Everything was set on March 12.

The 2017 Camaro was out of the trailer and his pit was set up.

Veteran Pro Stock racer John Gaydosh Jr. was ready to go racing at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla. 

Then, that day – March 12 – when in consideration of the ever-evolving COVID-19 pandemic and in accordance with the recommendation of the Florida governor, NHRA officials postponed a portion of the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals and Gaydosh Jr.’s NHRA debut with the Beaver Motorsports Team was scratched.

Two-time Pro Nitrous world champion Tommy Franklin backed up his season-opening victory by securing another event win at the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) Carolina Showdown presented by ProCharger at Darlington Dragway Saturday night. He took out defending world champion Jim Halsey in a marquee Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous final round at the second race on the seven-race revised 2020 PDRA tour. 

Second-generation racer Mario Polito will make his Pro Stock debut at the 2020 Gulf Western Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway, September 17-20.

The son of Pro Stock legend Joe Polito will race a Jerry Bickel-built 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt previously campaigned by NHRA star Rickie Smith. 

 
A pair of past Pro Nitrous world champions highlighted Friday qualifying at the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) Carolina Showdown presented by ProCharger at Darlington Dragway. Two-time world champion Jason Harris qualified No. 1 in just his second race in Penske/PRS Pro Boost presented by WS Construction, while defending world champion Jim Halsey topped the Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous field. 
 
JR Carr (Liberty’s Gears Extreme Pro Stock), Chris Garner-Jones (Drag 965 Pro Nitrous Motorcycle) and Wes Distefano ($hameless Racing Pro Outlaw 632) also qualified No. 1 in the other professional classes. 

In a stunning development, the Summit Racing Equipment Mid-West Pro Mod Series (MWPMS) will add Top Alcohol Funny Car (TA/FC) as an official class beginning July 10-11, with its event at Xtreme Raceway Park in Ferris, TX.

Significantly, each MWPMS event will pay $10,000 to the TA/FC winner and a $1,000 bonus to the top qualifier, with paybacks reaching all qualifiers for eight- or 16-car fields, dependant on car count. Following a four-race schedule in 2020, an MWPMS Top Alcohol Funny Car champion will be crowned with appropriate compensation, but starting in 2021, the full-season Mid-West Series TA/FC champ will receive a $20,000 end-of-year bonus, with an additional $10,000 going to the championship runner-up.   

"This is all happening thanks to Jim and Annie Whiteley at J&A Service," MWPMS founder and owner Keith Haney said. "Annie, who is one of the very best NHRA Alcohol Funny Car drivers in the country, came and raced alongside us last month at the Texas Motorplex and that's where we got to talking about the possibility of adding their class to our Mid-West Series mix."

The COVID-19 pandemic has shut down NHRA races since March 12.

In the latest revised schedule, racing is supposed to begin July 11-12 with NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, including the Pro Stock Motorcycle class.

With all the changes and postponements and cancellations of races, it has made competitors like Chip Ellis adjust his schedule.

Willowbank Raceway, one of Australia's premier facilities, revealed overnight its plans to reopen under a Queensland Government approved COVID Safe Plan enabling larger testing events starting Saturday. June 27.

"Our first event back will be a permanent IHRA licence holders Racer Test Day, which will see competitor entries capped to provide the venue with some necessary data for events moving forward," a Willowbank Raceway statement said. "Due to the large amount of pit space at our venue, each event after this date will allow for even higher competitor entry numbers, and these will be posted accordingly on the website for each event.

Fatheadz Eyewear has been named an official associate sponsor of Cruz Pedregon Racing for the remainder of the 2020 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) season.

Cruz Pedregon is the 1992 and 2008 NHRA Funny Car Champion and driver of the Snap-on Tools Dodge Charger Nitro Funny Car. He owns a $1.5 million shop in Brownsburg, Indiana. Pedregon wears Fatheadz Eyewear, but the partnership between Cruz Pedregon Racing and Fatheadz spans 15+ years.

During the time away from racing, Oehler has been improving his team’s equipment.

“We have been taking the time off to complete the construction of our engine dyno cell,” he said. “We are really close. We are probably just a couple of weeks off from having it done. We’ve also had time to stockpile some parts. I have four ‘A’ motors that I can use, and I have six engines total. We’ve definitely been taking advantage of the downtime. We also been protecting our main business.”

Oehler serves as the president of AirTec, his family’s business. AirTec is a heating and cooling business, in Bloomington, Ill.

The Red Line Shirt Club Funny Car Chaos Championship tour presented by Entech Oil and Mears Mazda Volvo was able to resume its 2020 season at Iowa’s Eddyville Raceway Park on May 29-30th. After sneaking in the season opener in mid-March, the series was forced to re-schedule several events due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With Funny Car teams across the country itching to race, a stout twenty-five car field with teams from twelve states converged on Eddyville for two days of ground-pounding heads up flip-top action.

Per the Iowa governor’s orders, no ‘spectators’ were allowed on the property, a mandate that was set to expire June 1st, just two days after the event’s completion. But, an unlimited number of ‘crew’ were permitted in the pits, which allowed a respectable amount of hardcore ‘crew’ to become part of the Funny Car Chaos ‘survey team’ working to observe the event and report back to the series in an effort to improve upon future events.