Although it’s easy to focus on the elapsed times and who wins classes at events, the big speeds are also an indication of how far racing, and power levels, have come in the last couple decades.

And although it took until the fifth annual Hot Rod Drag Week in 2009 before someone broke the mark, the next five years witnessed four more competitors join the 200 MPH club.

In ten years of Hot Rod Drag Week competition, five different competitors exceeded the 200 MPH mark. We’ll follow up with part two of the 200 MPH club shortly, and see how many more rides can hit the magic speed mark.

After dominating the Naturally Aspirated classes at the 2023 edition of Sick Summer Presented by TBM Brakes, and then this year’s Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, it was a bit of a shock to see 'Fast Eddie' Ensor's 1985 Mustang up for sale today.

The classified ad on Facebook lists a pair of Ensor’s Ford Mustangs, and Ensor will sell one of them, and the current drag and drive Naturally Aspirated class record holder is on the list.

Although we normally get to see all three power-adders do well at drag and drive events throughout the year, turbochargers are making a bigger presence on the results sheets and the awards ceremonies.

New to the turbo game in 2025 is the Nova of Graham Hayes, and based on his results from his first two drag and drive events of the season, the proof is in the boost.

The drag-and-drive that started it all, Hot Rod Drag Week, released their dates and tracks for the 2025 event about a month ago, December 17th, 2024. Today, the details on registration, as well as the anticipated rule set, were released for the 21st running of the event, which will visit the Northeast region for two new race tracks, as well as two track Hot Rod Drag Week has visited before.

 Hot Rod Drag Week, which will be contested from September 14th through the 19th, will start and end at Maryland International Raceway, located in Budds Creek, Maryland. Following day one activities, the event will visit Numidia Dragway in Pennsylvania for day two and stay in Pennsylvania to race at Maple Grove Raceway on day three. Day four will return to Maryland to battle on Cecil County Dragway’s surface, before arrival back at Maryland International Raceway for day five to wrap up the event and crown winners.

In addition to announcing the registration date, which will open on Saturday, February 22nd at 9 am EST, Hot Rod Drag Week released their newest rule set.

Many will stress that the main focus of a drag-and-drive event is to complete the event, while having a good time and making memories. But we’d be lying if we didn’t talk about some of the incredible performances that are accomplished as well.

From the quickest cars in Unlimited, to the Rowdy Radial rides that clock 4.6-second times on an 8.5-inch tire, we celebrate those that push the envelope of performance. The 6-second barrier in the small tire, stock suspension, Super Street class could be broken for the first time at Sick Week 2025 Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive.

Two competitors clocked 6-second runs in testing during the 2024 season; can they do in competition next week?

“There are just two weeks until the Sick Week event, the next drag-and-drive we’re going to compete in here on Finnegan’s Garage, and I have some problems.”

This is how Mike Finnegan, the host of the popular Finnegan’s Garage YouTube channel and recently concluded Roadkill show, started his most recent video upload. The urgency to get his 1955 Chevrolet packing a supercharged HEMI engine, appropriately named ‘Blasphemi’, completed and ready for Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive is apparent, but peppered with humor and a little sarcasm.

Finnegan has had a love-hate relationship with drag-and-drive events, and although not uncommon to some participants, Finnegan has experienced a variety of reasons for not completing the event.

Will he complete Sick Week in his first appearance since 2022?

After a 2024 season with a record number of drag-and-drive events, the 2025 season is just a couple weeks away from rumbling to life. Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive is the first of thirty drag-and-drive events we currently know of for 2024, and there is no doubt more will be added as the year progresses.

With long-standing events like Hot Rod Drag Week back for the 20th anniversary, and Rocky Mountain Race Week celebrating its tenth year, several events returned for another year, including Redwood Rally, Miles of Mayhem, One Guy’s Garage Drag Weekend, and Southeast Street N’ Yeet.

We also saw some new events on the extensive list in 2024, as Drop the Hammer, Olympic Drag-and-Drive, and Big Sky Race Week were just a couple that pushed the number of drag-and-drive events scheduled in 2024 to 40 total. A couple did get canceled or postponed due to weather or poor registration numbers.

He may have gotten his start in drag-and-drive with a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle, but the black and red AMC Javelin of Bryant Goldstone has become a well known ride. Based on its percentage of events completed, class wins, and records broken and set, Goldstone has set the bar for the Unlimited Iron class.

But this week will bring the reveal of a new ride for Goldstone in 2025, as he takes aim on quicker times, and the Unlimited class.

What could Goldstone’s new ride be? The Performance & Racing Industry show in Indy will give us the first look at the new ride in the XS Power booth.

In a racing event, rarely does everything go 100-precent smoothly. Ask a veteran of the drag-and-drive world, and they will likely tell you the chances of experiencing no hiccups along the way of an event are small. Hundreds of things can happen, and most of the time, it’s not during racing, and in part two of the Drag Week 2024 Movie on the popular YouTube channel Finnegan’s Garage, Mike Finnegan and Tony Angelo attempt to overcome the pitfalls and complete Hot Rod Drag Week.

In part two of Finnegan’s Drag Week coverage, Finnegan and Angelo get to work to fix the damage to Blasphemi from the wheelie at Indianapolis, troubleshoot numerous issues over the next three days, and attempt to salvage their week. Did they make it happen?

With a rich history that dates back over six decades, it may surprise some that Milan Dragway has hit the ‘for sale’ market. The track has played host to a number of big events over its history, including stops on this year’s Hot Rod Drag Week and Heads Up Hustle drag-and-drive events.

But unlike most tracks with ‘for sale’ signs in the window, Perry Merlo and co-owner Harold Bullock have plans for an active 2025 season, whether a buyer comes along or not.

“The last time you saw us in 2022, total nightmare. We broke the motor on day 1.” The words spoken by Mike Finnegan, former co-host of the MotorTrend show Roadkill, as he and Tony Angelo opened an epic 2-hour movie showing what happened on Hot Rod Magazine’s Drag Week event in 2024. “If we just make it down the track, it’ll be a huge improvement,” said Angelo.

The road of Mike Finnegan and Tony Angelo tackling Hot Rod Drag Week is a storied one, and in this first part, we take a step back in time, covering Finnegan’s Drag Week past, and link the first movie release of his 2024 Hot Rod Drag Week experience.

As the track that hosted not only the first National Hot Rod Association national event in 1955, but also been a part of Hot Rod Drag Week and Rocky Mountain Race Week, the Sunflower Rod and Custom Association (SRCA) Dragstrip has been void of any racing action for the last two years. Recently, a settlement was reached that might change the 2025 season hopes for the track in Great Bend, Kansas.

When the news first hit Sunday night about the popular show Roadkill being canceled, it immediately spread like wildfire about the future of MotorTrend.

Speculation about the magazine and brand, as well as sister shows Hot Rod Garage, Roadkill Garage, Roadworthy Rescues, and Faster with Newburn and Cotton, and even the events like Roadkill Nights and Hot Rod Drag Week were in question by many. Thanks to MotorTrend, we have some clarification on the future of shows and events.

“This is the show where we play with cars, and you point and laugh. We call it Roadkill.” Those words were stated by David Freiburger in Episode 1 of the popular MotorTrend show ‘Roadkill’ which hit YouTube in early 2012. 

Nearly thirteen years and thirteen seasons after that first show was recorded, Mike Finnegan broke the news on Reddit that ‘Roadkill’ will not record a fourteenth season.

Racers and automotive enthusiasts can be resourceful in more ways than one. If something isn’t available or built to tolerate a vehicle’s demands, there is normally another option. Even if that option is doing it yourself, where there’s a will, there’s a way, and that’s exactly how Isky Racing Cams got its start.

Now, over 70 years alter, ISKY Racing Cams continues to support enthusiasts, including in the drag-and-drive community.

The Summit Racing Equipment name brings decades of experience in the performance and racing landscape. But their introduction to the drag-and-drive community was through one of their valued employees. “I’ve always been a fan of drag-and-drive since the first year of Hot Rod Drag Week,” said Tommy Dupree of Summit Racing. “I went a few times when it was close to my home base.” That love for cars and trucks that could handle street and strip duty took the next step when Tommy encouraged Summit to get involved.  

The drag-and-drive community started with one event, Hot Rod Drag Week, in 2005. That event has grown into a movement with a large community of participants and fans, over 40 different events across multiple countries, and influenced thousands of car and truck builds to prove they can survive the street and the strip torture tests known by many as drag-and-drive.

There are a only a select few that have seen it all since the beginning, and Rick Johnson with Gear Vendors Overdrive is one of those people.

The 1987 Volvo wagon of Mikael Borggren became a staple on several drag-and-drive events, first cracking the 6-second mark at Hot Rod Drag Week in 2021. But he started to make his mark in the no-prep world in the last few years, and also captured a trio of Roadkill Nights Small Tire victories.

Bryant Goldstone has been a player in the drag-and-drive game for over a decade. 2024 was playing out like a dream for Goldstone leading up to Hot Rod Drag Week, with a trio of major event victories.

Could he keep the 6-second 200+ mph laps coming at Drag Week and earn another title, or would a nightmare Did Not Finish await him at the twentieth running of Hot Rod Drag Week?

This colorful 1976 Chevrolet Nova has already secured a class victory at Hot Rod Drag Week in 2022, along with a pair of top three finishes at Sick Week in 2002 and 2023.

But for Drag Week in 2023, Jerry and Matt Sweet rolled to the starting line on day one packing a new engine combination north of 800 cubic inches, putting the Nova into the 7-second zone for the first time in competition. They didn't finish the week last year; will they complete the task this time around?