yes and no
I see your issue with my answer Zip, I was told that you can have a variation or .25 from max stagger to allow for a front end alignment. Made sense to me, because the NHRA director in division 3 told me this several years ago. I was asking if there was a rule in sportsman for such limits and I was told that there were none specific to this accept the safety limits which again made sense to me. The wheel base was not looked on as a safety issue by tech.
Do what you please on your own cars, but mine will ET better and show faster MPH than ones with less stagger. Thanks for pointing out the facts of the matter Zip. You are correct that the written book has a general statement for pro stock stagger, but the gray area is where the fast cars are running and that is where sportsman chassis reside.
Bruce