In heads up racing the only thing that matters is who gets there first. You sleep on the line you can be a full second quicker than the other person, but they got to the stripe first so they win.
Its called a holeshot win, been around drag racing since forever...
As for this being "stupid", well that is a very uneducated statement to put it in a nice way.
1. 1/4 mile racing is dying, just accept it and deal with it. Insurance, safety, and lack of tracks is killing it off.
2. These cars are on the total edge of sanity and really are not meant to run a full quarter mile. Unless you have ever driven a small tire car that makes this kind of power you would not understand.
3. There is an event where they run small tire cars the full quarter mile, Import vs Domestic World Cup. The problem is that most of these cars are not certed to run full quarter mile, the safety requirements are crazy.
4. Small tire racing is the only really exciting thing going on in motorsports right now, period. The big series pull in droves of people, but its corporate racing and you can't hold a candle to this.
I've been to some of the biggest 1/4 mile races around and they are lame, corporate, and boring. Who wants to see a bunch of 8 and 9 second throttle stop cars, a few nitro cars make half-ass 1,000 foot passes, and the bad ass Stock and Super Stock cars get fucked over?