Rockingham Dragway (Marston)
ActiveActive Still racing today.
Also known as Rockingham International Dragway
A quarter-mile NHRA Division 2 track on US Highway 1 north of Rockingham, long a home for big heads-up and sportsman races. In 2026 it hosted its first NHRA Mission Foods Series national event.
- Art Arfons set jet dragster world records here in 1969 and 1970, topping out at 276.07 mph
- Opened with the first U.S. Open National Drag Championships, paying $70,000
- Pat Foster set an IHRA world record of 6.40 at 233.83 mph in 1972
- Raced
- 1969-present
- State
- North Carolina
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- September 26, 1969
- Sanction
- NHRA Division 2
- Track
- 1/4 mile
- Surface
- Paved
- Address
- 2153 Highway U.S. 1 North
Rockingham, NC 28379 - People
- Harold W. Brasington, planner of the speedway complex (1964)
- W. R. "Bill" Land, planner and developer (1964-69)
- L. G. Dewitt, developer (1969)
- Steve Earwood, owner (1992-)
- Elevation
- 393 ft (120 m)
- Coordinates
- 34.97755, -79.62007
Big races
NHRA Nationals at The Rock
The track's first NHRA Mission Foods Series national event, held in 2026 as a Countdown playoff race. Winners were Shawn Langdon, Matt Hagan, Greg Stanfield and Richard Gadson.
Mopars at The Rock
Twice-yearly gathering of Chrysler-family cars, paired in the fall with a Modern Street Hemi Shootout.
Dig or Die Christmas Clash
A December heads-up race that closes out the track's year; the 2026 running is the seventh.
Radial Outlaws Battle for the Thrones
A spring radial-tire heads-up event listed on the 2026 national calendar.
Street Car Braggin Rights
A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.
Sick at the Rock
A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.
Cackalacky Run
A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.
Hot Rod Drag Week
A drag-and-drive: racers drive their street cars from track to track over several days and race at each stop.
History
Construction on North Carolina Motor Speedway, on a 175-acre tract ten miles north of Rockingham, was underway in 1964. Harold W. Brasington and W. R. “Bill” Land planned it, along with a half-mile dirt oval and a paved half-mile drag strip meant to be ready by late summer 1964. The drag strip was delayed five years until Land and L. G. Dewitt got it moving in 1969. It opened north of the speedway, across Highway 1, with a three-day race on September 26-28, 1969, billed as the first annual U.S. Open National Drag Championships with $70,000 for winners. On the first day Art Arfons set a world record of 6.146 seconds at 272.72 mph in his Cyclops jet dragster, and on the third day, before an announced crowd of 30,000, he raised his speed to 273.82 mph. Arfons credited the long shutdown area. Hundley & Boggs won top fuel, Gene Snow funny car and Sox & Martin super stock.
The track was called Rockingham International Dragway from 1969 to 1972. It ran under AHRA sanction in 1970, and its next big event was the three-day AHRA Pro-Am Grand American on April 17-19, 1970, with 30,000 at the Sunday final. On Saturday Arfons set a world drag racing record of 276.07 mph in the Cyclops. Ronnie Sox beat Don Nicholson in Super Stock, Snow won funny car and John Wiebe top fuel.
The 3rd annual IHRA Pro-Am Nationals ran on April 30, 1972. Billy Campbell won top fuel, Pat Foster funny car and Sox pro stock. Chris Karamesines had the fastest run of the meet, 6.36 at 230 mph, and Foster, driving for Barry Setzer, set an IHRA world record of 6.40 at 233.83 mph. In mid-September 1972 the track hosted the IHRA U.S. Open Drag Championships, where Carl Olson beat both Don Garlits and Tommy Ivo for top fuel, Richard Tharp won funny car in his Blue Max Mustang, and Sox took pro stock. During a rain delay at a three-day event in May 1974, three male streakers ran for the crowd, and the widely carried news reports noted the 50-year-old turned a lower ET than the two younger men. The track has been sanctioned by the IHRA (1971-88 and 1999-2014) and the NHRA (1989-98 and since 2015). Steve Earwood became the owner in 1992.
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