Leazer's '66' Sunset Drag Strip/Mooresville Dragway
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
Also known as 66 Sunset Drag Strip; Dixie Dragway
Matt Erich acquired Mooresville Dragway and closed the existing facility after a shortened 2026 season for redevelopment. A rebuilt dragstrip is planned as part of Race City Motorpark & Social Club, with a 2027 return advertised.
- Opened a newly paved strip in 1962 with Ronnie Sox and Ronnie Butler expected at the opener
- Mid-Season Championship Race in 1961 drew entries from four states
- Announcer's stand destroyed by dynamite in August 1966
- Raced
- 1959-2026
- State
- North Carolina
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- October 30, 1959 (earliest documented)
- Track
- 1/8 mile
- Surface
- Concrete
- Address
- Mooresville, NC
- People
- Glenn Leazer, owner
- Bill Garland, operator (1964)
- Sanction
- WDRA
- Elevation
- 806 ft (246 m)
- Coordinates
- 35.56164, -80.73519
- Contact
- mooresvilledragstrip.com
Big races
WDRA bracket points series
A ten-race WDRA bracket points program that has been the track's core program in recent seasons.
704 Outlaws and 704 Street small-tire racing
Local small-tire heads-up classes that drew strong support under the Yost and Buker ownership.
Southeast Gassers Association (SEGA)
A stop for the Southeast Gassers nostalgia series, which returned to the track in 2024 and 2025.
History
Glenn Leazer owned the 66 Sunset Drag Strip, three miles east of Mooresville on Highway 152. The earliest documented race was on October 30, 1959, though there were almost certainly races before that. The Leazer family has said the track opened in 1956 or 1958, but with two different dates, those claims need documents to back them up. The strip held a Mid-Season Championship Race on August 13, 1961, advertised as drawing entries from four states for more than $500 in prize money, and offered a purse of over $600 for a Labor Day race.
On May 20, 1962, newspapers reported that Leazer would open a new paved drag strip. It seems to have been in the same general spot as the 1960-61 strip, on Highway 152 between Mooresville and China Grove, which raises the question of whether the earlier strip was dirt. Super Stock racers Ronnie Sox and Ronnie Butler were expected at the opener. A two-day race on June 30 and July 1, 1962, also had a square dance, a beauty contest and a twist contest.
In 1964 the strip was renamed Dixie Dragway, and Leazer turned the operation over to Bill Garland, who ran races every Saturday night. At a race on April 18, 1964, Cary Cason fought brothers Donald and Bernard Shoe over a result, and Bernard was hospitalized with serious knife wounds from Cason. Late on Tuesday night, August 9, 1966, dynamite destroyed the announcer’s stand, and Leazer said he had no explanation. On September 14, 1968, Jerry Wayne Wade, 27, was hit by a race car and killed. A few weeks later the strip held a benefit race, with all proceeds going to his wife and children.
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