Here is the Question asked. Will They have the Hemi Shootout at Indy this year?


Answer by Jon Asher

This was written by Jon Asher-Senior Editor at Competition Plus Magazine.

Part of the problem in promoting the Hemi Challenge is the fact that Pontiac is the Official Car of the NHRA.

Last year Mopar wanted to lead the winning driver down the return road with a brand new 2006 Hemi Charger,but NHRA actually did make the right decision in refusing to allow that because of Pontiac.After all,if you were GM and were spending all that money with NHRA{event title rights,individual team aponsorships,contingency programs etc.}you'd want to be protected too.

Yes,I know Mopar does many of the same things,but they are NOT the offical car.

While somewhat acknowledging the popularity of the Challenge NHRA still doesn't seem to quite grasp how big it really is with the fans. Car Craft Magazine {circulation approximately 400,000} gave the Challenge five or six pages of coverage of the 2004 event' while Hot Rod Magazine {circulation approximately 750,000} gave the 2005 event a whopping nine full pages. Publication like these,and many others,wouldn't be devoting these kinds of page counts to the Challenge if they didn't know thier readers didn't want to see it.

There are four things NHRA could do to improve the Challenge.

1.Eliminate the GRADE-POINT entry requirement. The vast majority of Challenge participants don't care about Super Stock eliminator. Winning the Challege is everything.If NHRA accepted all possible entrants the field might approach 60 or more cars.Just slap a little decal on the window fo those cars without grade points who are ineligible for the eliminator reading something as simple as "CO",Challenge Only.

2.Move the event to Saturday so that when eliminations begin there's a real crowd on hand.As things now stand the fans,many of whom can't get to the track until they get off work,or drive to the track from out of town,only see the final round.If they ran it on Saturday there'd be a real crowd instead of empty grandstands when the cars parade down the return road for the first round.

3.Change the front suspension rules to keep these cars safe.They're running on stuff designed for 120 MPH,not 150 MPH.Changes will keep them safe while doing nothing to improve elapsed times and speeds,but,if there did turn out to be a vast elapsed time improvement,what's wrong with that? Just change the index for eliminator racing accordingly.

4.Don't allow non-Hemi cars into the class,keep it pure

by Jon Asher


I would hope somebody from Mopar like David Hakim could lobby with NHRA to try to make this happen. Great post by Mr. Asher.