By Jordan Delucia
CONCORD, NC (May 22, 2025) — The American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) will help honor one of Kansas’ most loved local racers when it returns to Dodge City Raceway Park for the Steve King Memorial on Saturday, May 31.
This year marks the 15th running of the event, which honors Steve King and his family’s contributions to the sport. The Dodge City, KS track has hosted the Memorial for eight of its 14 previous editions and presents a $4,000-to-win main event for the best 360 Sprint Car drivers in the country this year.
Kansas’ premier dirt track hosts several special events every season, but the Steve King Memorial stands out among all the others.
“Steve was a local legend in our area,” said Kyler Fetters, Dodge City track promoter and Steve King Foundation President. “Everybody, when they think 360 racing, they think Steve King in our area. If it wasn’t Steve King, it was Garry Lee Maier, but Steve was right behind Garry in everybody’s eyes when it came to 360 racing.
“Steve was just a great guy. He was always a pleasure to be around at the racetrack. Never had a bad thing to say, and very well looked up to amongst his peers.”
King was a second-generation Sprint Car driver from Jetmore, KS, who spent 18 seasons behind the wheel in his lifetime. King primarily raced the local and regional 360 Sprint Car circuits, most notably winning the 2002 and 2003 points championships with the National Championship Racing Association (NCRA).
However, King’s rising career was cut short after he succumbed to injuries suffered in a crash at the 2006 Knoxville Nationals. After his passing, the King family established the Steve King Foundation, which helps “provide assistance to race car drivers, pit crew members, racing officials and track operations personnel or the immediate families of those individuals who are involved in dirt track racing and are seriously ill, severely injured or have been killed,” according to the organization’s website.
It’s not every day a grieving family finds the strength to turn unthinkable loss into invaluable gain for an entire community. But that’s what the King family wanted, and that’s what they did.
“The generosity of the racing community was overwhelming,” said Danette King Amstein, Steve King’s sister. “It was so appreciated, but it was also just overwhelming, and we asked, ‘How do we best use these funds to help racing families?’
“The donations were coming in, and at the same time, we were learning there really wasn’t a national mechanism to help families that were in the same position that we were in.”
As of 2025, the Steve King Foundation has given more than $550,000 to over 240 racing families in their time of need.
“It’s a great organization that helps not only racers, and not a lot of people realize this, but if you’re a crew member of family of a crew member that is involved in racing, we can help out with that,” Fetters said. “Whether it be a broken arm, a vehicle crash, a motorsports accident — really anything, as long as you’re involved in racing, especially open-wheel, we try to do the best we can.”
Less than one year after King’s accident, his family partnered with Dodge City Raceway Park for the first edition of the Steve King Memorial. Nebraska racer Don Droud Jr. took the checkered flag in the inaugural event — a 360 Sprint Car race sanctioned by the former ASCS Rocky Mountain Region.
The event moved to King’s home track — Jetmore Motorplex (later renamed Great American Dirt Track) — for the second running under the United Rebel Sprint Series (URSS) in 2008. The event stayed in Jetmore for the next five years until the track’s closing in 2013, then pivoted back to its current home in Dodge City in 2014.
The event was revived in 2021 after a four-year break and is now back under ASCS sanctioning — a vital part to the event’s future success.
“As far as 360 racing goes, we’re tickled to bring the American Sprint Car Series back to Western Kansas,” Fetters said. “Several years ago, I brought them back to WaKeeney when I was promoting the racetrack there. It had been 20-something years since they had been to WaKeeney. Then, when I took over Dodge City, it had been a 12-year hiatus since they had been back to Dodge City.
“I feel really proud to be bringing back ASCS to our area. It’s probably, bar-none, the best 360 drivers in the nation racing.”
“We’ve been blessed with a lot of fans that, at this point, didn’t know Steve but know the story, and want to come see good racing,” King Amstein said. “While it’s changed tracks from Jetmore to Dodge, it’s certainly been an event that we look forward to because it brings good competition to the area. That brings everyone out to support the Foundation and to remember Steve.”
The Steve King Memorial is part of an ASCS Kansas doubleheader weekend with the Series first visiting Salt City Speedway in Hutchinson, KS on Friday, May 30. Tickets are available online now.
Tickets to see the American Sprint Car Series in the 15th running of the Steve King Memorial at Dodge City Raceway Park will be sold at the gate on race day.
If you can’t be there to watch in person, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.