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It isn’t NHRA-specific. As puzzling and alarming as it is, the business world is full of missed opportunities.
 
Maybe it’s simply taking a company’s assets for granted, not realizing what its unique selling proposition is. Maybe it’s leadership being on cruise control and not feeling a need to shift marketing paradigms – not challenging itself to “think outside the box.” Maybe it’s a fear of disrupting the budget – although a surprising number of promotional approaches are cost-free.
 
But if the NHRA would like to grow its audience, particularly appealing to a younger crowd to ensure sustainability, it is rich in talking points that might be under-utilized at the moment. Consider these three aspects of NHRA drag racing that go beyond “Every ticket is a pit pass” and “Kids under 12 admitted free with a paying adult.”

Extreme Experience

“It has its own language.  . . . More importantly, it has its own anarchic, independent, almost self-destructive philosophy: get as close to the edge as you can, then go one step farther.  . . . The youthful alternative to such mainstream sports as hockey and baseball. Athletes are risking their necks in a variety of daredevil activities that fall under the ‘extreme sports’ umbrella. ‘Extreme sports is a statement. It smacks of James Dean rebellion against the sporting status quo.’”
 
This describes NHRA drag racing perfectly. But none of these words is talking about drag racing. This is a passage from an Ian Haysom article in the Edmonton Journal, and the James Dean quote is from television producer Paul Graham. And it’s all about the X Games, which an Internet website lauds for its “global, team-based” traits and its live music performances, autograph sessions, and interactive, family-friendly exhibitions.
 
What a shame all this was talking about a series of skateboarding, skiing, BMX, and freestyle motocross – something most folks wouldn’t attempt without a lot of money and an ample supply of Depends.
 
NHRA drag racing is something people as young as age five can do, with no age limit. NHRA drag racing offers the same danger, if that’s what someone is looking for. It offers the same kind of envelope-pushing rush. It offers simultaneous “candy-stealing” rivalry (to paraphrase a favorite line from Top Fuel four-time champion Antron Brown) and heartwarming camaraderie. It unites families and communities. And if any sport were rooted in James Dean-grade rebellion, NHRA drag racing is the OG. It is the epitome of revolt. “Big Daddy” Don Garlits said of NHRA founder Wally Parks, “Wally took a bunch of leather-jacketed hoodlums off the street and made them legitimate.” With nitro in their fuel tanks and I-dare-you chips on their shoulders, drag racers own this space.
 
Drag racing has its catchy lingo: burnouts, hole shots, Christmas Tree, deep-staging, double-bulbing, banging the blower, diggers and floppers, putting someone on the trailer, and winning by “a hun” or a “thou.” The list goes on and on.
 
Frankly, it’s more extreme than the X Games. It has no second chances, and a week’s or a month’s or an off-season’s worth of burning the candle at both ends can crumble in less than four seconds at speeds in excess of 340 mph. No athlete in the X Games has a 12,000-horsepower engine blow up in his face and blowtorch his performance. NHRA has raw power, and sometimes fire and bullets of shrapnel – and absolutely the safest environment on Earth for such spontaneous mayhem. Former Pro Stock racer Tom Martino called his Pro Stock Car “a rolling fruit cart” he intended to “use up before it all spoils.” And former Funny Car favorite Dean Skuza had the classic line: “We’re not like NASCAR. We don’t conserve tires. We don’t conserve fuel. We don’t conserve nothin’!! What’s more American than that?!”  
 
So why is the NHRA missing this prime chance to stand up straight, march into the marketplace, and remind everyone who’s boss, with tire-shredding, tire-smoking, ear-splitting, sensory-overloading, ground-pounding authority? Do it now, while the cultural environment is ripe.    

Mechanical Genius

Is the NHRA worried that the grandstands will be full of Poindexters, analyzing and charting scientific data on clipboards? Hardly. So why not emphasize the mechanical genius of these crew chiefs who have turned these race cars into the fastest-accelerating vehicles on the planet (and yes – sorry, IndyCar and FOX Sports – the fastest racing on Earth)?
 
Think of it – a car idling still and reacting perfectly to a series of descending colored light bulbs as quickly as a crafty common housefly that reacts in 20–50 milliseconds or a Dracula Ant that snaps its jaws from zero to more than 90 meters per second (more than 200 mph) in as little as 15 microseconds. And that’s just the beginning a mechanical, piston-pumping miracle that unfolds across the length of more than three football fields in less than four seconds – in less time than it took to read that last sentence.
 
And with instant gratification being an American trademark these days, NHRA drag racing offers a winner every four seconds. Go get a hot dog and you might miss about six or seven races.  
 
In this era of promoting STEM platforms, it might be wise to remember the philosophy of Austin Coil, engineer of most of John Force’s 16 Funny Car championships. Coil once encouraged a schoolboy to study math and science, telling him. “It’s math that makes these cars run, and it’s science that blows them up.”    
 
You get the “Oh, my!” and the “Why?”
 
Not every advertisement of a race has to be the same. Wander away from the traditional TV ads. Try doing business in a technical, engineering, or mechanical publication. Attract people who might be fascinated by the process more than the results. They spend money, too.  

Organic Diversity

NASCAR can’t help but drool over the natural diversity that drag racing merely shrugs its shoulders over in “Yeah – and . . .?” fashion. Its leadership has yakked for decades about trying to develop programs to cultivate racing skills in women. And it’s not fair to lump all the earnest, hard-working women trying to advance to the Cup Series level, but the biggest media splashes in NASCAR regarding women have been Danica mania that essentially fizzled and the embarrassing Natalie Decker disintegration at Dover in a Craftsman Truck Series race.
 
The NHRA has the most successful woman in all of motorsports – six-time Pro Stock champion and 50-time winner Erica Enders. She’s one of four women who have won series crowns – joining three-timers Shirley Muldowney and Angelle Sampey and two-timer Brittany Force. Sportsman-level women racers, more than 100 different ones, have won dozens more races. And the series did it without a driver-development program.
 
But the NHRA’s diversity isn’t limited to women’s accomplishments. Five championships have gone to Hispanic racers: two apiece to brothers Cruz and Tony Pedregon in Funny Car and one to Hector Arana Sr. in Pro Stock Motorcycle. Again, labels haven’t been super-important to the NHRA, but black drivers Antron Brown (with four in Top Fuel) and J.R. Todd (one on Funny Car) have won titles. Drivers from Japan (Kenji Okazaki, Yuichi Oyama) have won rounds and a race, and Dubai’s Khalid Al Balooshi won four Top Fuel events and has been outstanding in the Pro Mod class, as well. The series has or has had multiple Europeans: Lex Joon (The Netherlands) and Ida Zetterström and a handful of other Scandinavian drivers. And the four-driver Cuadra family is from Mexico, joining many other North American drivers from across Canada. So drag racing is a geographically diverse sport.
 
Age doesn’t matter – unless a driver is a pre-kindergartener. Race doesn’t matter – the only color that matters is green, as in dollars. Gender doesn’t matter. No other motorsport can claim that.
 
So NHRA, there you go. There are your unique selling points. You’re welcome. Glad to help.

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SUSAN WADE: THREE KEY TOPICS NHRA MIGHT USE TO GROW DRAG RACING FAN BASE

It isn’t NHRA-specific. As puzzling and alarming as it is, the business world is full of missed opportunities.
 
Maybe it’s simply taking a company’s assets for granted, not realizing what its unique selling proposition is. Maybe it’s leadership being on cruise control and not feeling a need to shift marketing paradigms – not challenging itself to “think outside the box.” Maybe it’s a fear of disrupting the budget – although a surprising number of promotional approaches are cost-free.
 
But if the NHRA would like to grow its audience, particularly appealing to a younger crowd to ensure sustainability, it is rich in talking points that might be under-utilized at the moment. Consider these three aspects of NHRA drag racing that go beyond “Every ticket is a pit pass” and “Kids under 12 admitted free with a paying adult.”

Extreme Experience

“It has its own language.  . . . More importantly, it has its own anarchic, independent, almost self-destructive philosophy: get as close to the edge as you can, then go one step farther.  . . . The youthful alternative to such mainstream sports as hockey and baseball. Athletes are risking their necks in a variety of daredevil activities that fall under the ‘extreme sports’ umbrella. ‘Extreme sports is a statement. It smacks of James Dean rebellion against the sporting status quo.’”
 
This describes NHRA drag racing perfectly. But none of these words is talking about drag racing. This is a passage from an Ian Haysom article in the Edmonton Journal, and the James Dean quote is from television producer Paul Graham. And it’s all about the X Games, which an Internet website lauds for its “global, team-based” traits and its live music performances, autograph sessions, and interactive, family-friendly exhibitions.
 
What a shame all this was talking about a series of skateboarding, skiing, BMX, and freestyle motocross – something most folks wouldn’t attempt without a lot of money and an ample supply of Depends.
 
NHRA drag racing is something people as young as age five can do, with no age limit. NHRA drag racing offers the same danger, if that’s what someone is looking for. It offers the same kind of envelope-pushing rush. It offers simultaneous “candy-stealing” rivalry (to paraphrase a favorite line from Top Fuel four-time champion Antron Brown) and heartwarming camaraderie. It unites families and communities. And if any sport were rooted in James Dean-grade rebellion, NHRA drag racing is the OG. It is the epitome of revolt. “Big Daddy” Don Garlits said of NHRA founder Wally Parks, “Wally took a bunch of leather-jacketed hoodlums off the street and made them legitimate.” With nitro in their fuel tanks and I-dare-you chips on their shoulders, drag racers own this space.
 
Drag racing has its catchy lingo: burnouts, hole shots, Christmas Tree, deep-staging, double-bulbing, banging the blower, diggers and floppers, putting someone on the trailer, and winning by “a hun” or a “thou.” The list goes on and on.
 
Frankly, it’s more extreme than the X Games. It has no second chances, and a week’s or a month’s or an off-season’s worth of burning the candle at both ends can crumble in less than four seconds at speeds in excess of 340 mph. No athlete in the X Games has a 12,000-horsepower engine blow up in his face and blowtorch his performance. NHRA has raw power, and sometimes fire and bullets of shrapnel – and absolutely the safest environment on Earth for such spontaneous mayhem. Former Pro Stock racer Tom Martino called his Pro Stock Car “a rolling fruit cart” he intended to “use up before it all spoils.” And former Funny Car favorite Dean Skuza had the classic line: “We’re not like NASCAR. We don’t conserve tires. We don’t conserve fuel. We don’t conserve nothin’!! What’s more American than that?!”  
 
So why is the NHRA missing this prime chance to stand up straight, march into the marketplace, and remind everyone who’s boss, with tire-shredding, tire-smoking, ear-splitting, sensory-overloading, ground-pounding authority? Do it now, while the cultural environment is ripe.    

Mechanical Genius

Is the NHRA worried that the grandstands will be full of Poindexters, analyzing and charting scientific data on clipboards? Hardly. So why not emphasize the mechanical genius of these crew chiefs who have turned these race cars into the fastest-accelerating vehicles on the planet (and yes – sorry, IndyCar and FOX Sports – the fastest racing on Earth)?
 
Think of it – a car idling still and reacting perfectly to a series of descending colored light bulbs as quickly as a crafty common housefly that reacts in 20–50 milliseconds or a Dracula Ant that snaps its jaws from zero to more than 90 meters per second (more than 200 mph) in as little as 15 microseconds. And that’s just the beginning a mechanical, piston-pumping miracle that unfolds across the length of more than three football fields in less than four seconds – in less time than it took to read that last sentence.
 
And with instant gratification being an American trademark these days, NHRA drag racing offers a winner every four seconds. Go get a hot dog and you might miss about six or seven races.  
 
In this era of promoting STEM platforms, it might be wise to remember the philosophy of Austin Coil, engineer of most of John Force’s 16 Funny Car championships. Coil once encouraged a schoolboy to study math and science, telling him. “It’s math that makes these cars run, and it’s science that blows them up.”    
 
You get the “Oh, my!” and the “Why?”
 
Not every advertisement of a race has to be the same. Wander away from the traditional TV ads. Try doing business in a technical, engineering, or mechanical publication. Attract people who might be fascinated by the process more than the results. They spend money, too.  

Organic Diversity

NASCAR can’t help but drool over the natural diversity that drag racing merely shrugs its shoulders over in “Yeah – and . . .?” fashion. Its leadership has yakked for decades about trying to develop programs to cultivate racing skills in women. And it’s not fair to lump all the earnest, hard-working women trying to advance to the Cup Series level, but the biggest media splashes in NASCAR regarding women have been Danica mania that essentially fizzled and the embarrassing Natalie Decker disintegration at Dover in a Craftsman Truck Series race.
 
The NHRA has the most successful woman in all of motorsports – six-time Pro Stock champion and 50-time winner Erica Enders. She’s one of four women who have won series crowns – joining three-timers Shirley Muldowney and Angelle Sampey and two-timer Brittany Force. Sportsman-level women racers, more than 100 different ones, have won dozens more races. And the series did it without a driver-development program.
 
But the NHRA’s diversity isn’t limited to women’s accomplishments. Five championships have gone to Hispanic racers: two apiece to brothers Cruz and Tony Pedregon in Funny Car and one to Hector Arana Sr. in Pro Stock Motorcycle. Again, labels haven’t been super-important to the NHRA, but black drivers Antron Brown (with four in Top Fuel) and J.R. Todd (one on Funny Car) have won titles. Drivers from Japan (Kenji Okazaki, Yuichi Oyama) have won rounds and a race, and Dubai’s Khalid Al Balooshi won four Top Fuel events and has been outstanding in the Pro Mod class, as well. The series has or has had multiple Europeans: Lex Joon (The Netherlands) and Ida Zetterström and a handful of other Scandinavian drivers. And the four-driver Cuadra family is from Mexico, joining many other North American drivers from across Canada. So drag racing is a geographically diverse sport.
 
Age doesn’t matter – unless a driver is a pre-kindergartener. Race doesn’t matter – the only color that matters is green, as in dollars. Gender doesn’t matter. No other motorsport can claim that.
 
So NHRA, there you go. There are your unique selling points. You’re welcome. Glad to help.
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