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Atlanta Dragway will be in action again, now that the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) has completed its purchase of the facility in Commerce, GA, once the home of NHRA\u2019s Southern Nationals. Announced February 18th, shortly after Banks County okayed the usage of the facility as a racetrack once again, this purchase brings back a facility that first opened to racing in 1976 on the site expected and graded to be an airport.<\/p>\n
Atlanta Dragway closed after its 2021 season and the future of the property was uncertain until the local community and its leaders worked to resume straight-line motorsports activities. The Banks County Commission unanimously approved the way for the track\u2019s reopening just a week ago.<\/p>\n
The county\u2019s commissioners welcomed IHRA. “On behalf of Banks County I want to welcome IHRA and express our appreciation for their investment in Atlanta Dragway. This facility has long been an important part of our community\u2019s identity and economy. We are encouraged by IHRA\u2019s commitment to revitalizing the property and preserving its legacy for racers and fans alike,\u201d said Taylor Griffith, one of the county\u2019s commissioners.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The commission recognized the financial impact racing can have on the county\u2019s businesses and tourism. They also recognized the community pride that goes with having this facility open and thriving: \u201cWe look forward to working alongside IHRA to ensure Atlanta Dragway continues to be a destination that benefits our citizens while honoring the rich racing history that so many families here cherish, Griffith continued.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With this acquisition, IHRA completed its schedule for the sanction\u2019s 2026 Outlaw Nitro Series schedule. As Darryl Cuttell, IHRA owner stated, \u201cAtlanta Dragway has a long history in the sport, and we\u2019re proud to bring it into the IHRA family. Our goal is to invest in historic tracks, support racers at every level and build strong relationships with the communities around our facilities. Hosting the Outlaw Nitro Series World Finals is just the beginning of what we plan to build here.\u201d<\/p>\n As Cuttell explained, the final stop on the Outlaw Nitro Series will be at Atlanta Dragway October 22-24, that event having been listed as TBA for its location when IHRA first released schedules for all of its series during the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show in December. In addition to establishing Atlanta Dragway as a national-level racing destination, IHRA expects the track to serve as a key Southeastern hub for sportsman competition, national events and community-focused programs.<\/p>\n IHRA isn\u2019t the only straight-line racing series making mid-week news. On February 18th, Jasmine Salinas announced her NHRA and IHRA plans for the upcoming season. Salinas, who ran a partial campaign in Top Fuel last season due to financial concerns, intends to race in at least 10 events in the NHRA\u2019s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, as well as competing in select IHRA Top Fuel competitions. She\u2019ll start her year with NHRA, competing in the 57th Amalie Motor Oil Gatornationals, which take place March 5-8 at Gainesville Raceway in Florida.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Salinas and her Scrappers team are piecing together a schedule that will work with her limited budget, even as they pursue a longterm financial partnership. After leaving the series while sitting fifth in the 2025 standings following the Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals was tough for the Bay Area racer. Still, she wasn\u2019t deterred and worked to gain added funding to continue her career.<\/p>\n \u201cCutting our season short last year was really tough, but I\u2019ve learned a lot,\u201d Salinas explained. \u201cDriving a Top Fuel dragster isn\u2019t the job; driving a Top Fuel dragster is the reward and the job is everything else you have to do to get there! I\u2019m really hungry for that first win, and that takes more seat time, which is why I\u2019m going to compete in a few IHRA events in between the 10 NHRA Mission Foods series races we plan to run. Every lap counts as we continue to seek full-time funding,\u201d she declared.<\/p>\n Salinas will have a veteran of more than three decades in the sport as her crew chief. Todd Okuhara is leading the Scrappers Team this year with the help of assistant crew chief Adem Cave and car chief Cole Fergen. Okuhara most recently worked with Bob Tasca III and has wide experience tuning both Top Fuel and Funny Car engines. For many years he was the director of racing for Don Schumacher Racing, at one time one of the largest fleets of nitro-burning machines in the sport.<\/p>\n \u201cThis crew is no joke,\u201d Salinas said. \u201cI\u2019ve been very fortunate to work with several high-caliber crew chiefs like Rob Flynn and Joe Barlam during my short time in Top Fuel. Now being able to add Todd Okuhara to our crew is very exciting and I\u2019m looking forward to learning as much as I can from him.\u201d<\/p>\n The veteran NHRA Top Fuel competitor has won quite a few IHRA races. He said the move allows him to focus on strengthening the organization\u00a0 <\/span>both competitively and commercially. \u201cI just didn\u2019t feel like our team was at the level it could be, and that\u2019s my goal to fix that.\u201d The team intends to compete in both NHRA and IHRA events this year with the hybrid schedule providing opportunities for Foley Lewis Racing to grow, while continuing a competitive presence across both sanctioning organizations.<\/p>\n Gary Pritchett should be familiar to fans of straight-line racing. A former Top Alcohol Dragster competitor and longtime Top Fuel crew member, he earned his Top Fuel license under guidance from crew chief Doug Kuch in 2015. \u201cDoug Kuch actually got me my Top Fuel license back i 2015 in Charlotte; this is coming full circle and I feel like all the stars are kind of aligning,\u201d Pritchett said. \u201cI\u2019m really excited for the opportunity – I got the opportunity I\u2019ve been waiting on my whole life!\u201d<\/p>\n NHRA\u2019s Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown series has nine national event appearances on its 2026 calendar as its two-time world champion Mark Pawuk goes for the hat trick of three in a row. The series kicks off at Gainesville Raceway March 5-8, joining the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series as NHRA begins its 75th season of operation. Last year the Factory Stock Showdown class competed in eight events; this year the series adds a ninth race to its calendar.<\/p>\n The show begins with the 57th Amalie Motor Oil Gatornationals and continues at Charlotte\u2019s zMAX Dragway with the four-wide race April 24-26. Then it\u2019s on to Route 66 Raceway outside Chicago May 14-17, followed by races at Bristol Dragway (June 12-14) and fan- and racer-favorite Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, OH June 25-28. From there, the FSS crew takes a summer break, resuming with Labor Day\u2019s Cornwell Quality Tools U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.<\/p>\n As NHRA\u2019s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series begins its Countdown to the Championship at US 131 Motorsports Park, they\u2019ll be joined by the Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown class on September 18-20, then two weeks later the class races at World Wide Technology Raceway outside St. Louis the first weekend of October.<\/p>\n The final race for this tour is also the series finale, closing out the 2026 campaign at Texas Motorplex October 14-18 as part of that track\u2019s week-plus Stampede of Speed and Texas NHRA FallNationals. The class competes with muscle cars from Chevrolet, Ford and Stellantis. Chevrolet\u2019s COPO Camaro, Ford\u2019s Cobra Jet and the Dodge Challenger Drag Paks are competing for Wally trophies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 2025, Pawuk earned his second straight title on the strength of two event wins, in Norwalk and at Bristol. He was runner-up in Charlotte, holding off a strong charge from Jason and Taylor Dietsch, who won a combined four races. The class\u2019 popular Flexjet NHRA Factory Stock Showdown Bounty Program returns this year for a sixth campaign. The program places a \u201cbounty\u201d on the winner of the previous event.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 2026 FLEXJET NHRA FACTORY STOCK SHOWDOWN SCHEDULE<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n March 5-8: 57th annual NHRA Gatornationals, Gainesville Raceway, Gainesville, Fla. Atlanta Dragway will be in action again, now that the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) has completed its purchase of the facility in Commerce, GA, once the home of NHRA\u2019s Southern Nationals.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":104886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,8,3470,5029],"tags":[875,13104,9574,13103,13105,4799,12826,9559,9846,8953,9966,7,9632,9555],"class_list":["post-104885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-ihra","category-news","category-racing","tag-atlanta-dragway","tag-doug-foley","tag-flexjet-factory-stock-showdown","tag-foley-lewis-racing","tag-gary-pritchett","tag-ihra","tag-ihra-outlaw-nitro-series","tag-jasmine-salinas","tag-lucas-oil-indianapolis-raceway-park","tag-mark-pawuk","tag-mission-foods-drag-racing-series","tag-nhra","tag-scrappers-racing","tag-todd-okuhara"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Jasmine-Salinas-Indy-2025.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-rhH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104885"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104895,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104885\/revisions\/104895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Jasmine-Salinas-seated-300x200.jpg\")
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Veteran Top Fuel driver Doug Foley has decided to change caps as he steps from the drivers seat to tackle the team owner role for Foley Lewis Racing. The team named Gary Pritchett as driver of the team\u2019s dragster in 2026, NHRA\u2019s diamond anniversary campaign. \u201cWe are going to do a driver swap in 2026,\u201d Doug Foley said. \u201cI am going to get out of the seat – and I just felt like we could be better all the way around [with this change]. I kind of wanted to focus more on just taking the team to another level, and so I decided to get out of the seat.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Gary-Pritchett-300x203.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Mark-Pawuk-Auto-Imagery-photo-300x200.jpg\")
\nApril 24-26: 16th annual NHRA 4-Wide Nationals, zMAX Dragway, Charlotte, N.C.
\nMay 14-17: 26th annual Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by PEAK Performance, Route 66 Raceway, Chicago
\nJune 12-14: 25th annual Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, Bristol Dragway, Bristol, Tenn.
\nJune 25-28: 20th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, Summit Motorsports Park, Norwalk, Ohio
\nSept. 2-7: 72nd annual Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Indianapolis
\nSept. 18-20: Inaugural NHRA Great Lakes Nationals, US 131 Motorsports Park, Martin, Mich.
\nOct. 2-4: 15th annual NAPA Auto Parts NHRA Midwest Nationals, World Wide Technology Raceway, St. Louis
\nOct. 14-18: 41st annual Texas NHRA Fall Nationals, Texas Motorplex, Dallas<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"