By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
The NHRA released a new revised schedule on Wednesday due to the Coronavirus outbreak that has wrecked the sports world, as events have been postponed until further notice. The NHRA is planning on getting back to racing in June.
With the changes, Virginia Motorsports Park, Atlanta Dragway and New England Dragway were forced to lose their national events for the 2020 season. Also, Las Vegas 1 and Charlotte 2 were also lost in this new unique schedule.
Barring a change, the NHRA is planning like the coronavirus pandemic will be done by May. Due to logistics, several events have now been moved to two days for the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
With these changes, the postponed Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals will be from June 5-7. The rest of the month, teams will be asked to compete on Saturday and Sunday at stops at the postponed Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals in Baytown, Texas; NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tennessee; and Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.
Teams will then race on Friday through Sunday at their next three stops. These national events include the Route 66 NHRA Nationals in Elwood, Illinois on July 9-12; the Dodge Mile-High NHRA Nationals on July 17-19 in Morrison, Colorado, and the NHRA Sonoma Nationals on July 24-26 in Sonoma, California.
The final event of the historic Western Swing will just be a two-day event. Teams will be racing on August 1-2 at the NHRA Northwest Nationals in Kent, Washington.
The Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd, Minnesota will remain a three-day event. The next weekend, the Menards NHRA Heartland Nationals, which moves from June 12-14 on the original schedule, will be a two-day pro event on August 22-23 in Topeka, Kansas.
Teams will get a break before the historic Chevrolet Performance US Nationals, which will not change. It will remain the same from September 3-7.
The Mopar Express Lane NHRA Nationals in Mohnton, Pennsylvania has moved up a week. Also, it has moved from a three-day pro event to a two-day pro-event on September 12-13.
Charlotte will then get their lone race of the season. After losing Charlotte 2, the NGK Spark Plugs NHRA Four-wide Nationals — the lone Four-Wide on the revised schedule— will now go down the Four-Wide track from Sept. 18-20.
If the Gatornationals cannot be made up in June, it will be held Sept. 25-27 if needed. If not, it will be a bye week.
The rest of the schedule will not change. The AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals will be a three-day event in Madison, Illinois from October 2-4.
If needed, the Houston event, if it is not completed in June, will be completed from October 9-11.
The AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals will be completed from October 15-18 in Ennis, Texas. Then, the Dodge NHRA Nationals will remain the same on the weekend of October 29-November 1st in Las Vegas.
The regular season finale will be on the weekend of November 12-15 with the Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona, California. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, Pomona will be the only venue in 2020 to host two events.
