During the ongoing emergency suspension of drag racing, rumors have floated, racers and fans alike have formed their own forecasts, and the NHRA has been communicating with all sorts of sources about when and how the sport will be able to resume.

Scott Gardner, a partner in Straightline Strategy Group (SSG) – which operates the teams for Top Fuel’s Clay Millican’s and Funny Car’s Paul Lee – might have the best insight of anyone.

For 18 years, Gardner and wife Laura owned and operated Cordova Dragway Park in Illinois and managed Heartland Park Topeka in Kansas for a nearly two-year stint. In between those tasks, he served as President of the International Hot Rod Association. For about three years he has teamed with Doug Stringer and J.J. Koehler at SSG and coordinates the marketing effort.

Nitro Fans rejoice, as a nationwide celebration is planned just for you! Auto Club Famoso Raceway and Stith Printing, Inc. have teamed up and are proud to announce a very special event aimed at uniting this great country.

“National Day of Nitro” will take place on May 30, 2020. The day will consist of nitro-burning engines being fired up throughout the day and it will all be streamed live on Famoso Raceway’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Auto.Club.Famoso.Raceway/) and on NATIONALDAYOFNITRO.COM. Nitro teams across the country are being asked to pull their cars out and FIRE THEM UP! Since fans can’t attend nitro races, we are bringing nitro to them live.

Nationwide fire ups, interviews and stories told will be shown throughout the day. Starting at Noon Eastern, the distinct sound of nitro-burning engines will be heard across the country.

Steve Page and Jason Fiorito have NHRA national events scheduled one week apart this summer, but they couldn’t have a more different expectation.

Page, president of California’s Sonoma Raceway, and Fiorito, his counterpart at Pacific Raceways, near Seattle, simply are unsure whether stay-at-home orders in their respective West Coast states will be lifted and common sense will permit their Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour dates to take place.     

Page talks of challenges, struggles, and a “psychological hangover” from the global calamity caused by coronavirus. He says he’s “a universal optimist, also a realist. I’m looking at the calendar, and there are going to be some significant challenges that will present themselves in sticking with our original, current date. That doesn’t mean we can’t make it happen. I’m just being realistic that have to be mindful of alternatives.”

The NHRA is expected to update its plan for the remainder of the 2020 season this coming Monday, May 4. But Top Fuel owner-driver Lex Joon hasn’t been sitting around, waiting for announcements.

Like so many other Mello Yello Drag Racing Series competitors, Joon was set to make his season debut in the Strutmasters.com Dragster at the Gatornationals in March. The race, of course, was halted for health concerns and since then the world has been in limbo, longing for normalcy.

But Joon said, “In the meantime we won’t sit still.”

And he hasn’t.

Drag racing legend Don Prudhomme described them as wise beyond their years. If anyone should know about Pat Galvin and Donnie Couch,it's Prudhomme and both 1970s-era rockstar nitro crew members, it's because they worked for him.

The stipulation for their employment wasn't whether or not they were efficient at turning a wrench. Instead, Galvin and Couch had to make good grades and behave reasonably well in school.

For Galvin, living next door to a Funny Car driver and being a male had its privileges. It was a dream come true for the 13-year old kid.

Nothing stops the chaos. Under a new exciting partnership with the wildly popular Funny Car Chaos series, leading streaming service provider BangShift.com and a group of dedicated track owners, the fans of drag racing have a lot to look forward to in their search for a fresh drag racing fix. With a never before seen business model, the Funny Car Chaos series will host its next two scheduled events on the Red Line Shirt Club Championship tour, presented by Entech Oil and Mears Mazda Volvo, with a payout structure based on support from drag racing fans across the world via the pay-per-view live streaming platform that will be exclusively streamed on BangShift.com.

A two event live stream package has been set-up which will kick off with the series debut at Alamo City Motorplex outside San Antonio, Texas on May 15th & 16th. This will be the first competition event in the world including nitro cars since the Covid-19 lockdown and aims to be a crowd pleaser with over twenty pre-entries. Per Texas state guidelines, this event will also include spectators with strict safety protocol in compliance with local authority.

Terry McMillen, the 2018 U.S. Nationals Top Fuel champion, is offering fans the opportunity to have him send a special message to their mom this Mother’s Day. Through the CAMEO™ Marketplace, which lets fans book a personalized video shout-out from their favorite athlete, celebrity or entertainment personality, McMillen will make himself available starting today. Understanding many people may not be able to get out and see their mothers this Mother’s Day McMillen wanted to offer a unique gift to his NHRA fans.

“I know a lot of our fans might not be able to take their moms to lunch this year or even see them if they are a first responder,” said McMillen. “I wanted to offer them the chance to send a personal message from me to their moms. NHRA is one big family and our AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil team is privileged to be a part of that family as well.”

Leave it to Donald Long to spin a negative situation into a positive.

The often brash, and outspoken drag radial promoter didn't have a race planned until October, when his postponed Sweet 16 event, along with No Mercy 11 will run back-to-back.

With many drag radial racers displaced by a multitude of postponed events, Long wanted to ease the pain of stay safer at home orders throughout the United States.

As Long sees it, nothing soothes the soul like a record-setting event.

If the third time is the charm, Quain Stott isn't feeling so charmed these days.

The past Pro Modified champion turned period-correct promoter says the forced postponement of his Southeast Gassers Association Lassiter Mountain Dragway event scheduled for May 9, is the third time he's had the rug pulled out from him.

Stott watches as other states are loosening restrictions, and opening public establishments and yet drag strips, possibly the largest of all venues remain closed.

"We're spending promoting the races and then getting rugs jerked out from us," Stott said. "It's just freaking unbelievable. And to think Trump's opening everything up May 1. So, at this point, we're like, 'Hey, we're good to go now, for sure."