31/07/2026
🏁HELP SAVE THE SPEEDWAY🏁
I put together this article after researching the history of Pahrump Valley Speedway and talking with people who were there from the beginning. If this story means something to you, please take a couple of minutes to read it.
If you think it's worth saving, please share this post and tag anyone who should see it—NASCAR, the Busch family, race teams, sponsors, or anyone who believes in grassroots racing. You never know who might help make this happen.
The Track Where a Champion’s Story Began Is Waiting for Another Chance
Pahrump Valley Speedway helped open the door for Kurt and Kyle Busch. Now its owner, its community and local leaders are searching for someone willing to help open that door for the next generation.
By Josh Prater
The old dirt oval sits quietly today.
The grandstands no longer fill on Saturday nights. Race engines no longer echo across the southern Nevada desert. Dust no longer hangs above the corners while families lean against the fence and wait for the checkered flag.
But Pahrump Valley Speedway is not gone.
Not yet.
Nearly four decades after local racers and volunteers carved the quarter-mile dirt track into the desert, the facility remains standing. Weathered and in need of work, it is a reminder of a time when racing in Pahrump was not something families watched on television. It was something they did together.
It was also the place where one of the most successful families in NASCAR history began finding its way into the sport.
Before the Cup Series championships, national television audiences and victories at Daytona, Bristol and Indianapolis, there was a Dwarf Car, a small dirt track and a family making the drive from Las Vegas to Pahrump.
This is where Kurt Busch’s racing story began.
And now the track that gave him that opportunity is waiting for someone to help give the same chance to another child.
Before NASCAR, There Was Pahrump
Pahrump Valley Speedway was built in 1983 through the efforts of local racers and community members, Jim Pike, Bob Bolling, with the help of Sam Stringer, Bobby Woods and Buzz Woods Heavy, they were able to turn a patch of desert into a hometown dirt track.
For years, the speedway served as one of Pahrump’s gathering places. Drivers raced there. Families filled the grandstands. Children grew up in the pits watching their parents and neighbors build cars, solve problems and compete.
Among the families who found their way to Pahrump were Tom Busch and his sons, Kurt and Kyle.
Historical accounts trace Kurt’s early Dwarf Car racing to Pahrump Valley Speedway. Kurt later recalled that his first race took place in Pahrump in 1994, years before he became the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion, a Daytona 500 winner and one of the most recognizable drivers of his generation.
Kyle was the younger brother watching, learning and helping.
Long before Kyle became a two-time Cup Series champion and the winningest driver across NASCAR’s three national series, he spent part of his childhood working around Kurt’s Dwarf Car operation. He learned the mechanical side of racing, helped his family at the track and absorbed the lessons that small tracks have passed from one generation to the next for as long as the sport has existed.
The Busch brothers eventually carried that beginning far beyond Nevada.
Kurt reached NASCAR’s highest level, won a Cup championship and earned election to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Kyle followed with two Cup championships and 234 victories across NASCAR’s three national series—a record unmatched in the sport.
But careers like theirs do not begin beneath the lights at Daytona.
They begin at places like Pahrump.
They begin with parents towing a small race car across the desert. They begin with children learning how to turn wrenches, accept defeat, respect competitors and come back the following weekend ready to try again.
Grassroots tracks are often called the foundation of motorsports. At Pahrump Valley Speedway, that description is not a slogan. It is part of the historical record.
A Track Left Behind
Over time, the engines became quiet.
Pahrump Valley Speedway endured ownership changes, closure threats and years of uncertainty. The property was once marketed for redevelopment. It later returned to racing, only to struggle again as the facility aged and the cost of maintaining it continued to rise.
By 2024, the roughly 20-acre property was listed for sale for $975,000, including its outbuildings and much of the equipment needed to maintain a dirt-racing facility.
The property has since been acquired by Champion Trust, LLC.
That acquisition could have marked the final end of the speedway. Instead, part of the reason the oval remains in place is that one of Champion Trust’s partners, Paul, remembers what local racing meant to his own family.
His children grew up racing.
Rather than erase the track, he left it standing in the hope that the community might find a workable way to bring it back.
That decision created something rare in stories about disappearing short tracks: an opening.
The landowner is willing to discuss saving it.
The community wants it saved.
Local government is willing to discuss how it can help.
What has been missing is an organization capable of connecting those pieces.
The Community Has Already Spoken
In June, Speedway Stories published an article asking a simple question: Can Pahrump Valley Speedway make a comeback?
The response came quickly.
According to organizers tracking the campaign, more than 1,500 people added their names to a community petition within a matter of days.
That support came from former racers, families, business owners and residents who remember what the speedway once brought to Pahrump. Some remembered racing there. Others remembered sitting in the grandstands with their parents. Many simply understood what the loss of another community gathering place would mean.
The response demonstrated that the desire to revive the track is not confined to a handful of nostalgic racers.
There is a real constituency behind it.
Nye County Commissioner Ian Bayne recently brought residents together to discuss what role the county might play in supporting the speedway’s return. The meeting did not produce an instant solution, but it established something important: local leaders are willing to have the conversation.
One proposal discussed was the creation of a community-run nonprofit organization capable of leasing or operating the facility, accepting charitable support and rebuilding the speedway around a public mission.
Under that type of structure, Pahrump Valley Speedway would not return simply as another privately operated racetrack.
It could return as a community motorsports facility focused on youth development, automotive education, family recreation and regional tourism.
That distinction may be the key to its survival.
What a Racetrack Can Teach
It is easy to look at an aging dirt oval and see only worn grandstands, fencing and a surface that needs work.
A young person sees something different.
A racetrack can be a classroom.
Children involved in racing learn that preparation matters. They learn that equipment fails when it is neglected. They learn how engines, gearing, tires, suspension and weather affect performance. They learn to communicate with adults, represent sponsors, manage money and take responsibility for their mistakes.
They learn that winning is earned—and that losing is not the end of the world.
For some, those lessons lead to careers as mechanics, fabricators, welders, engineers, business owners, or event professionals. For a very small number, the path may lead to professional racing.
No one could have known where the Busch brothers’ journey would lead when their family first arrived in Pahrump with a Dwarf Car.
That is precisely the point.
Communities do not build youth opportunities because they know which child will become a champion. They build them because every child deserves a place to discover what he or she may be capable of becoming.
Without local tracks, that path grows narrower.
Families must travel farther. Costs increase. Children who might have found direction, confidence or a career through motorsports may never get close enough to try.
A Legacy Larger Than a Name
Kyle Busch’s sudden passing on May 21 left the racing community grieving one of its greatest competitors.
He was 41 years old.
Across NASCAR, teams, drivers and fans have searched for ways to honor a driver whose career was defined by extraordinary ability, relentless determination and a lifelong connection to racing.
In Pahrump, there may be an opportunity to create a living tribute—not simply a sign, a ceremony or a name painted on a wall, but a place where families can continue the kind of journey the Busch family began decades ago.
Any memorial connected to Kyle Busch or the Busch family would need to begin with their knowledge and blessing. It should never be announced, branded or promoted without their involvement.
But the possibility deserves a respectful conversation.
Perhaps the restored facility could include a youth racing program, scholarship, training center, victory lane or annual event honoring Kyle’s legacy. Perhaps the speedway itself could preserve the story of Kurt’s first race and Kyle’s early years working beside his father and brother.
The right form of recognition should ultimately be determined with the family.
The purpose, however, is already clear.
The best way to honor where champions came from is to make sure future families still have somewhere to begin.
The Pieces Are Already on the Table
Most racetrack rescue efforts begin with opposition.
This one begins with alignment.
The property owner wants to see the track preserved.
More than 1,500 people have expressed support.
A county commissioner has opened a public discussion.
Community members are exploring the formation of a nonprofit organization.
Potential grant programs may be available for projects that create youth, recreational and community benefits.
What Pahrump does not yet have is the funding, organizational structure and outside support necessary to turn that alignment into a working speedway.
That is where the racing industry may have an opportunity to step forward.
A NASCAR organization, former sponsor, automotive company, construction partner or charitable foundation could do more than write a check. It could help organize a restoration effort capable of attracting national attention to grassroots racing and the community that helped launch two of the sport’s most important careers.
The project will require far more than sentiment.
Engineers and contractors will need to evaluate the facility. A sustainable operating model must be developed. Insurance, safety requirements, sanctioning, equipment, staffing and long-term maintenance must all be addressed. The community will need an accountable nonprofit organization with clear governance and transparent finances.
No serious person should pretend reopening the speedway will be easy.
But for the first time in years, the obstacles may not include convincing the property owner, the community or local leaders that the track is worth saving.
They already believe it is.
Where the next champion begins
Every generation of racing depends on someone willing to leave the gate open for the next one.
In 1983, local residents donated their labor, equipment and determination to build a racetrack in the Nevada desert.
Years later, Tom Busch brought his sons there.
One of those sons began a Hall of Fame racing career. The other became one of NASCAR’s greatest champions.
Today, another child in Pahrump may be waiting for the same opportunity without knowing it.
The old speedway is still there.
The shape of the track remains visible. The memories remain strong. The owner has left the door open. The community has raised its hand. Local government has come to the table.
Now the question is whether someone from the larger racing world will recognize what is possible.
Pahrump Valley Speedway does not need to become a monument to what used to be.
It can become a promise to what comes next.
And somewhere in southern Nevada, a future driver, mechanic, engineer or team owner may be waiting for the engines to start again.
About the Restoration Effort
Community members are currently exploring the creation of a nonprofit organization to support the restoration and long-term operation of Pahrump Valley Speedway as a youth-, family- and community-focused motorsports facility.
Organizations, companies, racing representatives and individuals interested in learning more may contact:
Josh Prater
Pahrump Valley Speedway Community Restoration Effort
Email: [email protected]
Pahrump, Nevada
