Shortly before the 2020 NHRA Mello Yello Series racing season was set to begin February, Mike Salinas, the owner and driver of the Scrappers Racing Top Fuel dragster, announced he was going to set out the first four races for business reasons.

Salinas did miss the season-opening Winternationals and the following event in Phoenix. Then, March 12 at the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., racing was halted because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Racing is scheduled to resume July 11-12 and July 18-19 in Indianapolis, but Salinas and his daughters, Jianna, who pilots a Pro Stock Motorcycle and Jianna’s older sister, Jasmine, who drives an A-Fuel dragster, will not be there either.

The Southeast Gassers Association, drag racing’s strictest period-correct Gasser series, completed its second event of the season since a global pandemic brought the sport to its knees in March.

The event, held at Mooresville Dragway in Mooresville, NC, was a success, drawing good crowds which maintained social distancing throughout the event.

Chad Green confirmed today he plans to make the jump into a fuel Funny Car after years of testing and practice.

Green, a regular on the NHRA Pro Modified Series, will make his NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series debut at the Lucas Oil Summernationals in Indianapolis (July 17 - 19, 2020)

Green will race his newly purchased Funny Car operation under the Tim Wilkerson Racing umbrella, with Daniel Wilkerson serving as crew chief.

"We're going to bring it out for the second Indy race; the first one that the Pro Mods are going to be in," Green told CompetitionPlus.com. "I'm very excited about it. It's something that just kind of came about; wasn't really planning on it. The opportunity came for me to buy this stuff after the end of last season and it was just the right opportunity to get the stuff. I didn't have any plans for racing it.

Matt Smith, a three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion, is ready to go racing.

Pro Stock Motorcycle racing will begin July 11-12 with NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis.

Smith leads his team of riders at Matt Smith Racing, which also consists of his wife, Angie and Scotty Pollacheck. They all run Buells.

Blake is 17 years old and loves drag racing. But he's not your average teenager.

Blake has autism, a condition his parents Nicky and Sara have learned to adjust for since the initial diagnosis.

Nicky Boninfante, a second-generation crew chief, balances the challenges of working a fulltime schedule as a co-crew chief for Funny Car superstar Alexis DeJoria's ROKIT/ABK Toyota Camry and working with Sara in tending to Blake's daily challenges.

"It's definitely not like having a normal child. I can tell you that," Boninfante said. "Because he's nonverbal he uses an augmentative communication device, which is basically an iPad with a touch-chat program for him. So he can communicate with us. And our days consist of keeping him entertained with interaction."

The Texas Motorplex, home of the historic AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals, held October 14-18, is teaming up once again with the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation to offer military and first responders free tickets to the annual NHRA national event. Last year during Memorial Day Texas Motorplex made a special ticket offer and this year they are renewing the promotion on July 4th weekend. The “Buy a Ticket, Give a Ticket to a Military or First Responder” campaign will also once again be supported by two-time NHRA Top Fuel World Champion and long-time Chris Kyle Frog Foundation supporter Steve Torrence.

No races have taken place this season in NHRA’s Mello Yello Series Pro Stock Motorcycle class.

The PSM competitors were supposed to have their season-opening event at the Gatornatornationals in Gainesville, Fla., March 13-15.

However, the race was halted March 12 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Thursday’s cancellation of the Flav-R-Pac Northwest Nationals near Seattle had some wondering if the NHRA’s ambitious plan of 16 races in 16 weeks would trigger a domino effect, that one state after another might not permit drag racing in front of spectators.

It’s too early to predict how the 12 other states in play now that Washington has disallowed the July 31-Aug. 1 event at Pacific Raceways will react with regard to coronavirus restrictions.

But NHRA President Glen Cromwell gave the organization a strong bill of health.

As a professional drag racer, Jay Cox is accustomed to swinging for the fences, always in search of producing a big, winning number.

That’s the same approach that made him a stellar college baseball player who spent more than five seasons getting paid to play the game of his youth.

“It’s kind of cool to look back now at all the things I got to do playing pro ball, and all the things I experienced with my family and friends and all the people I got to meet,” said the 35-year-old Smithfield, N.C., native. “I try to take that mindset now. I went out first round at Darlington last weekend and I hate not doing well. I feel like I’m the best and work the hardest, and I kind of get bummed out and down.

While the Coronavirus pandemic pushed pause on the 2020 NMCA and NMRA season, drivers in both series pushed play at the 12th Annual Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals, June 25-28 at Atlanta Dragway.

If they were rusty from the recess, they didn’t show it, as they put down plenty of power while pursuing the coveted Aerospace Components Winner’s Circle in the Peach State.

On the NMCA side, Adam Flamholc flew to a 3.73 in his Corvette to set the pace in VP Racing Lubricants Xtreme Pro Mod, where all but two drivers in the category also posted 3-second passes despite high heat and heavy humidity. The stellar Swedish driver was determined all weekend long, and won with a 3.85 against Craig Sullivan, who was no slouch before being forced to click off at 4.05 in his Daytona.