I talked to Don Garlits some years ago and I remember him telling me how the early top fuel dragsters burned rubber all the way down the track. That was how they ran them.
They didn't have clutches that slipped so they used tire slippage in its place.
In the mid 60s tires got better so they needed to find something else and that's when the clutch was developed.
I had a friend year's ago come up with a gallon of nitro so he mixed it with the race fuel in his 65 Plymouth, it immediately took out everything rubber in the fuel system, hoses, pump and carb, he was surprised.
Some people's kids.