So I have noticed some people do there burn out while sitting in the waterbox and some pull threw it slow and burn out just outside the box... is this just a "every set up is different..." thing or what... or is there times that you should do it one way and other times the other???? Or is it just a driver thing???

in the box the tires dont heat as much and is easier to spin them

out the box the water gets them going and it build fast heat due to the friction caused by the dryer surface

Ok... so should NT01's be heated any different than lets say full blown slicks??? And does track conditions change how you do your burn out??? or am I just way over thinking this???

do not go into the water. you will just collect water in the tire sipes and it will sprinkle out down the track and give you awful traction. go around the water box and just give it a little 1st gear chirp to clean and scuff it a bit. tires like the nto1 dont require to much heat if any. doing a big burn out will probably hurt you and grease the tire up

On anything other than genuine drag racing slicks, drive around the water box.

Even then, I've cut 1.6's without doing a burnout....

On DR's that like heat or slicks, when is it necessary/advantageous to do a second-gear burn out? Are they performed any different than a 1st gear burn out? Also, is it safer to preload for a burn out like you would on a launch?

You dont want to do burnouts in the waterbox because the water catches up in the wheel well and drips down while making a pass and you lose traction that way. Depends how big of a slick and how quickly you want to put heat into the tires. I generally do 3rd gear burn outs with my car 24.5" slicks and not long smokey burnouts either just put heat into the tires. Never rev and dump the clutch after you've done your burnout this pulls all the glue off the surface that you just heated the slick up for in the first place for yoru launch. Try to keep the motor off the rev limiter by feathering the throttle. You have to play with burnout times and log tire temps and see what the car likes

Say goodnight to something in your driveline taking a tire like an nt01 to the drag strip.

how so??? the setup is b18c type r 96 spec, matching lsd tranny, ds axles.
not saying your wrong but would like to know why you think this...

Sticky street tires with stiff sidewalls are nasty on a prepped track. Little wheel hop and its breaking something. I've broken a dtr header, gator stage 2 axles and a burns stainless muffler violently trying to go to the strip on street tires.

The DS axles will make it worse. I'd rather put OEM's in there, atleast that would be the weakest point, likely to break first.