Given that success in drag racing is measured by elapsed time and horsepower, it’s not surprising that veteran track owner and motorsports PR legend Steve Earwood is back in the saddle again this weekend.
After a couple of years of retirement and playing lots of golf around his Southern Pines, North Carolina home, Earwood will be back where he spent the better part of the last 50 years – walking through the pits, greeting friends old and new and helping to run the overall event in the inaugural Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals presented by MOPAR at US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan.
Not only will it be the kickoff event for the 20th annual edition of the six-race NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoffs (which began in 2007), it’ll be a family reunion of sorts as Earwood will be serving as a consultant for the event, hosted by Stephanie (track marketing/PR director) and son-in-law Jason Peterson VP of Operations) and grandson/track manager Samuel Peterson, who run the track located about 30 miles north of Grand Rapids, Michigan. owned by Alec Pinsonneault.
“It’s a great excuse to spend time with the family and to help them,” Earwood told CompetitionPlus.com. “I’ve encouraged (his daughter and son-in-law) to go NHRA for some time, the opportunity came about that they are (with NHRA) now and so I want to make sure that they have the best event possible.
“This is the first (NHRA) race they’re having there and hopefully it’ll be the first of many, many years to come. There’s a lot of fans that live near a track like that and you’ve got to try and make everybody happy and please them.”
Even though Earwood is his father-in-law, Jason Peterson is happy to have the highly-respected veteran of the sport playing a pivotal role this weekend, leaning on his more than half-century of experience.
“Steve brings a wealth of experience and a list of contacts in this industry that is unparalleled,” Peterson said in a press release. “He already has provided valuable insight, and we look forward to his involvement in making a great US 131 experience even better for our racers, our fans, and our partners.”
The usual start to the NHRA Countdown to the Championship for much of its prior 19-year existence had been Maple Grove Raceway near Reading, Pa. But when the rival IHRA purchased Maple Grove last December, it opened the door for US 131 to obtain something it has long coveted: a NHRA national event.
And in an ironic twist, the second race of the Countdown – next weekend’s NHRA Nationals – will be at a place near and dear to Earwood’s heart, Rockingham (N.C.) Dragway (aka “The Rock”), which he owned for nearly 31 years before selling it in late 2022.
But for the first time in three decades, when Earwood returns to the track for next weekend’s race, he’ll be able to enjoy the event in somewhat of a strange position: strictly as a fan.
Drag racing has been Earwood’s life for most of his adult life. He and longtime friend Dave Densmore revolutionized drag racing PR and promotion when they formed the PR staff at the NHRA headquarters in the mid-1970s and well into the 1980s.
“Densie and I, we worked off each other so very well,” Earwood said. “We were extremely successful. Not to brag, but during our reign at NHRA, we not only got in the New York Times for the first time ever, but I remember we got on the front page of (the Times’ sports section) a couple of times.
“We also got a couple covers of Sports Illustrated and inside features in Sports Illustrated. So we really got the industry into the mainstream media.”
After leaving NHRA, Earwood became Vice President of Marketing for drag racing’s Texas Motorplex when it opened in 1986 before becoming president and co-owner of Atlanta Dragway before purchasing The Rock in 1992.
Given that he still lives in Southern Pines, N.C., one of the greatest areas for golf in the country with 60 courses in short driving distance, plus a modest collection of high-performance cars that he dotes on, it seemed the 78-year-old Earwood had much of his retirement pre-planned working almost daily on his swing and handicap.
But, as an old saying goes, you can only play so much golf.
“I still get up at 5:30 every morning, walk my dog, exercise, spend time reading the scriptures,” Earwood said. “I’m active in my local church and travel a lot. I joined a group back in March and we drove Route 66 all the way to California.
“I also go to Key West a couple times a year and travel to see Densie (Densmore) outside Austin (Texas) a couple times a year. This year I’ve also gone to the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame near Gainesville (Fla.) and the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in Daytona Beach (Fla.). My brother Terry is still racing so I’ll go shoot out to see him whenever he’s racing.”
When the opportunity came up to help out his daughter and son-in-law this weekend, Earwood jumped at the chance to temporarily un-retire and get back to work.
“Having been in the business for 50 years, I had been blessed with a lot of accomplishments and did very well, but it was a new chapter in my life being out of the industry,” Earwood said. “Then I got to help them with this thing here (this weekend’s race) primarily because it’s family.”
Earwood ran The Rock like a family, as well. He particularly welcomed giving back to the local community, as the Rockingham area is among the most impoverished areas in the state. That’s why during his tenure, he hired and gave deserving opportunities to a number of people and helped them toward success.
“It was so gratifying to get kids out of high school or dropouts, quite frankly, and teach them how to work at a racetrack, prep a racetrack and they would actually develop careers out of that,” Earwood said. “That was part of the most gratifying thing of owning (the drag strip).”
Helping others is one in a long list of why Earwood is so respected and appreciated in the industry, as well as his community. While other track owners are in it for the money, he was in it to help people.
One word that Earwood uses to best describe his career as a track owner and PR and promotions specialist is “passion.” And while he probably could still be running The Rock today if he had wanted to, Earwood admits that after nearly five decades, some of that passion began to wane over the years.
Ergo, it was time to sell The Rock. After turning down several other offers in the past, the right ownership group, the right plan for the future of the track and the right selling price finally came together and he let his baby grow up.
“I had lost my passion for the sport and if you don’t have passion, you’re not gonna be successful, I don’t care what you’re doing,” Earwood said. “Between the lawsuits and quite frankly the self-centeredness of society in general and racers particularly, it just would frustrate me.
“I always looked at what’s best for everybody here. That’s how I made my decisions. All that passion got sucked out of me, so when I walked away I didn’t miss it. It’s just such a different world we live in today.”
Earwood hasn’t lost all his passion, however. That’s why he’s glad to be helping out this weekend in Michigan. And while he’s not actively pursuing it, Earwood is not adverse to continuing in perhaps a consultant role to other tracks that could use one of the smartest guys in the business.
“I still have passion for seeing folks like Don Prudhomme, John Force, Shirley Muldowney, Don Garlits and other folks I worked with for so many, many years,” he said. “I still have a passion for this industry to still thrive. And if the right operator reached out, yeah, I’d be glad to help any way possible.”
Earwood is a highly-decorated veteran of motorsports, including being an inductee of the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame, was recipient of an NHRA Lifetime Achievement Award and of the Jeff Byrd Memorial Award from the North Carolina Drag Racing Hall of Fame. He also was recognized as NHRA’s “Man of the Year” in the Southeast Division in 1994 and as National Promoter of the Year by both the IHRA (2001 and 2008) and the ADRL (2015).
Even if just for this weekend, Earwood is excited to be back in the game, so to speak. He’s hoping for great weather, a great sellout crowd and a great event for fans, drivers, teams and the sport.
“Motorsports still survives till today and it always will and you know why that is? Because the racer is so resilient,” he said. “I don’t get too excited or get too down about things. You’ve just gotta stay kind of in the middle and stay solid and it always works out if you go with the flow.”
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