We have seen the so-called Don Schumacher Rule (following a flap about nitromethane and involving lawsuits and eligibility to race). And last year we encountered the so-called Billy Torrence Rule (regarding Countdown requirements).

Call this latest one the Jonnie Lindberg Rule.

In response to the effects of coronavirus, the NHRA announced Friday it temporarily has modified its points-based replacement driver policy.

Heading into race week, few knew exactly what was happening at Torrence Racing.

Would they be at the season reboot in Indianapolis or would they sit out like they did at Pomona way back in early February at the season opener?

Tommy Johnson Jr. was riding high back in February.

Coming off of a win in Phoenix in just the second race of the season, Johnson felt he was in a perfect position to potentially have a career year in his MD Anderson Cancer Center Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car.

That right there is why we race them on the track and not on paper. – Drag Racing Proverb.
 
Jason Hamstra came into Saturday’s ADRL Gateway Drags at World Wide Technology Raceway as the American Drag Racing League’s Pro Extreme Top Qualifier, thanks to a blistering lap Friday night of 3.633 seconds. After a first-round win, he faced off against No. 9-seed Bill Doucet in E2 in front of a guideline-savvy crowd of socially-distancing race fans.
 
And got treed.

John Force Racing’s massive Brownsburg, Ind., headquarters is locked and deserted. The parking lot is empty. And an untrimmed evergreen tree is encroaching on the memorial statue for beloved Funny Car racer Eric Medlen. It was a place where folks – whole families – once came on a summer’s evening and brought their ice cream cones and sat and remembered the outgoing, happy-go-lucky Funny Car driver who promised that “you can’t be unhappy when you’re eating ice cream.” No one does that much anymore.

This sprawling shop, which not all that long ago buzzed with purpose and energy, is silent. And so is John Force.

One of the most delightfully talkative personalities in all of motorsports – in all of sports – hasn’t been talking about why he isn’t participating in this race that’s unfolding about two miles from his race-team building.

When Jason Line lit up the scoreboard with the quickest pass of the afternoon Saturday at Lucas Oil Raceway, no one was more surprised than Line himself.

“Honestly, I didn’t really expect it,” Line said with a laugh.

Better late than never.

While the rest of the professional classes with the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series were able to get in a pair of races before the season shut down back in February, the Pro Stock Motorcycle teams had to wait eight months between races. The class was slated to return at the Gatornationals in Florida back in March, the next race up on the schedule before the pandemic hit.

Under the lights on the world-class drag strip at World Wide Technology Raceway, the American Drag Racing League returned home to the site of its greatest events and a foundation of the Missouri-based series. Former ADRL Rookie of the Year and Pro Extreme World Champion Jason Hamstra rocketed to the top of PX class qualifying with a Q3 pass of 3.633 seconds at 210.57 mph. More impressive is the fact Hamstra’s ’69 Camaro labored for most of the eighth-mile track, huffing and puffing to the finish line.

Those who believe there’s no place like home have never driven a Top Fuel dragster.

And that’s why Justin Ashley was more than a little bit amped to board a jet Thursday morning, fly to Indianapolis and get back in the driver’s seat.