Typical for racing in the modern era. A loved driver is killed in the line of duty and immediately change is required. Auto racing is dangerous. It's suppose to be.
   Changing to 1000 ft. from our "sacred" 1/4 mile is blasphemy !!

1000 ft would have done Scott no good.  He blew up at that distance and the end result would have been the same.

How about we eliminate tracks with walls at the end of the track.  And man lifts.  Wouldn't hurt not to have a 10 ton chunk of steel at the end of the gravel trap.  A gravel trap that should have sand, that is.

I'm not a big drag racing fan, but I don't see how this "helps" anything.

As Bandman said, they might think about parking cranes or front-end loaders or whatever that was somewhere OTHER than the end of the runway.  And make improvements in gravel traps or perhaps a series of catch fences of some kind that would dissipate energy and decelerate the cars in such situations as Kalitta's.

The track at Englishtown has been a problem at least since 1990 when Johnny West did the same thing at a slower speed. A 1000' track would have done little, if anything, to prevent this tradgedy. The top end of all the tracks need to be uniform and without obstruction. The sand traps being used now are a joke. Either a car flies over them or they nose over in the sand. All the members of PRO, contrary to what has been reported, are not in agreement over this. Melanie Troxel has garnered some more fans by saying this isn't the way to go. Bottom line, these cars need to be slowed down. It has happened in all other forms of motorsports. When the cars get too fast for the tracks they run on, you have to slow the cars down. NASCAR had it's warnings (Irwin, Petty) and didn't heed them until Earnhardt died. NHRA had their warnings last year when Eric's car shook apart and then Force's accident. NHRA saying this is "temporary" is fine. I am temporarily staying home until they go back to 1320'. You won't find a bigger drag racing fan than I am. I am in agreement with the original poster...it's blasphemy. If you want to see a plan on how to do it, read here: http://www.competitionplus.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6566&Itemid=24 Dale Armstrong is quite an expert on the subject. And while crew chiefs eventually find ways to go faster, it would give us plenty of time to figure ways to keep the cars safer. Not to mention, having this incident in hindsite should keep the NHRA from allowing speeds from getting excessive again. The alcohol cars need to be slowed as well. They are running times now that not too long ago were being run by the fuel cars.

This rule change reminds me of the yellow line rule that NASCAR implemented at Daytona and Talladega after Dale Earnhardt was killed.

It's a cover-their-a$$ rule IMO.

Last I heard, it wasn't the yellow line that killed Dale Earnhardt nor is it the yellow line that makes restrictor plate racing uniquely dangerous.

Looks like this is the NHRA's yellow line rule.

Will be attending the Mile High Nationals here at Morrison, Colorado this weekend. And although I agree this is nothing more then the NHRA just doing something so they can say we did I have a feeling I won't be cheated out of to much racing. Maybe a 1/4 of a second per run. I'll let you know Monday if it ruined the show.

     I hate that the track is shorter (for now). But I also hate that they might have to slow the cars down. I guess 1000 ft may help. I don't thik it will help parts much. A friend of mine races drag radial classes all over the country. 1/8 mile has definately saved him parts. I'm a die hard 1/4 mile guy. But Nitro cars are still impressive at 1000 ft. I'm watching qualifying now. 
     Some tracks cannot get longer shut down areas. If I'm not mistaken Englishtown is one of those tracks where they have built house around over the past 20 years. How many tracks have roads that cross at the end? National Trail actually has a traffic signal that stops traffic on Refugee Road when races are going on!! They may just have to find other NHRA tracks that have plenty of shutdown area available, or at least room to expand. Those tracks are out there. Their not the old faithful tracks were used to. But some of them may be even easier to get to. No offence to Maple Grove. It is a nice ride.

Pro teams like this because most major engine damage occurs between 1000 and 1320 feet if they shut off at 1000 it saves big bucks.

I don't care what they do, the most important thing is safety and if they have to shorten it while they continue the investigation, that's a good thing, not a bad one. NHRA is all about safety and that's what's important here.