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If you and your buddies have ever talked about pooling some money together to buy a drag strip, then I have great news for you. Darryl Cuttell, owner of the International Hot Rod Association, has twelve of ’em for sale. They aren’t the cheap kind, though, as most of them are situated on dozens (or hundreds) of acres with multiple attractions at the same venue. It’ll likely take some serious cash to win the sealed-bid auctions, but I bet you can buy them for less than Cuttell did.
He has bigger fish to fry anyhow, like a claimed $600 million debt owed to him by… Elon Musk? Wow, OK. There’s a lot going on here.
Without getting too far into the weeds, these racetracks are up for grabs following the IHRA’s implosion. In July 2026, the sanctioning body abruptly canceled the remaining events on its Nitro Drag Racing Series calendar while also dishing out mass layoffs. The aftermath has been nasty, and all the while, Cuttell has been dealing with a lawsuit in which he claims Musk’s SpaceXAI failed to pay his company Darana Hybrid more than $600 million. Apparently, Darana Hybrid helps construct data centers, and SpaceXAI has accused Cuttell of overcharging in order to fund track renovations.
That’s Heartland Motorsports Park. Via tranzon.com
But as for the racing facilities, perhaps you could save them from being dozed in favor of—what else—more data centers. There are some real goodies in here, including Heartland Motorsports Park in Topeka, Kansas, and Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina, where the NASCAR Cup Series used to race. Several of the others have been renamed from their more recognizable monikers; for example, Darana Raceway – Hebron, Ohio, which was formerly known as National Trail Raceway.
The listings are hosted on tranzon.com, and at the time of publication, Memphis International Speedway is on the site’s homepage. It advertises 342+ acres that are “prime for development.” Sure, it has a 4,400-foot drag strip, a three-quarter-mile oval track that used to host NASCAR events, and a reputation in the racing world—but what if you ditched all of that for condos?
Maybe I’m a bit grumpy. And after all, it’s not like I have anywhere near enough money to buy one of these. It’s just gut-wrenching to see not one, not two, but twelve tracks at risk of going away when we’ve already seen so many others suffer the same fate in recent years.
The full list of tracks for sale is as follows, and they can be found here:
- Darana Motorsports Park — Milan, Michigan
- Darana Raceway — Hebron, Ohio
- Darana Raceway — Xenia, Ohio
- Darana Dragway — West Salem, Ohio
- Rockingham Speedway — Rockingham, North Carolina
- Piedmont Dragway — Julian, North Carolina
- Darana Motorsports Park — Benson, North Carolina
- Memphis International Raceway — Memphis, Tennessee
- Atlanta Dragway — Commerce, Georgia
- Heartland Motorsports Park — Topeka, Kansas
- Virginia Motorsports Park — Petersburg, Virginia
- Empire Dragway — Leicester, New York
Don’t come looking for me if you need another business partner to go all-in. I have my hands full with this dump truck, anyhow.
Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com
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From running point on new car launch coverage to editing long-form features and reviews, Caleb does some of everything at The Drive. And he really, really loves trucks.
