“I probably over-killed things a little bit.”

This is what Kenny Barnes, the owner of the new Dallas Raceway, said when asked about the construction of his new all-concrete facility 24 miles east of Dallas, Texas. Barnes, who undertook the construction of Dallas Raceway with his eye on building a successful place to spend his retirement, has been meticulous in every detail of his facility. He hired engineers to test the concrete that will make up his racing surface, he plotted and planned, taking the steady approach towards the construction as opposed to throwing something together and worrying about fixing it later. And the result, when all is said and done, will be one of the nicest drag racing facilities in the country.

“I probably over-killed things a little bit.”

This is what Kenny Barnes, the owner of the new Dallas Raceway, said when asked about the construction of his new all-concrete facility 24 miles east of Dallas, Texas. Barnes, who undertook the construction of Dallas Raceway with his eye on building a successful place to spend his retirement, has been meticulous in every detail of his facility. He hired engineers to test the concrete that will make up his racing surface, he plotted and planned, taking the steady approach towards the construction as opposed to throwing something together and worrying about fixing it later. And the result, when all is said and done, will be one of the nicest drag racing facilities in the country.

“It’s going to be a showplace,” IHRA Division 4 director Frank Kohutek said of Dallas Raceway. “Kenny wanted to have the nicest facility around and he’s a fanatic about things being done the right way. The reason for this is simple…he only wants to do this once. This is why he wanted to go all-concrete, because he knows asphalt has a shelf life and he did not want to be messing with it every year. He really did his homework.”

Doing his homework had many different phases. There was the hiring of engineers to study the concrete, asphalt and chemicals injected in both to determine their durability. There was the traveling around the country to visit different NHRA and IHRA tracks, to see how things were done. Finally, there was a lot of talking and brain-picking involved. Simply put, Barnes talked to other track operators, hoping to avoid their time-consuming, costly mistakes.

“Yeah, I did a lot of homework,” Barnes said with a chuckle. “I talked to a lot of other track operators because I wanted to learn from their mistakes. Why spend my money to make a mistake that could have been avoided if I had simply talked to someone who had been there and done that before? This just made sense to me.”

And it has been a learning process…unlike anything Barnes expected. This is not surprising when you consider he had decided to construct a true all-concrete facility…no asphalt or no transitions…even from the pits to the staging lanes.

“This is my first huge project and I thought it was going to be a piece of cake,” he said. “Boy, was I wrong. But I still want this done right so we’re taking our time and doing everything the way it should be done. We started out with a budget of $3-5 million and we’ve doubled that, but this is my retirement, I have to make this work, so everything is going to be perfect. We have concrete from the burnout box all the way down to the sand trap. We have 13-and-a-half acres of paved concrete pit parking. We’re going to have electric for our camping and are trying to get water in there.

“The buildings are 90-percent completed,” he continued. “We have showers for men and women, two showers for each. We’ve paid attention to and taken care of the little things. Like I said, we probably over-killed it but I put my life savings into this place so it has to work.”

Barnes and Kohutek are optimistic about the future of Dallas Raceway. Simply put, the track is right in the middle of everything.

“Location is so important and we have a great location,” Barnes said. “You can’t be 100 miles away and expect people to consistently make the trip back and forth, 2 ½ hours each way, to your place. You have to be right there and we’re right there, 24 miles from downtown Dallas and 14 miles from the Dallas-Fort Worth Loop.”

“The base of drivers he will be able to draw from is endless,” Kohutek said. “Of course he’s right there for Dallas and Fort Worth, but since he’s right off Highway 175 it’s an easy trip for people from Tyler and Lufkin. Dallas Raceway is in an ideal location.”

IHRA will hold its third Nitro Jam national event of the season May 23-25 at Dallas Raceway. The facility will also host a Summit Racing Equipment Pro-Am Tour presented by Mr. Gasket event Aug. 21-23.

“I can’t wait to see it,” Barnes said when asked how he’s going to feel when he sees those first cars go down the track. “It’s been a long road and we’ve put in a lot of effort, I can’t wait to see us be up and running. And we’re very close.”