National Trail Raceway (NTR) swung its gates open in July of 1964 and has hosted countless amazing events. The NHRA first brought the Springnationals to NTR in 1972 with crowds so big, fans had to be turned away because the facility was over capacity. Now, the IHRA owns this historic facility and is ready to take it to a new level.

Jay Livingston and Jason Murray purchased NTR from the NHRA in 2018 and began working hard on upgrading the facility. The duo succeeded and grew the track while making improvements along the way to the pits, staging lanes, and added more grandstands.

Well, times change and the IHRA came knocking on the door at NTR. Questions were raised after the IHRA made its announcement about acquiring the track, but nothing official came from NTR. Now that the deal has officially closed, NTR has made the move to IHRA ownership.

“The IHRA is great. I think (IHRA owner) Darryl Cuttell is taking it to the glory days and making it bigger and better than ever,” said NTR’s Jay Livingston who is staying on as team manager.

Racers have seen IHRA’s commitment to sportsman events. With increases in membership coverages and purse money to the IHRA Summit Team Finals and IHRA Summit SuperSeries World Finals, the move made sense to the NTR management staff.

“We’ve already had a number of racers reach out to us,” Livingston said. “They have gone out and looked at the IHRA Team Finals held at Quaker (City Motorsports Park) and they’re excited. They’re really excited about the IHRA World Finals in Alabama that pays $25,000 to win.”

As of right now, the 2025 season at NTR won’t change, in fact, more events might be added. We will continue to cover IHRA’s acquisitions of facilities as they become official.