The New Alexandria, Pa., track, which recently renewed its sanctioning agreement with the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA), is in its 54th year of operation after opening in July 1967. This season, Keystone was a little later opening as promoter Greg Miller explained there was a good reason with much needed improvements.

Construction at the quarter-mile track included over 600 tons of base and over 350 yards of concrete being poured. Concrete now extends from the burnout box with 350 feet of concrete and 16 feet wide covering both lanes.

The reason was to reward the racers, particularly the ones who show their loyalty with their support of Keystone Racing Park.

“We hold a pretty good crowd with our locals,” Miller said. “We did a lot of work to give back to the racers to give them a better facility than what they had. With all the restrictions of last year and this year, we also finished up a new souvenir stand over the winter.”

"The improvements at the facility have been monumental and include every aspect of facility management to driver experience to timing upgrades and from fan interaction to weather response. It's amazing to pull through the gates and see what new endeavor Greg is undertaking," IHRA Division Director Jon O'Neal said. "As the longtime host of the Division 3 Summit Team Finals and races such as the IHRA Pro-Am Tour, Summit Sportsman National Championship, Sportsman Spectacular and even national events, Keystone and Greg Miller have been and will continue to be an integral part of the IHRA family."

Keystone is about racing and relationships. One of the biggest events for Miller occurred last weekend when he got to hang out with some of the icons of the dragway. Between the group, there was over 175 years of racing combined.

“It’s a family-oriented business and the racers stick together,” Miller said. “It was nice not only getting a picture of those guys and their wives who have been by their sides the whole time. That was really cool to me.”

Keystone has been well represented at the IHRA Summit SuperSeries World Finals. It is home of 2020 Sportsman champion Joe Tharp Jr., whose dad and his uncle Bob have been longtime racers at Keystone. Multiple cousins have also been involved in racing at Keystone.

Tharp was equally excited to win at the IHRA Summit Division 3 Team Finals held at his home track. Other IHRA track champions in 2020 included Dwayne Ressler (Top), Nick Bowman (Mod) and Tyler Pennington (Junior).

Bowman is another of the Keystone standouts, becoming the first No Box driver to win an IHRA Sportsman Spectacular event in 2018 when the program matched up the best from the Top and Mod ranks.

Much of the success comes from the weekly competition at Keystone, which Miller credits much to the strong IHRA Summit SuperSeries program.

“We represent the IHRA SuperSeries and appreciate all of Summit’s help,” Miller said. “They help keep Sportsman bracket racing alive.”

Bracket racing is alive and well at Keystone as well as other types of racing including the Good Vibrations Funny Car Nationals scheduled for July 17.

Click here to visit the website and gain more information about Keystone Raceway Park.