Revised NASCAR schedule hurts NHRA race

A thread on the popular drag racing website Nitromater.com is titled: “Are we second fiddle?"

It refers to the U.S. motor sports pecking order where NASCAR is No. 1 and NHRA a distant second.

The writer is not happy about a revision to the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule that moves a race at Phoenix International Raceway from mid-April to the second race of the 2011 season on Feb. 27. The move was made after the date opened when Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., lost one of its two Cup races on what traditionally had been the weekend after the Daytona 500 opener.

Guess what? The end of February has been the traditional weekend for the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event at Firebird International Raceway near Phoenix for several years.

So now NHRA and Firebird have to come up with another weekend.

I suggest moving it to late September or early October and calling it the Fallnationals, which is what the national event at Firebird was called when it was held in October from 1985 through 1989 before moving to the spring.