‘THE ROCK’ GETS NATIONAL DRAGSTER MAGAZINE AWARD Earwood Accepts Contributor of the Year Award on Behalf of Racers and Staff ROCKINGHAM, N.C. – (Jan. 26, 2018) On behalf of his staff and his racers, Rockingham Dragway owner Steve Earwood accepted the Contributor of the Year award from National DRAGSTER magazine during the annual NHRA Southeast Division awards banquet at Jekyll Island, Ga. Graham Light, NHRA Senior Vice President for Racing Operations, the California-based organization’s official emissary to the banquet, presented Earwood with a plaque recognizing the track’s stellar publicity effort in 2017. “It’s always an honor,” Earwood said. “Just the acknowledgement of a job well done is sometimes the only thing you need to make it all seem worthwhile. National DRAGSTER is like ‘the bible’ of drag racing but it never has forgotten about the grassroots racer. “Phil Burgess and the DRAGSTER staff still provide a forum for bracket racing and for that we all should say ‘thank you’ every chance we get,” Earwood said. “It’s one thing to cover the greats like John Force and Greg Anderson, but they don’t work any harder at their trade than some of the guys who show up at The Rock for our bracket races. DRAGSTER gets that.” Earwood said the only problem with getting the award “is the pressure to do even better this season. It’s a constant battle to get everybody’s cooperation. Sometimes I think the racers feel like we’re punishing them by asking them for what they believe is unnecessary information. The truth is, things like hometown and age and make and model of your race car are all things we can use to better publicize the sport and the racers.”