TJ Pruitt
Montgomery, AL – Nathan Martin will go down in history as the winner of the 20th Anniversary CARS Protection Plus Million Dollar Race at Montgomery Raceway Park. The Ft. Worth, Texas Driver lasted 10 rounds of competition to march his dragster into the winner’s circle of the world’s biggest sportsman race.
This event also marked the largest paying drag race in history. Martin defeated Ed Niemiec of Chicago, IL in the final round.
Martin said “I’m just excited to be here. I don’t even know what to say. Folk Promotions promotes a great race and it just feels good to be standing right here. When I realized that I had a chance to win, I did my best to focus and I stuck with the game plan.”
Martin is the first driver from the state of Texas to win a CARS Million Dollar Race.
Evansville, IN racer Josh Luedke was the lone semi-finalist at a young age of 21 years old.
The 20th Anniversary CARS Million shattered records in attendance with 623 entries in the Triple 25’s and over 350 entries in the main event, the Million. As another way of saying thank you for the record breaking attendance, Folk Promotions pulled one random free tech card from a list of drivers not entered into the million which brought the official car count to 351. This placed the payout in a different bracket, increasing the purse by $40,000. Robert Vogler from Winston-Salem, NC was the lucky winner.
Vogler said “I’m speechless. I have never entered the Million before.” He immediately called his mom and said “you’re never going to believe what just happened. “
Other prizes were randomly given throughout the weekend, including a customized Overkill Motorsports Golf Cart. Hayden Smith of Brookwood, AL was the fortunate winner. The winner of the main VIP club drawing, a 2016 Dragster Chassis, was selected using a random computer generated software Mark Piper of Hancock, Maine was the winner.
Folk Promotions said “we can’t thank the racers and sponsors enough for making the 20th Anniversary a memorable one that will last a lifetime. We wanted to give back to the racers this year and adding the additional tech card was our way of raising the purse, which puts money in the racers’ pockets. This is also our way of saying thank you for 20 amazing years and continued support.
The 20th Annual CARS Million Dollar Race also received record setting views on MotorManiaTV’s Live Feed throughout the weekend. The event was featured on the front cover of LIVE STREAM and was the #1 Live event in the site’s “Sports” category on Thursday.
