Lost amidst a record-breaking and headline-grabbing TX2K22 event last weekend was the announcement by Houston Raceway Park (HRP) officials that this year’s edition would in fact not be its last. That news was a revelation to many, whose assumption that the upcoming NHRA SpringNationals would be the track’s 35th and final such national event, meant the impending redevelopment of the land would occur sometime in calendar year 2022. But Seth Angel, HRP’s Vice President & General Manager, confirms that he and his family have a commitment through at least the early part of 2023 to conduct racing events at the facility, and in particular, the very popular and lucrative TX2K event next March.

The Angel family, which founded and constructed HRP in the late 1980s, sold the real estate (approximately 500 acres) to Belgian shipping and logistics firm Katoen Natie (KTN), which has operations that neighbor the raceway. The Angel’s have subsequently leased the raceway from KTN since the close of the agreement in 2019.

“They have a path to development of the acreage the racetrack sits on; they don’t build things to spec, they build to suit their customer-base, and when they have a customer they’re ready to build out for, that fits their development layout, they will build. But at this time, it is certainly something that’s down the road,” Angel explains. “It’s not likely in the next year or two, I think it’s past that, which gives us an opportunity to continue to stay open. And so that’s what we intend to do, for as long as we have a strong enough portfolio of events to be successful and sustain this business. We were afforded the opportunity to extend the lease until the end of 2022, and recently we extended that further into the first half of 2023. I think the plan moving past that is to assess the landscape at the end of the year and see if it’s something we’re interested in going further with. If they come to me and tell me they’re ready to develop, then we would transfer the property back over to them.”

The question posed by many following Saturday’s announcement, of course, has been the status of the NHRA SpringNationals beyond its 2022 edition. The April 22-24 race, part of the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series schedule since 1988, is being billed as the series’ last act at HRP.

“Our motivation right now is the NHRA SpringNationals next month,” Angel says. “It is the final NHRA national event we will host, and so we are very motivated to host that race. It’s going to be, from all projections and metrics and trends that I see, a sellout weekend. And so that’s our motivation, to put on on a world-class three days of NHRA championship drag racing for our fans that have supported us for the last 35 years. We have had no conversations with NHRA on anything past this race. At this point we are not focused on that. What happens after the SpringNationals, it’s just too early to even think about. We’re ready to host this final national event with our partners at the NHRA, put on a great show for our fans, and then we’ll see what the future holds.”

Angel adds, “We’re not actively seeking an extension through our NHRA agreement past this race, and that’s where we’re at right now. I will say, ‘never say never,’ but we are not actively seeking another NHRA national event. They have not reached out to me, and I have not reached out to them, to even have those discussions. I don’t think those would even happen until after the race next month. From our vantage point, our interest in holding another national event is not there at this moment in time. We are squarely focused on this race, and that’s what we’re going to deliver on.”

With a population of nearly 2.4 million, Houston is the nation’s fourth-largest community; the nine-county Greater Houston area boasts an even more staggering 7.1 million residents. Given the sheer size of the region, plus the annual running of a globally-popular event like TX2K, there will no doubt be a void created in south Texas when HRP closes for good. It’s a fact Angel acknowledges, but he says his family’s time in the sport is coming to a close.

“Clearly, when HRP goes away — and it will go away sooner than later — it will no doubt create a void in the racing market for Houston. I can also tell you myself, nor the Angel family, have any desire to construct or build another racing facility. We’ve been in this business for over 35 years…my father and uncle’s turned their love and passion for drag racing themselves into building and actually owning HRP. Thirty-five years is a really long time. That chapter for us is closing, and we so we do not have the desire to build another one. And we won’t build another one. I won’t be surprised if someone or another group doesn’t try to build a new track somewhere in this market, because it’s certainly a large market and has an incredible fan-base. The events we have that come through here, there’s certainly demand for the product that drag racing provides. And for us, it’s more than just drag racing — we’re a multi-purpose venue, we do a lot of events that are non-motorsports related, like music festivals and winter light attractions. The market will certainly miss the drag racing facility, and I think you will see someone else do something down the road, but it will not include the Angel family.”

HRP has a full slate of drag racing events on its 2022 schedule, featuring nearly 50 race dates from January through October. Angel says he expects to conduct a full schedule of races in 2023, through the currently defined end-date of the agreement.