Yahoo Autos NHRA Driver Paul Lee Takes Shot at Playoff System that Rewards Perfect Attendance
Drop from top 10 at final regular-season race ended Paul Lee's Countdown chances.
Lee bumped from top-10 in the standings thanks to NHRA rule that awards drivers with perfect attendance.
Funny Car regular takes parting shot at ‘participation awards’.
With savvy Jonnie Lindberg as his crew chief and championship tuner John Medlen on board as a consultant, Paul Lee made remarkable strides, among the best in his NHRA Funny Car career.
But in the end, it didn’t make any difference.
The NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship this weekend will get under way for the 18th year, with the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals at Reading, Pa. Had the traditional system been in place, Lee would have been 11th in the standings with a glimmer of hope to move up by the final count.
As it is, Lee fell out of the top 10 at the Labor Day Toyota U.S. Nationals.
And instead of entering the Countdown 11th, he was bumped down to 14th to accommodate three other racers who also missed the top 10 but were eligible for the Countdown as a reward for perfect attendance at the regular season’s 14 events.
Had Lee not skipped the May 31-June 2 New England Nationals at Epping, N.H., or had he advanced farther than the first round of the U.S. Nationals, he would have salvaged a spot in the playoffs. But, according to his Facebook post Monday, it rankled him to see Cruz Pedregon, Buddy Hull, and Dave Richards leapfrog him into championship eligibility.
It’s nothing personal toward those three competitors. The Countdown simply is not his friend this year.
“After NHRA reset the FC points, we go from 11th to 14th, with NO chance of finishing higher. So there is no use wasting parts and money this year, so we will sit out until the last couple of races for this year. Oh, and best of luck to this year’s FC “participation award” winners,” Lee posted. He included the hashtags “participationawardssuck,” “letusrace,” and “seeyounextyear.”
Lee had momentum this season and during the U.S. Nationals. The day before eliminations, the McLeod Racing/FTI Performance Dodge Charger owner-driver earned the $80,000 winners prize in the Pep Boys All-Star Call Call-out.
In July he made his career-first final round and was runner up at Seattle to class dominator Austin Prock. And Lee called his current crew “the best team I've ever been a part of in the nitro category. I've been a part of great teams in alcohol, and we won races.”
He said he had wanted to build on his emergence as a force in the class by “accumulating runs.”
He won’t be accumulating as many passes as he and his fresh combo of mechanics and crew chiefs anticipated as he opts out of races at Reading, Charlotte, St. Louis, and Dallas.
Lee said he plans to enter at Las Vegas and the November Finals at Pomona, Calif.—with another vote against the Countdown and its “inclusion” rule.
