The tale of Rockingham Speedway – The Rock – in the North Carolina town of the same name has been one of peaks and valleys since the track was born in 1965 as a flat mile oval known as North Carolina Motor Speedway. After being reconfigured as a D-shaped 0.94-mile oval four years later, it continually held races throughout the decades, including many NASCAR and drag racing events at the nearby dragstrip.
There have been several ownership changes of The Rock over the years; in 2025 it was sold to Darryl Cuttell and the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA). The promoter for the oval has been Track Enterprises. On Friday, August 14 that promotional entity announced it would not host any NASCAR events at Rockingham Speedway in 2027, despite two highly successful seasons of NASCAR touring series racing that re-established the historic venue.
Track Enterprises took this step due to uncertainty concerning the facility, which intends to conduct the second NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship race in late September. In making the announcement, the promoter noted the success of its NASCAR program over the past two season, which included the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series, together with the ARCA Menards Series East. “While we’re disappointed that NASCAR won’t be racing at Rockingham in 2027, we remain optimistic about the future and look forward to exploring opportunities to bring racing back in the future,” said Track Enterprises president Bob Sargent.
Then on Monday, another shoe dropped when Maple Grove Raceway outside Reading, PA – initially named as the NHRA’s starter for the six-race Countdown to the Championship – said that all of its 2026 activities were off the calendar. Another one of Cuttell’s track “purchases”, Maple Grove is now “closed and race schedule suspended for strategic refocusing, restructuring and regrouping.” When Cuttell bought this track owned by the Koretsky family, NHRA quickly moved the Countdown starter to US 131 Motorsports Park’s dragstrip.
With revelations that Darryl Cuttell has been doing business with Elon Musk’s xAi and keen on building data centers with the trillionaire, and with the two at one another’s throats over who owes whom, who over-billed whom and blame spread countrywide, drag racing – and racing in general – is caught in the middle.
Private entities are attempting to reverse the bleeding, as was evidenced by news that offshore racer Chad Havens has acquired the Desert Storm Poker Run and Shootout at Lake Havasu from IHRA in an all-cash deal. In addition to getting the event, Havens acquired the Desert Storm name, brand, social media accounts, digital and physical assets, along with the full archive of past events, sponsor and participation records of more than 25 years.
There are other tracks that have hosted major drag racing, oval contests and road racing over the years that were ostensibly purchased by IHRA/Cuttell that now are in limbo, including the Atlanta, GA dragstrip and Heartland Park in Topeka, KS. Both of these facilities were part of NHRA’s regular Mission Foods tour stops and legendary operations for sportsman contests, in addition to the latter’s hosting closed- and open-wheel racing. They are all in suspense now. No doubt more announcements will be made in the coming days, weeks, months. These three are likely ripples in an oceanic tide.
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