By David Madden

ATCO, N.J. (CBS) — The Atco Raceway in South Jersey has a new owner, but local drag racing fans can relax.

It took more than a year to complete the deal that puts Len Capone in the driver’s seat, so to speak.

His family first tried to purchase Atco, the oldest running drag strip on the east coast, 24 years ago. That didn’t work out.  So Len kept up racing, like his mom and dad before him.

And now he owns the joint.

(A crowd packs the stands of Atco Raceway in April 2012. File photo provided)

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“We plan on, for the most part, staying with the same schedule and everything, and try to upgrade the facility a little bit,” Capone tells KYW Newsradio.  That will include a name change — back to “Atco Dragway.”

And the guy who beat out the Capones to take over the facility a quarter century ago — previous owner Joe Sway — now works for them, as director of operations. Those operations have proven pretty successful, with racing five nights a week, nine months a year.