With the recent announcement by NHRA that Virginia Motorsports Park at Dinwidde, Virginia, would host the Virginia Nationals the weekend of June 8-10, track owners Tommy Franklin and family have been working all-out to prepare for the return of national event drag racing to the facility.

The last NHRA national event contested at Virginia Motorsports Park was in 2009.

The Virginia Nationals will replace the event that was cancelled when officials at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey, announced at the end of January that they were immediately and permanently cancelling all NHRA and sportsman drag racing at the track.

Franklin and family recently purchased VMP and jumped at the opportunity to reclaim an NHRA national event. The Franklins, along with VMP general manager Allen Carpenter and his team, have been working nonstop to prepare the track and facility, including a complete refurbishment of the track surface. They are completely replacing the surface at VMP from the water box to the quarter-mile with wall-to-wall concrete.