A year ago at the U.S. Nationals, the NHRA announced the creation of a new qualifying bonus points system.

The system awards three, two, and one point, respectively, to the top three qualifiers, in each qualifying session, in each of the four categories – Pro Stock Motorcycle, Pro Stock, Funny Car and Top Fuel – in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

The bonus points qualifying system has had mixed reviews, and one Funny Car driver Jack Beckman is completely against the setup. Beckman, who drives the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger, qualified seventh at 4.076 seconds Sunday at the U.S. Nationals. His was the quickest pass of the fourth session, earning Beckman three bonus points.

A year ago at the U.S. Nationals, the NHRA announced the creation of a new qualifying bonus points system.

The system awards three, two, and one point, respectively, to the top three qualifiers, in each qualifying session, in each of the four categories – Pro Stock Motorcycle, Pro Stock, Funny Car and Top Fuel – in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

The bonus points qualifying system has had mixed reviews, and one Funny Car driver Jack Beckman is completely against the setup. Beckman, who drives the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger, qualified seventh at 4.076 seconds Sunday at the U.S. Nationals. His was the quickest pass of the fourth session, earning Beckman three bonus points.

“If I was in charge today, the first thing I would do is either do away with these individual qualifying session points or reduce them significantly,” Beckman said. “They should be a tiebreaker, they should not weigh this heavily against round wins. What is happening now, somebody could go into Sunday with 20 points just from qualifying, which is the equivalent to one round win. I think that is crazy. I think the proportion has gotten completely out of balance. Until 1994, qualifying No. 1 at every race, you would have to do it 13 times to be the equivalent of one round win. Now, you can do that every single race. Eliminations are now 1/13th as important as it was relative to qualifying, and it should not be that way.”

Heading into Indy, Beckman was third in the points behind John Force and Robert Hight. Beckman, who has been driving Funny Cars since 2006, won the pole at Sonoma, Calif., and he also qualified third at Charlotte’s first race, St. Louis, and Norwalk, Ohio, this season.

Graham Light, NHRA’s senior vice president, racing operations, says part of the reason the sanctioning body implemented the qualifying bonus points was to enhance the event for the fans.

“The qualifying days are for the fans and for the media and they need to have some meaning to them,” Light said. “They need to be exciting and there needs to be value in doing that, just like there is on race day. These guys have a totally different view on race day versus qualifying. There is some value to points in qualifying. It means something for qualifying. It means something to be the quickest car in a session or the second quickest car. I think it is one of those things that is going to be viewed differently by everybody. I would suspect that you could ask the drivers at the next event how they like it, and the answers may be different based on whether they got points or not at that race.”

Light also said the qualifying points are just one part of the NHRA’s equation.

“It’s a new system, it is interesting and it is another, just like setting a national record,” Light said. “If you have the ability to set a national record you get (20) bonus points. If you’re the quickest car in a (qualifying) session, you’re going to get bonus points. If you win a round, you’re going to get additional points. I do not suspect that (qualifying points) will be the determining factor in the championship, maybe it will. I think it (the qualify bonus points system) is working for us. We need to be concerned with the fans and give them the best product we can and we need good side-by-side full runs on qualifying. Tire smoking attempts where they are just trying to find the edge, I understand that’s part of it for the tuneup for Sunday, but we also have to be concerned about the paying public and giving them what they expect to see.”

Beckman does not believe the qualifying bonus points have improved the show for the spectators.

“I totally disagree,” Beckman said adamantly. “I think some of us drivers say things we should not say sometimes. One of our fellow Funny Car competitors last year, when they were struggling in qualifying, said ‘well we’re just testing’; sometimes that is just a euphemism for we’re struggling. We’re always trying to run good. Whether or not we have these bonus points, we’re still going to try things in qualifying. We still have to represent our sponsors and try to go down the track. I do not think it fixed a thing and if NHRA showed statistics that proved otherwise, I would say it was coincidental. I absolutely think you can make an argument for exactly the opposite. Now, in theory people are trying too hard to be one of the quick three and you could see more tire smoke out there.”

The numbers don't support Beckman's argument when it comes to having an effect on the standings. Whether the points mean anything to the fans in the stands during qualifying is difficult to measure.

The top bonus point recipient in 2010, through the Brainerd event, was Ashley Force Hood with 60 points. Robert Hight claimed 53 bonus points and John Force scored the third most points with 47. Matt Hagan was fourth with 44 and Bob Tasca, III tied with Del Worsham in fifth with 29 apiece. Beckman is eighth in the order with 19 points behind fellow Don Schumacher driver Ron Capps.

What the numbers show is Beckman, while not the best qualifier, has performed better on race day than Capps, Hagan and Ashley Force Hood. Going rounds and winning races appears to still be the path to an NHRA championship.

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