Two of these new tracks are owned and operated by longtime track operators with extensive experience outside of hosting NHRA national events, while the other two are led by comparatively green owners. In the days leading into the 2026 season,\u00a0Drag Illustrated<\/em>\u00a0spoke with these new NHRA national event track owners to get their perspectives on all the things that come with hosting an NHRA national event for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s Note: This is an excerpt from a roundtable interview that originally appeared in DI #199, the Interview Issue, in March\/April 2026. The previous interviews in this series featured South Georgia Motorsports Park\u2019s Raul Torres<\/a>, Maryland International Raceway\u2019s Royce Miller<\/a>, and U.S. 131 Motorsports Park\u2019s Jason Peterson<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The NHRA Nationals at The Rock will roll into Rockingham Dragway September 25-27. Business partners\u00a0Dan VanHorn<\/strong>\u00a0and Al Gennarelli acquired the historic North Carolina track from Steve Earwood in 2022 and have spent the last three years updating the aging facility. Under both NHRA and IHRA sanctioning over the years, Rockingham has also hosted prominent ADRL and PDRA national events. Rockingham will close out the Division 2 season with a double divisional in late October.\u00a0<\/p>\n How long has hosting an NHRA national event been on your wish list?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Well, I\u2019d say it was really right away. Once we started discussing what our goals were for the track, renovating was priority one. And I don\u2019t initially know if a national event was on our radar. We wanted nitro. We wanted to have some type of a showcase or a match race. The reason why a national event wasn\u2019t necessarily on our radar is because of Charlotte [zMAX Dragway] being right down the road. And we just never thought it would be an opportunity that we\u2019d have.<\/p>\n But of course, a national event started becoming the topic of conversation as we grew and as the facility got nicer and as we started proving the capabilities that we had as owners and the renovation phases. The support we had from the city of Rockingham and the state of North Carolina and the county tourism, they were all about going big and we wanted to go big. Once we got some financial support to complete some projects that had to happen for us to even be remotely considered, we started really kind of pushing hard.<\/p>\n We had actually reached out to the NHRA, I can\u2019t remember the timeframe, but Josh Peterson had written us a letter basically saying, \u201cThis is what would have to happen to the facility to be considered for a national event.\u201d So we used that letter from the NHRA to submit for grant requests from the various local government bodies, and we were able to secure some really substantial numbers to renovate the concrete grandstands, which was a $1.7 million project. That was something that us as owners would never have been able to do. I really have to thank Megann Lambeth with the Richmond County Tourism Development Authority, City of Rockingham Manager Monty Crump, State Rep. Ben Moss, State Senator Dave Craven, Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina Chairman Gene McLaurin, Pat Molamphy with NC DOT, and the Cole Foundation. They\u2019ve all been instrumental in the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n So once that happened, we\u2019re like, \u201cHey, listen, we might be able to pull this off.\u201d And then as things started developing during the offseason this last year with VMP [Virginia Motorsports Park] bowing out and with that predetermined date on the schedule, we started really pushing pretty hard for it.<\/p>\n What are the opportunities that come with hosting one? What are the challenges?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The biggest challenge is just the financial side of it. All the renovations that have to happen to the facility. The concrete grandstand was the one project that we\u2019re like, \u201cWe\u2019re just never going to be able to afford that.\u201d We couldn\u2019t justify it because outside of national events, you don\u2019t need 13,000 seats on that side of the track for 99% of our events. It was really just a small part of the long-term vision of what do we need to do to make this make financial sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n The financial pressure of getting all the other things in place, such as the bathroom renovations, the asphalt that need to be added to the pits, moving the scoreboards away from the track to meet the nitro requirements, adding the sandpit arresting system, that\u2019s really the challenge.<\/p>\n We did get some promises from the legislators that they would be able to get us some financial support and help us with it. This is in the best interest of the area because we are the largest draw. NASCAR has one race a year. We have events every single week, so we\u2019re still the largest draw in the area. Their support was promised for the national event because they know that it benefits all these other events that we do as well, and we\u2019ll start getting other larger events. It makes long-term sense because it\u2019ll make the facility nicer for decades and hopefully secure a national event for just as long, and other similar or somewhat large-scale events will get drawn in.<\/p>\n What have you done already to prepare and what\u2019s left to do?\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Well, we\u2019ve owned the track for three and a half years, and there hasn\u2019t been a day that\u2019s gone by that we haven\u2019t done some type of renovation, all in an effort to make the facility capable of supporting larger events. And even the smaller events need to have nice bathrooms and need to have this, that, and the other. But the list is unbelievable.\u00a0<\/p>\n The first thing that was done when we took over is there was some COVID grant money through a motorsports fund that had come from the state that enabled a brand-new concrete surface and a new timing system. We stepped into a lucky situation there that we were part of the submittal process, but it was approved prior to us taking over ownership. So that was also a big part of us being able to do it \u2013 the new concrete surface and new Accutime Timing System.\u00a0<\/p>\n Then it was just constant renovations of RV spots, bathrooms, new concessions, a new bar, we acquired an alcohol license, renovated the tower, new roof, brand-new suite, new entranceway, new entrance building, some of the pit roads were redone. We added a bunch of lighting out in the parking area, redid a bunch of the track lighting, new striping of the lanes, striping of the parking lot, a bunch of new equipment. Nonstop renovation. There isn\u2019t a part of this facility that hasn\u2019t been touched and upgraded. A lot of stuff you don\u2019t see such as wiring, plumbing. They\u2019re out there working on stuff today. Speakers and PA system, it\u2019s all new. All the stuff that you\u2019d find at a track, literally every single part of it has been touched.<\/p>\n What do you hope this event accomplishes for your track, your fans, racers, community?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s a full-circle thing. This is one of the selling points I pushed to the NHRA. They wrote us a letter saying what we\u2019d need to do in order to possibly host a national event. We used that letter, for lack of a better term, as justification or leverage to receive funding and support. We did our part and the senators, the state reps, the city manager, and the tourism director all did their part. So now the NHRA\u2019s got to step up a little bit and say, \u201cAll right, well, heck, they did everything we asked them to do. We\u2019ve got to bring what we said we were going to bring.\u201d If other facilities or other states and counties want to follow a similar path, you\u2019ve got to show them a full circle or a successful path. That\u2019s what this is going to do. I see this turning into somewhat of a template and a structure that the NHRA can use to attract funding for tourism into different regions. We just happen to be the first one to use this as a path.<\/p>\n Last year was an unbelievable year \u2013 probably the best year the track\u2019s ever had outside of when they used to have the Winston Invitational. Just a really good year, a ton of growth. We\u2019re excited to get it right back to where it was and even bigger with the national event. The national event is the pinnacle of our sport, as everybody knows. It\u2019s a little humbling, but it\u2019s also intimidating. We\u2019re super excited to showcase Rockingham. It still has the old-school feel. It\u2019s still Rockingham. All the renovations and all the things that we\u2019ve changed and upgraded, it hasn\u2019t changed what this place is. This place has a ton of history. It\u2019s been around since 1969. The who\u2019s who in our sport have raced here, and there\u2019s a ton of excitement with those racers and teams coming back for a points race for the first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n This story was originally published on September 24, 2026. The post Rockingham Dragway\u2019s Dan VanHorn Discusses Opportunities, Challenges of Inaugural NHRA Nationals at The Rock<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the NHRA celebrates its 75th anniversary this season, fans can expect to see plenty of familiar and even nostalgic elements \u2013 the return of legends, the celebration of the people and moments that made NHRA history, and even official uniforms that harken back to the \u201cglory days\u201d of the sport.\u00a0 But the NHRA Mission […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dragillustrated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Genneralli-and-VanHorn_N7A_4345_Watermarked.jpg\")
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