Chase or be chased to the line???

805moparkid said

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but my point still stands that if you can run your dial and know your R/T then what the other guys does is irrelevant. if "you" can get your runs down to a couple hundredths then the other guy dosn't matter, if he gets closer to his mark and he beat you, he should...

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This is not the best way to look at it in my opinion. Sure, it you cut a GREAT light (0.00x) and run dead on your dial you will be hard to beat....but how often does that happen? From your example above, getting with in a few hundredths...do you know what a few hundredths equates to on at the finish line for your car? My car (for example) 2 hundredths is about 4 feet at the end of the track...that means that I'm giving my opponent a 4 foot window of opportunity to pull in front of me and take MY stripe.

Hypothetical race with me and driver B. Driver B dials 11.0. Lets say that my car will run 10.96 all out, and I decide to dial 11.0 also (dialing 0.04 soft). Driver B gets a better light of 0.020....I get an ok light of 0.030. If driver B runs dead on his dial he is leaving me a 4 foot window to sneak in for the win (minus my reaction time deficit makes it about a 2 foot window). If I put a wheel on him on the big end, I win. If I had raced it the same way as driver B (cut a light, run my dial, and don't look back) then I would loose. My way gives me an opportunity to win when things don't go my way on the tree.

This is not to say that I drive like this all the time...but this is in my "tool box" of racing strategy if needed. If you pay no attention to the other driver you lower your chances of winning drastically.