Montgomery International Dragway

Charlie Niel opened Montgomery Motorsports Park, a quarter-mile strip, under NHRA sanction on June 23-25, 1995. He had wanted to build a drag strip in Montgomery since 1987, got county approval in 1993 and broke ground on the 350-acre site that October. Niel was the public face, but three other investors backed the $3 million project. When two of them couldn’t keep putting money in, the third, Clanton businessman Jimmie Easterling, bought them and Niel out and became sole owner.

In the first season the track hosted an NHRA divisional meet for every class except top fuel and fuel funny car, which were booked as feature exhibitions running only an eighth mile. Most races that year were brackets. In June 1997, after residents complained about late-night noise, Mayor Emory Folmar forced a 10:30 p.m. curfew on the track. Racers and fans stopped coming and Easterling lost money, so in early August 1997 the Chamber of Commerce helped broker a compromise. Regular races could run until midnight, but jet car meets, limited to two a year, and top fuel had to finish by 9:30 p.m.

The track is best known for hosting the Million Dollar Drag Race from 2011 to 2020 and again in 2022. The Hangover Nationals, started in 2000, ran the weekend after New Year’s Day, and the track also put on several outdoor music festivals. Easterling owned it until 2014, when it sold at auction for a fraction of its value. He figured he’d put $5 million into it over two decades. Longtime drag racer David Elsberry bought the 138-acre track for $430,000, and Rick Stallings bought the 249 vacant acres around it for $630,000. Easterling said he gave it away, but that’s the way it goes. It ran as Montgomery Raceway Park from 2015 to 2020 and Capital City Motorsports Park in 2021-22. The track was for sale in 2023.