Doc and Daddy Dave Battle it Out For the #2 Spot

On the surface, to the unsuspecting bystander, drag racing might look pretty easy and straightforward. It’s kind of hard to blame someone who only very casually watches the sport for this outlook. There seems to be this thought with people who don’t really understand drag racing that the quickest cars always grab the win. It might look like, to these outsiders, that the driver only has to stab the throttle and steer. However, those of us who spend time around straight-line competition know that this couldn’t be further from the truth.

This time, we take a trip to an episode of Street Outlaws to demonstrate exactly how that is. During a battle for number 2 on the list, the span of the street is only an eighth of a mile long. However, during that short span of competition space, there are about a million things going on. In order to perfect a pass, a driver has to execute on as many of these million comonents as possible. Whichever driver is able to cover more of the bases obviously is going to go home with the victory. Failure to do so could end up with a painful loss or even worse. Many drivers end up losing control and veering off of the course entirely.

In the video below, we take a book as a battle goes down for the number two spot between Doc and Daddy Dave. As fate would have it, Doc cuts an amazing light. David admits that Doc is actually pretty good at guessing the light and he certainly did that here. It looks like there is almost no time elapsed between when it illuminated and when he took off. Dave, on the other hand, looks to have hesitated for just a moment beyond when Doc launched his car. However, as the cars would begin to make their way down the racing surface, Doc’s Street Beast would eventually get a little bit loose. This means that he had to lift up off of the throttle for just a split second. From there, this race certainly evens back out.

If we were to qualify this race in one way or another, we would say it is a race of thirds. While Doc won the first third, Dave definitely won the second third. You’re going to have to tune into the video below to see who took home leg 3 of 3. It certainly came down to the wire. If this were between two racers from different teams, we would venture to think that there might’ve even been a little bit of post-race drama thrown to the mix.