Drag slick compound. School me!

Here are the Hoosier tire specs and a compound chart at the bottom of the slick section if you want to do some research. I've been running the Hoosier lightweight 9" radial slicks because I'm limited to 9". I could run the bias ply and they'd be more consistent on marginal tracks. But I'm usually on well preepped tracks and radials are normally a little faster. As mentioned earlier in the thread, 06 and also 07 are commonly used for doorslammers. Each combo has it's own "best" compound. But Hoosier tech can offer their advice.

https://www.hoosiertire.com/specdrag.htm

But to answer one of your questions, a too soft of a compound for the application will wear them out faster than normal. It may even hurt traction. Weight, weight transfer, the "hit", etc. all play a part. One of the most surprising things I've seen many years ago is a big block stick Camaro with the front end a couple of feet in the air actually slipping the rear tires! Some applications simply wouldn't work if it dead-hooked. There may be some advantage to experimenting with minor compound changes because each combo is different.