After 27 years at the helm, Carl Blanton and his team continue to reshape the legacy of Mo-Kan Dragway – not by changing what it is, but by making it better. The historic track in Asbury, Missouri, founded in 1962, has quietly become one of the Midwest’s most beloved grassroots racing venues; and now, one of its most improved.
Since taking over in 1999, Blanton has constantly tried to improve the facility. Within a year of taking over, he installed a new timing system. In 2005, they repaved the racing surface, and in 2009 a new tower was built. Over the past few years, Blanton – along with his son, Craig, and Track Manager Tyler West – has added numerous major safety enhancements, one of the biggest being replacing the guardrails along the track with concrete walls.
“I think it’s huge,” said Blanton. “I was very glad to get that done. It’s something I’ve wanted to do ever since I came here. We don’t have all the wall that I want yet, but hopefully that will happen soon enough.”
After the walls were completed in the winter of 2020-2021, attention turned to another major project: repaving a large portion of the pit area and staging lanes. During the summer of 2024, Mo-Kan announced “Project Pave the Pits,” which allowed local businesses to partner with the track in repaving over 90,000 sq. ft. on the property.
“Tyler did an excellent job of rounding up marketing partners to help with that,” Blanton said. “At the end of the day, they probably helped with about 20% of the cost, and then 40% we borrowed from the bank, and 40% we paid out of pocket. That’s kind of the way things get done around here. You’ve got to be creative in your financing. But it’s easier to get others onboard when you lay out the project for them and say, ‘This is how the money will be spent,’ and then show them the results.”
Already in 2025, Mo-Kan has repaved and widened both of their turnoffs in the shutdown area, and upgrade that Blanton says will be especially beneficial at events like Funny Car Chaos and Nitro Chaos, with cars that need the extra room prior to being towed back to the pits.
In addition to those major renovations, Blanton and his team have quietly been making less-noticeable – but equally important – upgrades as well. They replaced the old wooden bleachers with aluminum ones, installed a new ticket booth on the spectator side, paved the entry road, built a new concession stand, and completely rebuilt the septic system. Yet despite all the improvements, Blanton continues to focus on what’s ahead.
“We’re in a pretty good position right now, but if we have as good a year this year as we’ve had in years past, there’s definitely things we’ll be looking at,” said Blanton. “We want to rebuild the restroom facility on the pit side and have a purposed picnic and merchandise area. I think the biggest thing that’s on the horizon is a total repavement of the track, but that may be two or three years down the road.”
Perhaps most impressively, all this progress hasn’t come at the expense of Mo-Kan’s signature small-town charm. Blanton jokes that the worst thing that could happen to Mo-Kan is if they won the lottery, because they would spend all the money, and he’s not sure that’s always the answer.
“I’ve told people it’s like the local bar and grill,” Blanton said. “You can go to a chain restaurant and you just kind of feel like you’re at a chain restaurant. But if you’re lucky enough to have a local tavern that has a hell of a hamburger and you can get a cold beer with it, that’s what you want. And that’s what we want. We want that mom-and-pop local feel. You’ve got to maintain that.”
That authenticity is part of what draws bigger and bigger shows to Mo-Kan. Whether it’s Funny Car Chaos and Nitro Chaos, the Titans of 10.5 small tire series, or the upcoming 405 Shootout hosted by Street Outlaws stars Farmtruck and AZN, the track is now a go-to destination.
Still, the heartbeat of Mo-Kan is with its local supporters. The track has featured a very healthy bracket program for more than 25 years, as well as hugely popular spring and fall nostalgia events. Their Memorial Day race enters its 59th year this season, while the Labor Day Classic will mark its 60th. These aren’t just races – they’re family traditions.
“That’s a lot of Labor Day weekends, a lot of Memorial Day weekends with generations of families coming to race or coming to watch,” said West. “This is what they do on those weekends, and it’s pretty wild to encounter that. We’re really fortunate that the fans and the racers have been so supportive, which has allowed us to stay in business, thrive, and continue to do improvements.”
While Mo-Kan gears up for a full 2025 schedule, with the aforementioned events being just the tip of the iceberg, Blanton and his team are doing more than improving a track. They’re preserving a legacy – one upgrade at a time.
This story was originally published on May 1, 2025. 
