Indeed, from the perspective of win/loss. When I was running with our local Cobra clan we were more concerned about et/trap speed, 60 ft time. Frankly, none of us had even dragged raced before and the first time for our group was a real hoot.
We eventually determined that the way it worked was: When the other guy left, follow him!
As for myself, I find it rather addictive within a weekend or two. When I broke into the 11's I had to buy a special jacket and arm restraints to keep running. When I had a couple of VERY close run's against some other cars, reaction time started to make sense.