Jack Beckman Is Latest to Lose NHRA Funny Car Ride at Downsized Don Schumacher Racing
Tommy Johnson Jr. was released earlier, as drivers who finished second and third in 2020 NHRA Funny Car standings are without rides.
By Susan Wade Marc Gewertz/National Dragster 2019
Don Schumacher Racing swept all 11 Funny Car trophies last season to extend the NHRA’s winningest team’s victory count to 358, but two drivers who helped make it happen no longer are with the organization.
Jack Beckman and Tommy Johnson Jr., who combined for six wins last year for DSR, have jobs outside the industry and don’t anticipate a return anytime soon.
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
The news that racing executive Beth Paretta is going to take a run at the 2021 Indy 500 with a women-led team brings a sense of déjà vu: Indeed Paretta has done this before. She previously headed Grace Autosport, attempting to qualify Katherine Legge for the 2016 Indianapolis 500. Paretta pulled the plug just a few weeks before the green flag that year. We got a hold of Paretta to find out how the 2021 Paretta Autosport effort came about and why this time things are going to be different.
For one thing, the group plans to have 2010 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year Simona De Silvestro drive the team’s Chevrolet-powered car this year. Also, this time none other than Roger Penske is involved.
4-Time NHRA Champion Crew Chief Rahn Tobler Retiring from Don Schumacher Racing The 66-year-old Tobler has captained Ron Capps NAPA Auto Parts SRT Hellcat Funny Car team since 2012. John Shanks/Auto Imagery
Rahn Tobler, 66, has won 70 national NHRA events and four championships in a career that dates back to 1971.
Tobler won a pair of Top Fuel titles with driver Shirley Muldowney and Funny Car crowns with both Cruz Pedregon and Ron Capps.
Tobler and Capps have been together at Don Schumacher Racing since 2012.
Four-time NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series champion crew chief Rahn Tobler is calling it a career.
Lawsuit, Defections, Camping World Highlight Tumultuous Year for NHRA
COVID-19 kept a top team on the sidelines, played a role in loss of series long-time title sponsor.
By Susan Wade Anderson Studio
NHRA President Glen Cromwell really didn’t have a big picture or blueprint once coronavirus barged in by mid-March. Instead, he had a kaleidoscope. The slightest twist of circumstance gave his potential season a constantly changing pattern.
Somehow he and his drastically pared-down staff navigated the season, got lucky with an abrupt series-sponsor change at the start of its title stretch, and crowned champions in history-making fashion.
Here are the NHRA’s top 10 stories for a wild 2020: