Bluegrass Dragway (Nicholasville)

This track on US 27, five miles south of Lexington, was NHRA-sanctioned in 1965. In 1967 it raced every Sunday with Roger Ferguson as manager. Ronnie Chasteen, who raced there in the late 1960s, said he went to the drags just about every Sunday instead of church. On September 22, 1968, Dave Zachary was killed in a match race when his ‘67 Cadillac Eldorado funny car barrel-rolled past the finish line and the roll cage collapsed. By 1969 or 1970, track improvements earned it NHRA sanction. Bob Parham set a track ET record of 7.53 in his AA/D on August 10, 1969, and a month later Tommy Ivo set a record of 6.92 at 223.88 mph. A two-day NHRA division race in September 1970 went to Ronnie Martin in top fuel, Paul Radici in funny car and Arlen Vanke in pro stock. The track was IHRA-sanctioned in 1977 and hosted two-day IHRA points races on April 23-24, 1977, and May 6-7, 1978. The site is now covered by Industry Parkway, in an industrial area about two miles north of downtown Nicholasville just east of Highway 27.