From what little I have learned, that seems to be it for most classes. Get wheel speed, that translates into momentum for the truck/tractor. That momentum is what carries the sled down the track. The faster you get it going, the farther it will go before stopping the vehicle. All that "Newton's Law" stuff.
If you listen to pullers, they get started, wheels spinning, then once they feel the truck moving, they go WOT. The more usable RPM you have, the more wheel speed you can carry. The hard part is making a motor that will turn enough RPM. They don't really make peak HP at that high rpm, but it lets the truck pull down into the power band at the end of the track when it gets tougher to pull. I'm sure all the classes have different approaches, but you don't really want to "stall" the tires at the end of the track.