“The Dirty D,” which the Detroit Dragway was commonly referred to as, opened its gates in 1959 and was the brainchild of a gentleman named Gil Kohn. The track quickly received it’s initiation into the sport, hosting the NHRA’s top event in 1959 and 1960 – the one and only U.S. Nationals, before it moved to its current home  Indianapolis. It was only befitting that the home to the American automotive industry have a drag strip, and for nearly four decades, the track flourished in the community that lived and died withe the automobile.

While the track was known for the drivers and major events that it hosted, it received national recognition for it’s iconic and timeless radio spots that went viral: “Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! At Detroit Dragway!”

During the tracks long tenure, it operated under multiple sanctioning bodies, including the aforementioned NHRA, AHRA, and the UHRA, which Kohn owned. The track was the home to the manufacturers who brought their factory rides out to compete, and it played host to virtually everyone you could fit on the list of legendary drag racers, the likes of Garlits, Muldowney, Prudhomme, Kalitta,Nicholson, and countless others.

Events contested at Detroit Dragway included the AHRA Michigan Grand Nationals that paid out $20,000 in Top Fuel and $10,000 for Super Stock drivers, as well as the UHRA Grand National Championship. The factory drag teams dominated these events and virtually everything held at The Dirty D throughout the 1960’s, when the factory Stockers and Super Stockers ruled the roost at the facility.

In the mid 70’s, Top Fuel Dragsters and Funny Cars were the hot ticket attraction in Detroit, and the 1978 NHRA Summernationals drew a massive crowd of 30,000 fans for the three-day event, where the best in the business competed for the tracks largest purse ever, $40,000. The track began to decline in the 1980’s following a string of poorly managed seasons tat saw attendance plummet. In 1992, Ed Law was hired to restore the strip and bring it back into the black, by adding new concession stands and restrooms, as well as new landscaping. That was followed in 1994 by a proposal from the NHRA for a multi-million dollar development to raze the track and build a new, state-of-the-art arena for drag racing, with plans to host an NHRA national event there. However, as is all too often the case with such ideas, the public won the battle and that was all she wrote.

Over the course of the next four seasons, the track slowly faded and degraded, and its doors were closed forever in 1998. The facility was demolished and now houses a warehouse complex associated with the Ford Motor Company.