In no-time racing, competitors place the letters "NT" on their cars (if it's not understood by the track in advance), signaling the control tower to turn off the scoreboard timer displays. No-prep racing eliminates the effort of track-prep and speeds up the pace of racing, whereas no-time racing turns off the scoreboard timers. From the spectator's point of view, no-prep drag racing has a lot of unknowns that really amp-up the curiosity quotient, and it's driven by the desire to recreate an illicit street race in a safe environment. Can you imagine an NFL game with one side of the field outdoors in the mud and snow while the other side is indoors with artificial turf, and because it's not obvious, each has to figure out what side it's playing on? That's no-prep racing. Sports fans love an underdog, and in no-prep drag racing the lane condition and how a team tunes for it becomes a spoiler the likes of which aren't seen in any other sport. A more stoic interpretation of the purpose of no-prep drag racing: The track surface itself becomes a player in the outcome, and a driver's ability to compensate for the track is paramount to winning. The big key with no-prep racing is the "B" is not a gimme, not by a long shot. Like the cast of Street Outlaws is fond of saying, almost to the point of annoyance, "A to B." The point of any race is to finish first, and with no-prep drag racing that means going from point A, the starting line, to point B, the finish line, with as little drama as possible. Spectators and racers appreciate the faster pace of racing without long periods of track-prep, but the no-prep approach does have its detractors, mostly among pro racers who cite safety and consistency as a concern (and, truthfully, the question of safety is marginally valid). Races billed as "no-prep"-which dispense with the products and processes mentioned above-tend to run at a faster pace with less downtime, allowing more races to run each night. Traction compounds such as VP Racing's Lane Choice, Jeg's Maximum Traction Compound, Rocket Track Glue, Pimp Juice, and PJ1 Track Bite (formerly VHT) are considered trackside staples for maximizing performance, but they take a significant amount of time to apply and the cost is not insignificant to racers, track operators, and promoters. In a normal "prep" race, debris is swept off the track, dust is blown off the racing groove, small rocks and debris are dragged off the racing groove with rubber cleats, then the track is sprayed with a sticky traction compound (photo above). In this regard, the no-prep track resembles an actual street. The "no-prep" part refers to the fact that the race surface is not prepared ahead of time like it is in most forms of drag racing.
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