This wasn’t the start to the 2020 NHRA Mello Yello Series season nitro Funny Car driver Jim Campbell envisioned.

Campbell, in his fourth season driving for the legendary Jim Dunn, failed to qualify for the Winternationals in Pomona, Calif.

Campbell’s best elapsed time was 4.672 seconds at 264.55 mph in the final qualifying session Feb. 8.  Alex Miladinovich qualified No. 16 with a 4.554-second pass.

Even before Alexis De Joria blew past higher-qualified Paul Lee and Robert Hight into the Funny Car semifinals at the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals, co-crew chief Nicky Boninfante saw it.

“She has a lot of fire in her right now,” he said. “She really wants to come out and race to win.”

The fire had been smoldering for more than two years.

Following up on his No Mercy 10 victory last fall, "Stevie Fast" Jackson recorded his 10th straight round win at South Georgia Motorsports Park with a final-round triumph over David Reese for the Radials vs. The World title at Lights Out 11. It also represented his fifth Duck X Productions win at the all-concrete track near Valdosta.

"I love this place. This is Georgia," declared Jackson, who hails from tiny Evans, GA, about 260 miles northeast of the track, near Augusta. "This is Bulldog country! Nobody's going to come around here and stomp around South Georgia Motor Sports Park. My territory!"

After qualifying number one with a dominating 3.55-seconds pass at a similarly distant 215.31 mph, Jackson made it to the final round by going through Tim Slavens, Brad Edwards, a redlighting Tom Blincoe and class newcomer Shawn Ayers in the semis.

The small town of Marlow Oklahoma will be honored during the 2020 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Season by Scott Palmer with the help of Trask Performance. Palmer couldn’t think of a better way to pay tribute to his youth than running their top fuel dragster with “Marlow Outlaws” on the front body panel.

“The Marlow Outlaws are a staple of the town where I grew up in Oklahoma,” Scott Palmer said. “I wanted to honor the people there with a scheme that dates back to the 1880’s. It was an era of outlaws. We consider ourselves modern day outlaws and believe our Marlow Outlaws themed dragster will be a great way to show appreciation to all of our fans in that region.”

After showing serious skills in Top Dragster and Top Alcohol Dragster, Justin Ashley stepped onto the Top Fuel stage last year.

He has accomplished a lot in short order, as he has driven his super-slick StrutMasters.com, Auto Shocker and KATO Fastening Systems dragster to a best of 3.72 and 323 mph, and is in contention for an NHRA Rookie of the Year award.

Recognizing that he’s rapidly rising, Summit Motorsports Park president Bill Bader Jr. invited the New York-based driver to race at the 43rd Annual Kelly Night Under Fire – The Greatest Show in Drag Racing™ — on Aug. 8, 2020 at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio.

Just one week ago in Orlando, Shawn Ayers made his first few test passes in a brand-new, screw-blown '67 Mustang. He left the track feeling impressed and confident as he and his Fletcher Cox Racing teammates promptly headed north, destined for Lights Out 11 at South Georgia Motorsports Park.

Actually completed in summer 2018, the Racecraft-built ride originally carried a roots-blown Hemi up front, but remained on the sidelines throughout last year as Ayers and Cox continued to rack up accolades with "Gold Dust," the ProCharger-equipped,  Fox-bodied Mustang in which they won the 2018 NMCA Street Outlaw championship.

"The car has been done for a while, but it was my choice to not run it at the time. I was having a bunch of really good times with the gold car, we were winning a bunch of races with it, and I just honestly didn't want to deal with the frustrations of a new car and trying to run two cars at the same time," explained team owner Cox.

On Wednesday evening, after he finished the day as the third quickest driver of the opening Radial vs. The world qualifying at the Lights Out 11 drag radial event, Stevie "Fast" Jackson warned the competition Friday was the day he was going to lay it all out.

Let the record reflect, running nearly .06 quicker than his closest competition represents "laying it all out" in Jackson's fastpaced world.

Imagine you're in a car, one with over 2,500 horsepower, and you suddenly find yourself floating about 20-feet in the air above the racing surface.

There's no telling what might go through a driver's head as they realize what goes up, eventually must come down.

Radial vs. The World racer Marcus Birt remembered exactly what was on his mind, as his Corvette pulled a wheelstand, eventually floating in the air during Radial vs. The World qualifying at the Lights Out 11 drag radial event outside of Valdosta, Ga.

Did you see the Oscar-winning “Ford v Ferrari” movie?

Then unless you stole a cat nap during a certain scene, you saw occasional NHRA Funny Car racer Jon Capps.

We’ll let him describe his big scene.

“There’s a crash sequence at the end of a night-time run at Le Mans,” Capps said. “There was a Porsche that would not allow the Ferraris to pass, so he kind of blocks (Ludo) Scarfiotti, and Scarfiotti ends up blowing his engine.