After Sitting Closed for Over Two Years, Wayne County Dragstrip (a.k.a. Nahunta Dragway) Will Re-Open, as Drag Racer and Vlogger John Doc Acquires the North Carolina Track!
Although a few drag race tracks did close in 2025, a few new ones are under construction, or have been reported as coming back to life. The IHRA (International Hot Rod Association) made headlines in late December 2025 by announcing a pair of tracks, Memphis International Raceway and Heartland Motorsports Park, would have new life after sitting closed for a couple years.
But the IHRA wasn’t the only one to end the 2025 calendar year with track news, as in North Carolina, a deal was quietly being put together to acquire a track that had sat unused for over two years. Now, news has broken that a lease on the track has been acquired by John Dougherty, with plans to re-open for racing in 2026!
Sick the Magazine is READY for a solid 2026, as we will host FIVE events, four of them as a major week-long drag and drive event! Make plans to join us at one (or more) of our events: Gear Vendors Overdrive Sick Week, Motion Raceworks Sick Summer, Driven Racing Oil Sick Michigan Miles, Edelbrock Sick 66, and Speedfest. For more information and details, visit the Sick The Mag events page by CLICKING HERE!
John Dougherty, a.k.a. ‘John Doc’, who has raced a variety of cars in several classes, and detailed his experiences on YouTube, became known to a lot more people when he acquired the legendary Darlington Dragway in South Carolina in July of 2025.
As one of South Carolina’s premier drag strips, Darlington Dragway has not only hosted big name events for multiple sanctioning bodies, but also been the site of record runs and nearly fifty years of history.
In a recently released video on his YouTube channel, Dougherty talked about how much he enjoyed operating Darlington Dragway in 2025. And as much as he talked about the great features about the track, it was missing something.
“We want something close to home,” said Dougherty. “We’re going to put the hook back in Hook City.”
‘Hook City’ refers to Wayne County Dragstrip, and most recently operated as Nahunta Dragway. Originally opened in 2001 in the town of Pikeville, the North Carolina track has hosted everything from bracket racing and test and tune, to no prep and heads up action in just a little over two decades.
In mid-November 2023, longtime track owner Eddie Radford suffered a stroke, and that marked the dragstrip’s abrupt closing. It has sat closed / abandoned since that time, accumulating a lot of overgrowth, including on the racing surface itself.
“We are going to restore this facility,” Dougherty said of the eighth-mile track. “This is like a hidden gem, and one of your outlaw or grudge tracks. I actually won one of my first races out here, so this track has quite a bit of meaning to me.”
Located just 28 miles from Dougherty’s shop, the drag strip property does include a circle track, Wayne County Speedway, located just past the shutdown area of the dragstrip, but Dougherty stated the mission is the drag strip getting back online first.
“Hope everyone is excited to see Wayne County Dragstrip – Hook City back up and operational,” said Dougherty. “I know we’re excited to get in there and get some work done.”
John Doc’s has two videos with an overview of the track, as well as part one of his restoring the track series, below:
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Nahunta Dragway, Wayne County Dragstrip, John Dougherty.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com