[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Science? The crew chief adjusts the car to the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere - measured in grains! And that's just one parameter. Track temp, air temp, wind, track adhesion, the list is long and varied, and all of the adjustments affect the other adjustments....

There is more horsepower BY FAR on tap than the track can ever take. The crew chief on one of these monsters has to be incredibly smart and creative to be successful and is at least as important as the driver.

And if he gets it wrong, in a split second he can destroy a $250k car or kill someone.
It's almost impossible to control that much energy safely:

On March 19, 2007 during a test session at Auto-Plus Raceway at Gainesville in Gainesville, Florida, Medlen was critically injured when his Funny Car developed the most severe tire shake ever recorded in a Funny Car.[citation needed]. The side-to-side force of the shake caused his head to hit the roll bars around his head, causing severe head injuries.[2] He became unconscious, causing the car to lose control and strike the wall.

After being cut free from the car by the NHRA Safety Safari and receiving emergency treatment at the track, Medlen was transferred by Alachua County Fire Rescue to Shands at the University of Florida where he was treated for four days for what doctors characterized as a severe closed head injury.

Medlen survived a delicate, three-hour craniectomy procedure to relieve pressure and hemorrhaging on March 20, 2007 but succumbed to complications of diffuse axonal injury three days later [3] after being removed from life support in accordance with his own previously stated wishes.

According to auto racing safety expert John Medlen, Eric Medlen was literally shaken to death in the incident. The deflating tire caused an 18-inch movement up and down, which then exerted a force of 40,000 or more pounds as it rotated.

Eric Medlen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia