The ADRL is expected to announce a change on Friday afternoon moving their Independence Drags national event from Radford, Va., to Topeka, Kan.

ADRL President Kenny Nowling is contractually bound to remain silent on the issue, but reportedly the event will also carry a new title sponsor.

“I wish I could make a formal announcement but I’m not going to mislead your readers,” Nowling said. “If you go back to our first event at Carolina Dragway, and Jeff and Angel Miles are great people and they have a first rate facility, at the time they had the perfect facility to host an ADRL event based on geography and size.

“I can no longer apologize for our growth. We have worked too hard to build the ADRL. I hate the fact we have outgrown some great facilities. On the other hand, wasn’t that the objective?”

Nowling admits the ADRL has outgrown Motor Mile Dragway, a facility he deems as one of the nicest drag strips in the country.

“The original intent was never to host tens of thousands of race fans,” Nowling admitted. “We had some issues with the shutdown, but the big problem was space.”

Motor Mile Dragway has plenty of acreage, Nowling confirmed, but the acreage isn’t totally conducive to parking the large rigs utilized for the ADRL cars.

Another factor was the mass revolt Nowling was likely to face based on the short shutdown area. In the last two seasons, a handful of doorslammers have run off the end of the drag strip. The recent crash of NHRA Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson, only contributed to a large contingent of racers saying they wouldn’t race the venue located outside of Roanoke, Va.

“Allen Johnson’s crash added to it,” Nowling confirmed. “My phone has rung off of the hook with concerned racers and I have done my best to let them know we were trying to fix the situation. I’m not saying that we won’t go back to Motor Mile if they are able to do the necessary things. There were teams that stated point blank they wouldn’t race. That wouldn’t have been fair to those fans up there.

The ADRL has been in negotiations with Bristol Dragway in Bristol, Tenn., but were unable to procure sufficient arrangements in time.

“Perhaps we will be able to bring an event to that region next year,” Nowling said.

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