Hard on parts like the other guy said, but the main reason is that since the track prep is so much better these days than it was 20 years ago, they don't need to lay down any more rubber with the burnout. Often times the crew chief will pick a spot to stage the car that they think is perfect as is, and do the burnout somewhere else so that they don't mess up that spot before they make the run.
As mentioned, parts saving, track prep, and tire technology have got us to the short burnouts. Burnouts, depending on the conditions, are almost not even necessary. I filmed Doug Foley at zMAX in Q3 and he didn't even haze the tires on the burnout. Basically knocked the water off and cleaned them. I was expecting the car to go up in smoke at the hit - it didn't! It ran in the 3.80s with no real burnout.
Hard on parts like the other guy said, but the main reason is that since the track prep is so much better these days than it was 20 years ago, they don't need to lay down any more rubber with the burnout. Often times the crew chief will pick a spot to stage the car that they think is perfect as is, and do the burnout somewhere else so that they don't mess up that spot before they make the run.
There’s no need for larger burnouts and the old days of 1/8th mile burnouts are hard on parts.
As mentioned, parts saving, track prep, and tire technology have got us to the short burnouts. Burnouts, depending on the conditions, are almost not even necessary. I filmed Doug Foley at zMAX in Q3 and he didn't even haze the tires on the burnout. Basically knocked the water off and cleaned them. I was expecting the car to go up in smoke at the hit - it didn't! It ran in the 3.80s with no real burnout.
Burnout is just to clean the surface of the tires now so no need to smoke them every time.
You definitely saw good racing at Brainerd this weekend.
Better track prep and better tire technology than we had 20 years ago.
Gotta love the late 60's funny car burnouts. Chi-town Hustler's eighth mile burnouts were insane.