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Friday Night Drags are Back at Texas Motor Speedway: Drivers…Start Your Engines!

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Tony Maples Photography

 

Friday Night Drags kicked off at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth on Friday, June 23, running every Friday for a period of six weeks. In an effort to take illegal and dangerous racing off the streets, the program was established at the Texas Motor Speedway, with drivers showing up in everything from Mini Coopers to SUVs.

Friday Night Drags are Back at Texas Motor Speedway: Drivers…Start Your Engines!

Photo: Facebook/Texas Motor Speedway

In a feature by NBC DFW, those doing check-ins at last Friday’s event commented, “You’re gonna be an outlaw, we just need to have the paperwork. Drag racer Tyler Mitchell, in an electric blue 1979 Ford Fairmont Futura he named “Smack Down,” was one of the drivers checking in that night. “This is where I pretty much learned how to drag race,” he noted. “It takes me off the streets. This is basically like street racing, the same thing.”

Friday Night Drags are Back at Texas Motor Speedway: Drivers…Start Your Engines!

Photo: Facebook/Texas Motor Speedway

Starting nine years ago, Friday Night Drags was seen as a way to get street racers onto a safer surface. Starter, Scott Garrett, explained, “It’s the same as the street in front of your house. Illegal street racing, kids and people get killed all the time, and a lot of times it’s innocent people that don’t have anything to do with it.” And so, each Friday night, drivers line up to try and drag race their way into history.

Friday Night Drags are Back at Texas Motor Speedway: Drivers…Start Your Engines!

Photo: Facebook/Cadillac V-Club

Mitchell mentioned, “I’ve never crashed out here. I’ve crashed on the street, so that’s probably why you shouldn’t race on the street.” Friday Night Drags is legal, unlike street racing, and with another five weeks to go, any man or woman can give it a go and show Texas what they’re made of! Texas Motor Speedway is located in the northern portion of Fort Worth, in Denton County. Drags are held on the one-eighth mile pit road and are open to any type of automobile, and any type of driver. Gates open at 6 p.m and the racing or Show-N-Shine entry fee is $20. Spectators pay $10 per adult and $5 per child, and entry is at gate six. Parking is free outside gate six, or $20 for infield parking. All Friday Night Drags are “bring your own cooler,” but guests are asked not to bring any glass. For more information, visit the Texas Motor Speedway website link provided here.