Englishtown Raceway Abruptly Closes Its NHRA Drag Strip

Englishtown

One of America’s most historic drag racing strips is shutting down.

New Jersey’s Old Bridge Township Raceway Park abruptly announced the move on Wednesday, citing a restructuring of its business.

The track opened in 1965 and was set to host the 49th National Hot Rod Association Summernationals this June.

“NHRA drag racing events have been held at the track in Englishtown for almost 50 years. The Summernationals have played an important part in our heritage and we hope that fans in the area will try to make it to another one of our events," NHRA president Glen Cromwell wrote in an official statement on the closure.

Old Bridge Township Mayor’s office for Economic Development executive Steve Mamakas told NJ.com that the stadium section of the track, including its VIP suites, will be used as a concert venue in the future, while the rest of the track is being leased to an auto auction company.

All quarter and eighth mile events are coming to an end, while dirt bike, karting, road course and drift events will continue. The reason for the closure of drag racing appears to come from the track leasing out that area to Insurance Auto Auctions to store cars. Englishtown previously held some of the thousands of cars flooded by Hurricane Sandy back in 2013, so this relationship isn’t coming out of nowhere.

A source familiar with the matter said that IAA recently came back and made an offer the track “couldn’t refuse."