"We’re pretty low-key as far as the fanciness goes. We’re just a good backwoods home track.”

That’s how Knoxville Dragway owner Shay Loveday describes his eighth-mile facility, located in Maynardville, Tennessee, just “a mile and a half from the Knox County line.” Zoom out a little and you’ll see that the track is just a dozen or so miles from the heart of Knoxville.

“A couple of gentleman named Chuck Varner and Buddy Bean built the track back in the 1970s,” said Loveday when asked about the facility’s history. “They leased the property from Ed Harvey, who still owns it today. Chuck later bought out Buddy’s share and he became the sole owner of Knoxville Dragway Incorporated. Six years ago my wife Kristi and I bought Chuck out, and we took out a new lease on the property with Mr. Harvey.” 

Shay, a former bracket racer who also has experience in dirt and asphalt stock car competition, owns an auto repair business in Knoxville, which, he says, is what he does to make a living, and just as importantly, keep the race track going. 

Don’t let his modest description of the track fool you, however. This “backwoods home track” offers a serious racing surface, an eighth-mile of concrete which was ground and profiled by IHRA track prep guru Jim Weinert less than two years ago. It’s a track with plenty of teeth. 

Knoxville has something for everyone, presenting everything from weekly races to special events. 

“We have weekly programs for Jr. Dragster, Footbrake, and Pro racers,” said Loveday. “Our Pro and Footbrake classes aren’t exactly the same as the Box and No Box classes that a lot of tracks run, but they’re real close. Trans brakes aren’t allowed in Footbrake, where they are in No Box. In Footbrake everything has to be manually done except for the shifting – they can use air or electric shifters. 

“On Friday nights we run test and tune and a gambler’s race,” Loveday said. “We open the gates at six and we normally run to around 10. Saturdays during the summer we open the gates at three and we start time trails at four-thirty. We do an hour and a half of open time trials and then do a dash for cash before we start eliminations.” 

As for the special events, well, we’re talking the South here, and south of the Mason-Dixon Line Pro Mods are king. Enough said.  

“Twice a year we have what’s called a No Rules race, which is our version of an Outlaw Pro Mod quick 8 shootout,” Loveday said. “Of course the cars have to meet safety requirements, but other than that they can run whatever they want. It depends on how brave they feel. Blowers with nitrous, turbos with nitrous, whatever. As long as it’s covered safety-wise we have no other rules. These are always big shows, and the fans love them.   

“We also run a heads-up program with 5.20, 5.70, 6.0, and 7.0 indexes,” Loveday said. “We danced around with the classes to see what worked best, car-count wise. Throttle stops aren’t allowed in the 6.0 and 7.0 classes but they are allowed in the other two. We run this program the third Saturday of every month from July through October.” 

The folks at Knoxviille Dragway are staunch supporters of IHRA and of the Summit SuperSeries, and for very good reason. 

“Chad Hedgecock, one our regular racers, won the 2007 Box championship at Rockingham,” Loveday said. “We’re real proud of him, trust me.” 

In order to qualify for the eight-car runoff at Rockingham, Hedgecock first had to win the Summit Super Series championship at Knoxville. He accomplished the feat with relative ease, compiling a phenomenal 22-4 win/loss record to take the first step towards the crown with four unclaimed rounds remaining. 

Hedgecock moved on to the Heatwave Division run-offs at the Bracket Finals at Alabama International Dragway, where he secured a berth in the eight-car field at Rockingham with a win over Bobby Lloyd. At Rockingham, Hedgecock fought his way through an extremely tough field, defeating Canadian Steve Ferstel in the final to claim the Box title. It was a big moment for Hedgecock, and a big moment for his friends and supports at Knoxville Dragway. 

It’s obvious that Hedgecock wouldn’t have been able to compile the impressive win/loss record he had in 2007, and post the performance numbers that it took to be a winner, without a great track to run on and a savvy track owner to provide the necessary support. Knoxville Dragway has all this and more. It’s truly a house of champions!