my son says that to be very consistent you need to monitor coolant, engine oil, trans and even rear end temps. My question is what makes the car faster? hot trans and rear oil temps?

cold to warm the car will go faster with warm fluids providing the warm engine doesn't have a draw back like hot intake air temp due to a stock hood or something.

My car is very consistent, I drive to the track so the fluids all get good and warm and I imagine stay a pretty good constant throughout the day since there is never a warm up from cold to be done at the track. I have an electric water pump and fans so I can hit the burnout box at the same temp every time. My car never loses a race these days, its always that guy that tells it when to go lol.

The car will be fastest with the engine coolant as cool as possible, while having the engine oil, trans fluid and rear end up to temp or hotter. Also cold fuel will pick up a little as well. When we need a "hero" run we chill the fuel, heat the engine oil and diff and make sure the trans is thoroughly warmed with the brake. No other real way to get a fair amount of heat in the trans in a small amount of time. As for consistency you are looking for just that across the board. A lot of guys struggle with their first hit off the trailer being a "throw" away from the rest IMO the main reason is trans temp. Just not enough heat in it without making a hit. There is a reason people putting in the air and lay on the brake.

Also ice down the intake manifold, push the car up to the lanes, air up the front tires, drain a quart or so of oil, angle stage the car if you can get away with it.... just hang out in the stock/super stock pits and watch and listen. You will pick up lots of tricks before class eliminations.

Definitely what stock and SS guys do. I was referring to a heads up car which already does many of those things every round. We don't ice intakes as most of us run fuel that ices them for us but we do make sure the fuel is COLD going in right when we get called. We run as little oil capacity, viscosity(we run zero weight all the time) and pressure as we can get away with. We also run light oil in the diff and again as little as we can get away with, not to mention ceramic bearings EVERYWHERE.

Not if you listen to all those guys, what works on a Ford or Chevy, especially dumping a quart of oil out, doesn't work on BB Mopars
Been there, done that for over twenty years running a M.W , Hemi and SB cars in NHRA stock and helping other Mopar racers in stock, S/ST,S/G and so on

Flickering the stage bulbs