Scorpion Drag Strip (McKinney)

Nothing left

Paid eliminator winners in cash instead of trophies in 1965

Raced: 1959-65
State: Texas
What's left: The site was never redeveloped, but every trace of the strip has been removed.
On the site today: Houses
Raced on: Built as a drag strip
First race: May 17, 1959 (grand opening)
Track: 1/2 mile
Surface: Concrete starting line, asphalt track
Location: Highway 24, two miles east of McKinney
People: Eugene Wallen, manager (1959)
Charles M. Nelson, manager (1965)
Elevation: 595 ft (182 m)
Coordinates: 33.21958, -96.54778

This strip two miles east of McKinney on Highway 24 had its grand opening on May 17, 1959. It had 100 feet of concrete at the starting line and a half mile of asphalt, and Eugene Wallen managed it. One racer remembered running his 261-powered ‘31 Chevy sedan there in 1963 and 1964, when he was 15, with no ETs, only speeds. In 1965 Charles M. Nelson managed the strip, which paid eliminator winners in cash instead of trophies. What was probably rural land in 1959 is now dotted with houses, and only faint traces of the strip show in aerial photos.

1995 aerial view of the former site of Scorpion Drag Strip. The line of trees in the center identifies the track of the old strip. Note the shutdown part of the track below the line of trees and the return road on the east side of the tree line.

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