After days of speculation following a Rumor Mill item published on CompetitionPlus.com on February 3, 2020, defending NHRA Top Fuel champion Steve Torrence confirmed he would not be in attendance at the NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Ca.

“Due to untimely circumstances beyond our control, It’s in the best interest of Torrence racing to not participate in this weekend’s season opener in Pomona, California,” Torrence said in a statement on his Twitter account. “We cannot thank our fans enough for their continued support and understanding at this time.”

Support for the Drag Illustrated World Doorslammer Nationals presented by CTech Manufacturing continues to build, as race officials announced today that JEGS, the worldwide high-performance parts powerhouse, has been added as a major sponsor for the inaugural race, which takes place March 6-8 at Orlando Speed World Dragway.
 
Paying $50,000 to the winners in Pro Stock and Pro Mod, the World Doorslammer Nationals puts two standout classes in the spotlight with a big payday and major prestige on the line. Among the stars slated to attend includes Team JEGS star Jeg Coughlin Jr., a legendary standout who has captured five career Pro Stock world championships.

Stevie "Fast" Jackson still has a little over a month before he travels to Gainesville, Fla., to defend his NHRA Gatornationals crown. However, the fan-favorite doorslammer jockey from Georgia is well underway in his preparations.

Jackson is laying down the laps, event a new drag radial performance standard of 3.546 en route to winning a Radial vs. The World title at the U.S. Streetnationals in Bradenton, Fla.

 Antron Brown has registered some pretty amazing statistics, but one of the more surprising ones might be that he never has won the season-opener at Pomona, Calif.,

“We’ve always done well at Pomona. We qualify and run well there. We’ve had the car to beat there,” Brown said, “yet we’ve still never won the Winternationals. We won the NHRA Finals there a couple of times. It would be awesome to start the year off right there. First you’ve got to qualify, then we can focus on race day and just going rounds.

The three-time Top Fuel champion from the Don Schumacher Racing organization, will enter the 2020 season with 50 Top Fuel victories. He’s two behind five-time champ Joe Amato for third on the all-time class list. Brown also earned 16 Pro Stock Motorcycle trophies.

Three stinking, lousy points stood between Doug Kalitta and his first championship at the end of last season. They’re three stinking, lousy points that the Mac Tools Toyota Dragster driver probably could have earned easily during qualifying. And he’s well aware that those bonus points that are up for grabs four times a race, 24 times a year is a key to avoid winding up second in the final standings for an NHRA-record fifth time in his career that’s studded with 47 victories.

“Qualifying is one of the things that we’re going to be focusing on this year,” Kalitta said. “Usually on race day, we’re consistently good, so qualifying a little bit better will help us be there at the end again this year. The points you gain in qualifying can make a big difference in the point standings.

“We’re just hoping to be running up front the whole season. We need to start off strong,” he said.

Industrial Opportunity Partners (IOP), a private equity firm based in Evanston, Illinois, which owns Edelbrock, has purchased the COMP Performance Group.

The plan is for Edelbrock and the COMP Performance Group to operate as independent organizations. Both teams will continue to provide the same designs, products and services which made them household names in the aftermarket industry.

Clay Millican has been dancing the numbers rhumba.

The NHRA Top Fuel standout wasn’t concerned particularly with elapsed times during last weekend’s PRO pre-season testing at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“We didn't come out here to put any hero runs down. We didn't have any intentions to making full pulls,” Millican said, despite clocking a 3.780-second elapsed time Friday in his overhauled Parts Plus Dragster.

He had his mind on other numbers.

NHRA Pro Stock driver Alan Prusiensky makes his return to the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series next weekend in the 2020 season-opener. But will he race much after that?

Prusiensky, who suffered a fracture to his L5 vertebra in a grinding crash at Charlotte last October, said he plans to race the entire season. That, however, could change.

“I would say I’m going to race the whole season,” Prusiensky said. “I’m just going to start the season off and see how it goes performance-wise. Performance-wise is the most important thing right now. See how it runs and see how competitive I can be.”

Aeromotive, a leading manufacturer of aftermarket fuel systems and accessories, has announced the promotion of two employees into senior management roles.  Johnson Barrick has been named vice president of sales and marketing, while Jeff Stacy has been promoted to executive vice president of both Aeromotive and its Waterman Racing Components sister brand.  These promotions took effect on January 13, 2020.