Texas Raceway In Kennedale Struck By Tuesday’s Strong Twisters

On Tuesday, a line of strong storms pushed their way into the Dallas-Fort Worth area, wreaking havoc on the metro area and the surrounding North Texas region with devastating tornados creating widespread damage in a number of communities. Captured from high above by news helicopters, scenes of tractor trailers being tossed like toys were the talk of the news media all evening and into today. Reportedly, no lives were lost in the strong twisters, but damage was certainly done.

During the melee, one of a reported 12 tornados to touch down struck the city of Kennedale, located just southeast of Fort Worth and southwest of Arlington, where the Texas Raceway resides. The popular eighth-mile drag racing facility just missed a direct hit but incurred its share of damage from the strong winds spun off from the nearby twister.

According to track officials, the Kennedale tornado came in from the south and ran along the spectator side of the track before turning right away from the facility. Both the timing tower and the finish line scoreboards withstood the storms’ wrath, but the pit gate building and a number of other structures on the property didn’t fare so well.

Images shared via Facebook by photographer Angie Riza show the damage at the Texas Raceway and neighboring homes and property, including flattened structures, garage doors at the tracks’ storage building ripped off like paper, poles uprooted from the ground, and miscellaneous items knocked over and blown around the facility.

Devastating storms of this magnitude are certainly the worst nightmare of a race track owner (and any property owner for that matter), but the Texas Raceway emerged with relatively minor damage and track officials remain jokingly upbeat about the situation.