The Julesburg Drag Strip Still Races on an Old Airport Runway

Tucked into the far northeast corner of Colorado, where the plains run flat to the Nebraska line, Sedgwick County keeps a piece of pure American car culture going. The Julesburg Drag Strip sits on a stretch of the old Julesburg Municipal Airport runway, and people have been racing here since the late 1950s. The club held its first NHRA-sanctioned races in 1961, and the track is still sanctioned by the NHRA today. In 2018 it marked 60 years of racing at the same spot.

The strip itself is a straight quarter-mile. Cars and dragsters run the length of it, reaching speeds in the 150-160 mph range on the quickest passes. There is no grandstand spectacle of a big-city speedway here, just the runway, the open sky, and the smell of rubber and race gas on a summer afternoon. The track bills itself as the oldest drag strip in the country still racing at its original location, a claim worth knowing as you watch.

Racing generally runs from late spring into early fall, and the August hot rod weekend is the headliner. Dates shift year to year, so check the official schedule before you point the car toward Julesburg.