before the spray transition.

The racing surface quickly lost the confidence of the racers. The racers lost confidence in the NHRA to fix what was clearly a problem where no one appeared to have a solution.

No one was going to fix lanes one and two at zMax Dragway, short of Jesus coming down from heaven and laying hands on them.  

In the postponement press conference, when NHRA's Graham Light announced the race would be moved to Dallas, I posed the question, “Why didn't we just prep the other two lanes and finish the race there?"

When Light responded, "we could have had it ready to go in an hour," the look on his face told me all I needed to know. Lanes three and four, likely poured from the same batch of concrete, would have resulted in more of the same.

Light never said anything negative about the other two lanes, and didn't need to.

Sunday's disaster is not the first time the NHRA has experienced issues with these two lanes. It's just moisture seems to bring out the worst in this concrete racing surface.

Why wasn't this fixed ahead of this weekend's event?

I fully believe both zMax Dragway and NHRA officials believed they could massage the issue.

One racer felt differently, believing the NHRA needed to be more proactive with their race partner by adding, "If I roll to the starting line without a diaper on my car, they are going to send me back to put it on. Why couldn't the track be held to the same standard?"

Good question. No answer.

So what were the NHRA's actual options?

They could have canceled the race, and downsized the Countdown to five races. This move would have tainted this season's championship for a racer who could win after having a dismal first round.

The NHRA could have brought it back on a later weekend, maybe after Reading. But then, they faced going head-to-head in Charlotte with NASCAR. Quite likely a losing proposition, financially.

Headed to Dallas, while it might have a downside, was still the lesser of the evils.

But, it does create a new set of circumstances.

What about the limited budget racers who won in the first round on Sunday such as Leah Pritchett and Dave Richards, who didn't have Dallas on their schedule? Does the NHRA owe these racers a bit of a stipend to make this fair? Maybe, maybe not. Traveling to Dallas to finish the race will be a huge expense, but so could returning to Charlotte for a rescheduled date.

What about lane choice in Dallas while qualifying? Standard operating procedure mandates the cars flip-flop lanes, but what if one lane favors the other?
Do assigned lanes cheat the lane choice earner?

Yes.

Does it provide an unfair advantage for the racer qualifying in Dallas if lane choice is honored?

Yes.

Ever hear the term racing and qualifying are two different scenarios?

Furthermore, Light added he wanted to take time and talk to the affected Pro Stock racers who won in Sunday's incomplete first round about scrapping the completed portion of the round, and starting over.

There's a precedent which says the completed races are completed, end of discussion. Just ask those Top Fuel racers who lost in the first round at Atlanta.

Again, NHRA must face these unfavorable scenarios because of an unintended bad situation.

We must also put aside the drivers and the sanctioning body. Think of the track owner.

Bruton Smith deserves the benefit of the doubt. He is one of the best  to ever come into drag racing. Forget how his four-lane idea doesn't resonate well with purists, the fact is ... he's done a lot for the sport and continually does so with a first-class effort.

Bruton's tracks are first class. His people are first-class, period. But for some reason, there's something wrong with the racing surface at his Bellagio of drag strips.

One can draw up dozens of flow charts of how to remedy Sunday's situation, and all will likely lead back to the same place - fix the track. If it doesn't happen, there's going to be another derailment.

No one wins in a derailment.

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