Wondered about this for years.  Read a story about Neff and Brown stepping into nitro cars after a few runs to get their licenses.  Article quoted John Force, Gary Szelzi, Ron Capps among others.  In nitro cars, the driver is responsible for holding the brake and cutting a good lite, and holding the monster 8000 HP in a straight line.  Pretty much ANYBODY who is physically healthy and can tolerate the g-force the body takes can get into one of these 300 mph cars and run 4 second runs.  Might not win races without experience, but would compete well.  Found all this hard to believe, but it is true. 

Former Oakland Raider QB Dan Pastarini actually won rounds in his top fuel dragster.  He said, " I loved drag racing, got my license and bought the equipment".  Home Run star Jack Clark, started a top fuel team.  Among the drivers who drove for him were Indy Car star John Andretti, who at the time had never drag raced, except on the street. John won rounds.  Jack Clark eventually drove the car himself, even though prior to the nitro licensing procedure, had never been down the track at more than 125 mph.  Other drivers discussed were Robert Hight and Mike Neff.  Hight had done considerable racing in the slower classes (140mph), but was a mechanic when Force had him get his license.  Same with Neff, no experience other some driving in sportsman classes.  And all of a sudden, after a short licensing process, he runs 330mph at 4.55 seconds. 

So, even though NHRA/IHRA have been my favorite types of racing and always will be, I mean 330 mph from a dead stop in 4.5 seconds. Nothing like that in the world.   As George Steinbrenner said after he saw Mike Dunn do a test run prior to the Yankee owner signing on as sponsor many years ago, "if Nascar fans saw this in person, they'd never go back to Nascar". 

Bottom line:  the drivers responsibility is to mash the throttle to the floor and keep it there.  The crew chief with the clutch setup tunes the car so that hopefully the tires  will not spin as the clutch package works its magic.  The only time the driver has a lot of involvement is peddle jobs.  HANG ON. 

Not sure I'd put the ratio at that high a level.  Truthfully, the crew chief's "tune" is extremely important. The tune can fairly accurately predict the ET time if he's good.   However, the driver contributes a great deal in reaction time, and control to get off the line, and a lot of control keeping the car in the groove (especially in a funnycar).

Yea, I dotn know if I would say 99%-1%, but certainly the CC IS the most important factor in a race. The sad part is the record books will show Shoemaker as the winningest top fuel driver of all time. The reality is, he would not have a single championship if not for Alan Johnson. My sister could jump in that car and win 5 races a year.  Force has proven many times now that you can put anyone ina car and make a winner out of them. Antron Brown in a top fueler? What are his qualifications?Give them good sponsorship and a great CC and they will win races. The day of the driver are long gone. I guess I would still give driving credit to ProStock drivers. After all, they have a lot to do in that car and the compitition is so close, if the miss it by a hair, they are done.

I agree that the percentages are arguable.

I have heard Larry Dixon in interviews recount his start.  Sounds like he was working in Snake's shop when he was tapped as a good looking kid who would do well on television.  Like that, a driver was born.

I also agree that the ProStock class drivers have much more to do with their results than the top fuel drivers.