National Hot Rod Association

If Driver A has a reaction time of .050sec, for example, and Driver B's is .080sec (difference: .030sec), Driver A will cross the finish line first if he can run anywhere within .029sec of Driver B. It's called a "holeshot," and it happens at every race on the NHRA Full Throttle tour.

"We've all lost on holeshots, everybody out here," says Larry Dixon, driver of the Toyota-supported Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel dragster and winner of more races this year (eight) than all other Top Fuel racers combined. "From a driver's standpoint, getting beat on a holeshot is probably the worst way you can lose, because you know that you had enough racecar to win and didn't get the job done. It always feels like you just the whole team down."

Second-year pro Shawn Langdon, who drives the Toyota-backed Lucas Oil/Speedco dragster for Morgan Lucas Racing, has the best average reaction-time in Top Fuel this year. Racers – even the best ones – dread lining up next to him because he's made more than one of them look bad in his short time behind the wheel of the sport's fastest-accelerating vehicles.

"I pride myself on doing a good job on the Tree," Langdon says. "It's cool to be singled out for being the best 'leaver,' but I try not to put extra stress on myself, try not to make it like I have to leave on every single person I race. What I try to focus on is doing the same thing every time I go up there, whether I'm qualifying or in eliminations."

In reality, there's no way to know exactly what a driver's true reaction time is. Who's to say when he reacted to the flash of the Christmas Tree and mashed the throttle? Reaction times are measured, like everything else in drag racing, according to what the car does. The reaction timer starts ticking when the green light comes on and stops when a car's front tires have moved out of the staged beam that shines across each lane.

By simply allowing their cars to roll forward an extra few inches after they stage, drivers can "trick" the clocks because their front tires will exit the staged beam sooner and, thus, stop the reaction timer sooner. That's "deep staging." Sometimes drivers stage so deep that their pre-staged light – the one that lets them know they are eight inches from being staged – goes completely out.

If two drivers hit the throttle simultaneously, the one who rolled farther into the staged beam will have a better reaction time – even though his reflexes were no quicker than were those of the driver in the other lane. Drivers, particularly those with demanding team owners who expect them to leave first every time, tend to roll in a little deeper during eliminations. But for every thousandth of a second they gain by staging deeper, an identical amount is added to their e.t., and, because lane choice goes to whomever had the better e.t. in the previous round, they're actually hurting their team overall.
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Numerous factors conspire to distort drivers' true reaction times. "How the crew chief sets up the car affects reaction time, how far you roll in there when you stage affects it, how the tire sticks to the track on the launch affects it," Langdon says. "There are a million things. Sometimes, the car will spin the tires at the hit of the throttle. Sometimes, the crew chief is afraid of the track and gets conservative with the tuneup, and the car just kind of rolls out of the beams and doesn't snap the front wheels up in the air when you leave. That's two- or three-hundredths [of a second added to your reaction time] right there."

Dixon and Langdon, like the best drivers in all classes, stage "shallow" every time, creeping into the staged beam and stopping the instant the staged light on their side of the Christmas Tree comes on.

"Guys stage deep against me sometimes because they don't want to get left on, but I don't let their getting a better reaction time than me discourage me," says Langdon, who got the jump on the first 13 drivers he faced this year before finally being outdone by just .004sec by Cory McClenathan at Atlanta. "I'm not going to stage shallow to get the best e.t. in qualifying and then go in deeper when I get to eliminations just to make myself look better. I never let up. My mind is preset; I'm on 'kill' every time. I don't really have a half-mode mentality – it's all or nothing. I try to work on my lights constantly, just like crew chiefs work on their tuneups. Even if you're doing well, if you never try to improve, sooner or later people are going to pass you by."

"We're all just trying to fire our best shot," Dixon says. "Some people might think there's a downside to winning on a holeshot because the guy next to you has a quicker car than you do, but he's out after that round anyway. Winning on a holeshot means you're doing your job."

Perhaps Langdon summed it up best, saying, "Reaction times are just a stat. Everybody looks at them, and they're important, but you can pat yourself on the back all you want for a good reaction time, and if you don't get to the finish line first, what good did it really do you? Turning on that win-light at the end of the track is the only thing that matters."