Typically, I am a fan of safety upgrades in motor sports; but, they have come with an unfortunate price (not worth someone's life mind you, but still a cost all the same) in the category of excitement.

Fire burnouts, for example, are no longer allowed and I don't see as big of a push to go faster each week so much anymore as I see a push to win events/championships to keep the sponsors happy.

I still remember watching Eddie Hill in his Super Shops T/F Dragster break the 4 second quarter mile in '88. To me that was a land mark moment in drag racing, and at the time I remember thinking that the 4 second barrier had finally been broken and somebody, someday, might actually run in the 3's. It made me really wonder at the time how fast somebody could actually cover the 1320' between the light and the line? Who would be the first to clock a 3.XX and when?

We're now creeping up on 20 years since Eddie's 4 second run, and over the past few years we don't seem to be getting much closer to the 3's. After all, Schumacher set the current record of 4.428 this past November. Most of the T/F dragsters run in the mid 4's and the T/F Funny Cars are even in the 4's but, nowadays teams are looking to shave time in increments of 0.001 or even 0.0001 of a second rather than 0.01 or 0.1.

Fuel content was limited to 90% nitro-meth in 2000 and then to 85% following the death of Darrell Russell in 2004. Final drive ratios are limited to no less than 3.2:1 to limit top speed for the sake of safety. Granted they (thankfully) save lives; but, rules like that really limit the capability to shave too much time off the E.T.'s, and unfortunately, as a side effect, simply produce the same races and E.T.'s week after week. Maybe mid 4's are as fast as it can be done safely and that is the answer to my question, but I still hold out hope that someday I'll see a 3.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see anybody get hurt, quite the contrary, I just wish that we were trying to push the envelope more like they used to.

All that being said, I don't really think that the changes I mentioned killed it for me; I still go every chance I get, but, they sure did remove quite a bit of the excitement.