Kyle Wurtzel is using last Saturday as a learning experience. During qualifying, Wurtzel had a problem during his burnout, which did not sound right. 

Instead of shutting off his Kyle Wurtzel Racing Top Fuel Dragster and saving it for another day, Wurtzel and his crew elected to go down the track. He didn’t make it very far, before an explosion happened. 

“Obviously, last weekend didn’t go as planned,” Wurtzel wrote on his team Facebook page. “I knew better than to hit the trottle and this was all my fault and I take 100% of the blame. An idle down the track to get a number is what should have been done and my crew assumed that is what I would do. 

Justin Ashley may be new to the Top Fuel class, but that hasn’t stopped him from successfully pursuing marketing partners to join his Davis Motorsports team.

Days ahead of the Lucas Oil NHRA Summernationals, the second event in the NHRA’s pandemic-delayed season, Ashley revealed his Strutmaster.com-sponsored dragster is welcoming a new associate sponsor, Menards - for the rest of the 2020 season.

Drivers and fans alike, who like the popular Drag Week, will have to wait until 2021 to see the event once again. The 2020 edition has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

At this time, it is not clear if the 2020 edition will move to the 2021 edition. That decision will be made at a later date by the officials. 

Where Top Fuel drivers Justin Ashley and T.J. Zizzo live, it's challenging to get away from the reality of the coronavirus.

Ashley, who resides on New York's Long Island, has watched as COVID-19 has made his hometown, and neighboring New York City a pandemic hotspot.

Zizzo, who lives in Lincolnshire, Ill., a 15-minute drive to Chicago, has watched as the novel virus has inundated close to home.

NHRA Funny Car driver Bob Tasca III, who tested positive for the coronavirus ahead of the E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Nationals in Indianapolis, has been cleared to return to competition for the Lucas Oil NHRA Summernationals starting Saturday.

"I'm excited to be back, and I guess you could say I'm not a very good team owner," Tasca admitted. "I could hardly watch the race last weekend. Not being there with my team and having to watch it on TV was just gut-wrenching. I'm very, very appreciative of Jonnie Lindberg and what he did for me. Without any hesitation at all, he jumped in, and I thought he did an excellent job. But like anything else, not a car he's used to and just jumping in cold, it's not easy to do."

Lindberg drove his way to a quarter-final finish, scoring points for Tasca per new NHRA rules allowing for substitute drivers because of Covid-19 diagnoses. Tasca enters this weekend eighth in points on the strength of last weekend's team finish.

There will be plenty of JEGS yellow and black at one of the high-performance auto parts giant's biggest events of the year, JEGS Speedweek, a double-header race taking place Thursday-Sunday at historic National Trail Raceway.
 
Reigning divisional and regional champions Mike Coughlin and Troy Coughlin Jr. will be joined by Paige Coughlin, Makenna Brown and Jeff Taylor in representing JEGS.com in a variety of classes in both races.

Billy Torrence powered his way to the Top Fuel win on Sunday as the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series raced for the first time since February at the E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis.

Matt Hagan (Funny Car), Jason Line (Pro Stock) and Ryan Oehler (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won in their respective categories at the third race of the 2020 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season. It marked NHRA’s first event in more than four months after suspending competition due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Likely, Jonnie Lindberg's stint as a substitute driver for Bob Tasca III at the E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Nationals will be a one-and-done experience. Still, for the talented fuel driver and even more experienced Top Alcohol competitor, the opportunity to drive a front-running fuel car was a situation he intended to make the most of.

This reality is why Lindberg wanted to make an impression with the first hit.

"I knew there was only going to be two qualifiers, so I was ready to pedal it if I needed to," Lindberg said. "This team, they have their stuff together. Between Mike Neff and Jon Shaffer, it's, they're really smart. I had a lot of confidence going into Q1 because we did pretty good in testing."

NHRA Mello Yello Top Fuel points leader Doug Kalitta will be campaigning a new look blue and white Top Fuel dragster adorned in the logo of Team Kalitta business partner Osborn, during the July 18-19 NHRA Summernationals in Indianapolis. The Top Fuel dragster will feature the Osborn livery for this race and the NHRA Springnationals in Houston, TX as well as Osborn associate branding at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, IN, Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, TN, and NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas, NV.
 
The Kalitta and Osborn partnership was announced at the PRI Show in December of 2019 and since then both organizations have been working on a number of marketing initiatives leading up to the Top Fuel dragster debut. Osborn is running in parallel a season long consumer and industrial promotion which will culminate with fan and customer trips to the NHRA National event in Las Vegas later this season. Additionally, a number of product testimonial videos have been produced at the team’s Michigan shop and are being rolled out through Osborn and Kalitta social media channels.
 

While pump gas at local stations seems to be more affordable these days, the same can’t be said of nitromethane.

The price of what fuels the planet’s quickest and fastest vehicles has skyrocketed to about $1,680 for a 42-gallon drum.

And team owners Terry McMillen and Doug Stringer say that’s “insane” and “bizarre” and are calling for everyone to work together to fix what most definitely is a problem.