couple of reasons, no hole drilled in top of rod and no moly lube on pins when installed. these both need to be done.
Also, he said the stock rods were honed for floating pins. This can work ok for mild street cars, but the rods should be bushed for something going on the drag strip at all. I would bush them regardless. Steel on steel ain't a good idea. One metal always needs to be softer. That's why floating rods are bushed with bronze bushings from the factory in most all HP applications. I would never advise honing the rods to full float the pins without bushing them. The money saved is negligible at best, but the end result can be catastrophic.