The pandemic which brought the world to its knees back in March has forced many people to approach everyday life differently. For seasoned Top Fuel veteran Cory McClenathan, who is racing the consecutive Indianapolis events, as a retirement redo, has already learned the Top Fuel world he left is not the same world he's enjoying.

McClenathan is in an adjustment period, learning the nuances of a canopy-equipped dragster, after decades of driving a conventionally configured unit.

What might be a bigger adjustment than driving a canopy car is learning how to pack a parachute in a pit space previously used as a hospitality area and shared with Tony Schumacher, who is also racing for the first time in a while. To the right and left of them are Antron Brown and Leah Pruett. 

"The way the cars are settled in here there's not a lot of room in the back," McClenathan said, as he worked the parachute lines around a table. "I'm used to being able to pull it all back and do them both, but we do what it takes to make it work."

Make it all work is well worth the challenge for McClenathan who is greatly appreciative of his retirement do-over.

"Don provided us with all the tools it takes to get this thing together, so RevChem and Nordic and just everybody, Napa and Dodge. We just really have some great people behind us, got great guys working on the car. Todd and Scott Okuhara, Neal Strausbaugh, and it just doesn't get better than this for me, so I'm happy to do whatever I have to do."

It's no big deal for McClenathan, a former Volkswagen drag racer, who has rolled with the punches for most of his career. The one regret he readily admits is he didn't drive a canopy car before the final two events of his career.

"I never knew it would be this cool," McClenathan said. "When it gets trucking down in there, it's like floating. It just floats with the driver, so you still feel like you're one with the car, but seeing out that windshield and just that protection makes you feel that much safer."

And as McClenathan explains it, much is different as well.

"The computer is not in the driver's compartment any more," McClenathan explained. "That takes a lot away from the driver, so you don't know oil pressure, you don't know when you're trimming the pump, but that's all changed as well. So I'm trying to get used to how Leah and their team do it, and that's my biggest focus because both these cars are identical except for 45 pounds that I add to the middle of the car just in weight."

Amid a score of negativity in the world, and even though the team suffered untimely breakage in Sunday's first round, McClenathan is having the time of his life.

"To come back right now after all the negative things that we have in the world going on and be able to bring drag racing back and come back with them and showing that we can do this the safe way at distance with masks and do it the right way and still have fans, I think we're showing more than some of the other motorsports," McClenathan said.