I watched it a couple of times, and personally, I think it's a stupid show, especially the negotiation part. The times that I watched it, the guys with the fastest cars refused to give the opponents any type of head start, or they sandbagged the trials and then ran flat out on the money runs. Of course, they won, so the losers basically gave their cars away. On one of the shows, the faster car was winning by about 5 car lengths, yet he refused to give the other guy any type of head start, and they seemed to be at a stalemate. Then amazingly, after the commercial, the opponent agreed to no head start, and lost his car. When they raced, the winner won by even more, so he was sandbagging as well. To me, looks like the producers just rig the show (Now there's a stunning concept). To make it fair, they ought to set things up like a real drag race, and use qualifying times to determine advantages, and if you are caught sandbagging (time decreases by more than a certain percentage), you lose.
BTW, to me, a race is a race, period. I'll race for money or bragging rights, but never my car. It would be like giving one of my kids away after he lost a track meet.
