Why are people scared of the drag strip?

**** happens to the best of us. I have drag race everywhere since the early 70's. In 1976 I ran a SB 64 Malibu 4 speed car. I lined up at a now closed Tampa Dragstrip, Launched the car at 6800 RPM in reverse! Tore the shifter out of my hands, spit the Muncie out of the car ( excet for the 4 ears, they were still on the scatter shield) twisted the drive shaft like a pretzel! It happen so fast, no one but me knew I was in reverse, car never moved when I did it. Imagine for the first few seconds thinking, wheres the shifter! Main two reasons most guys fear the drag strip. 1) screwing up and looking like a fool 2) What if my car DOESN'T run 10 sec! Like I think it does.