Story of Adrenaline Motorsports Raceway
Adrenaline Motorsports Raceway is a historic dirt track tucked into Benton County, near Boswell, Indiana. The track is now under new ownership, and it's getting ready to write its next chapter after years of sitting quiet.
This isn't a new facility putting down roots. This is a nearly 60-year-old speedway that has worn several different names over the decades, and every one of those names tells part of the same story — a track that Indiana racing just won't let go of.
The track first opened in July 1967. A local furniture store owner named Avery Henry built the facility and named it Henry's Speedway. Henry's original track ran three-eighths of a mile and started out as a dirt oval. That's how most of the great Midwest short tracks began in that era — a local businessman with a piece of land and a love for racing.
In 1977, Henry converted the surface from dirt to pavement. Asphalt racing had its own following in Indiana at the time, and the track ran that way for two decades. Then in 1997, the surface went back to dirt. It's stayed a dirt track ever since, and that clay oval is what current fans and racers know today.
A Track of Many Names
Over the years, this speedway has carried several identities. It has been known as Henry's Speedway, Chase Raceway, Benton County Speedway, and most recently Daugherty Speedway.
Each name change usually came with new ownership, and each new owner brought their own vision for the place. But the bones of the track — the banked three-eighths-mile dirt oval — stayed the same underneath it all.
During its various eras, the speedway hosted United States Auto Club open-wheel racing, along with DIRTcar Summer Nationals events. Those bookings put the track on the radar of serious dirt racers well beyond Benton County, and it built a reputation as one of the tougher banked ovals in the region.
In 2002, Bob and Gayle Kamp took over the property and invested in a number of improvements to bring the facility up to date. Their work kept the track competitive and running for the fans who showed up week after week.
Ownership shifted again in 2014, when Mike Daugherty took over and renamed it Daugherty Speedway. Weekly racing continued under his ownership through 2018. After that, the gates closed. The track sat idle, and for a stretch of years it looked like Boswell's speedway might join the long list of Midwest dirt tracks that quietly faded away for good.
That's a familiar story across small-town American racing. Tracks open with big dreams, run for a generation or two, then go dark when an owner retires or the economics stop working. Plenty never reopen.
A New Name, A New Era
This one did reopen. Jason and Jess Acker purchased the property and rebranded the facility as Adrenaline Motorsports Raceway, taking on the project of bringing a nearly 60-year-old track back to life.
That's no small undertaking. A facility that's been dormant for several seasons needs real work — grading the clay, rebuilding infrastructure, and getting the grandstands and pit areas ready for race night again.
The speedway seats roughly 7,500 fans at capacity, which speaks to how much this track has meant to the region over the decades. That's a serious crowd for a rural Indiana dirt oval, and it's a number built up over generations of race nights under different names and different owners.
What makes Adrenaline Motorsports Raceway worth watching isn't just the racing — it's the resilience. Few tracks survive a name change, let alone four of them. Fewer still come back from multiple years of sitting dark.
Benton County racers and fans now have a chance to watch this piece of Indiana dirt track history get a real second wind, with new ownership committed to bringing regular racing back to a track that first turned laps back in 1967.
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