"SHOULDA, WOULDA, COULDA"; Things happen for a reason. Sometimes they don't happen for a reason, too.(Motorsports)(drag racing)

Byline: BILL STEPHENS

Okay, it's time to argue. Ya know, the thing that drag-racing fans love to do the most. And believe us when we say we know how to get things going.

Things that shouldn't have happened in 2006 but did

Tony Schumacher Wins the Top Fuel Championship.

C'mon, get real. The guy was nearly 18 rounds out of first place in June. That the rest of the class allowed him to overhaul them in 12 races is ridiculous. You've got to feel bad for Doug Kalitta and his team, but if Kalitta had won one more single, solitary round of eliminations before heading into the last race of the year, Schumacher would have finished second regardless of what kind of Hail Mary he came up with.

Melanie Troxel Slides Down a Slippery Slope in Points

Melanie, how could you? You were smokin' everyone early and often when the season began and all you had to do was avoid early-round losses, stay on your starting-line game, and forget about what everyone else was doing. From St. Louis on, the magic was lost, and with the sport's most brilliant tuner, Alan Johnson, tuning for your teammate 20 feet away, why couldn't he have slipped a little fairy dust into crew chief Richard Hogan's computer to boost your program? You guys shouldn't have tanked.