Napier Drag Strip/Dothan Dragway

Drag races were held at Napier Field by May 1956 at the latest, with local car clubs like the “Dragging Angels” and “Rebels” helping run them. In 1959 the Wiregrass Timing Association raced on the first Sunday of each month, and the strip hosted an NHRA Southern regional race where Lewis Carden was top eliminator. Races in 1960 fell on June 19, July 17, August 28 and September 18. It was called Dothan Dragway by 1960, and it appears in a 1970 NHRA track guide. The racing was on the old airfield just northwest of downtown Dothan. It had been the town’s first municipal airport until the Army took it over during the war as Napier Army Airfield Auxiliary #2, which is where the Napier name came from. Most of the old airport is now Westgate Recreation Park, though some runway surface still shows. No link has been found between this strip and Dale County Dragway in Newton, ten miles east of Dothan, so they’re treated as separate tracks.