After nearly four years away from the seat of a NHRA Funny Car, ‘Fast’ Jack Beckman got the chance to jump back behind the wheel in 2024. When John Force crashed during a round one victory at Virginia Motorsports Park in June, he needed a substitute driver, and Beckman got that chance just over a month later. Now, Beckman will return as a full-time driver in a Funny Car for 2025.

“I had an eight race interview, and it went well,” said Beckman after being announced as the driver for 2025. The former NHRA national Super Comp and Funny Car champion will get a chance to pursue his own championship in 2025, and has one of the best in the business cheering him on. “I’m looking forward to cheering on Jack Beckman this season, as I continue my recovery,” said John Force.

As we originally reported at the end of October of this year, the California-based Irwindale Dragstrip would shut its gates permanently. Along with sister half-mile circle track Irwindale Speedway, the tracks would be the latest casualty in a 2024 season that saw multiple tracks shut down or sold for re-development.

The Irwindale tracks first opened in 1999 for the Speedway, and 2001 for the Dragstrip. When the announcement came about the tracks’ future, the remaining events would become the final time for drag racing enthusiasts to make a trip down Irwindale’s eighth-mile saw a sharp increase in attendance. With the final dragstrip event scheduled for December 8th, over 200 tickets were sold for the last dragstrip event.

It’s not uncommon to hear stories from enthusiasts and racing competitors on drawing inspiration from their parents, their friends, and even fellow enthusiasts on why they choose to participate in car activities.

The inspiration for this fresh drag-and-drive build of Steve Haefner came from another Oldsmobile Cutlass, one that had attendees at the Performance and Racing Industry (PRI) show doing a double take.

“I can’t lie; VP Racing’s Jason Rueckert car is what made me choose the G-body, and specifically the Oldsmobile,” said Haefner. Although the general stance, color and twin-turbo power are very close, Haefner’s ride has a few noticeable differences, including a drag-and-drive focus.

As the drag-and-drive world continues to gain steam with more events and bigger performances, there are a small group of people that are doing their part to bring a little more attention to the community.

One of them is Bryant Goldstone, a competitor that has re-written the record book in the Ultimate Iron / Unlimited Iron classes with a 1973 AMC Javelin that’s become a staple at drag-and-drive events.

Today at the Performance and Racing Industry (PRI) show in Indianapolis, Bryant pulled the cover off his newest effort for drag-and-drive in 2025.

There are a lot of stock to mildly-modified rides in the drag-and-drive world, but thousands of cars and trucks demand more of the cooling system, more of the fueling system, and in turn, the electrical components associated to survive.

This is where XS Power Batteries comes in, as a reliable energy source in many forms, and they joined us on Sick Week in 2024. “I had talked to Tom about doing a drag-and-drive event last year,” said Remy Viator of XS Power Batteries. “I’m glad we could be a part of Sick Week in 2024.”

Although XS Power Batteries isn’t new to the game in the battery wars, they may not be as well known on the drag-and-drive side to some, but that is changing.

Hot Rod Magazine’s Fastest Street Car Shootout in 1992 was the first event to point the spotlight at dual purposes cars that could survive the street, as well as lay down impressive numbers on the track. Over a decade later, drag-and-drive got its start at Hot Rod Drag Week in 2005, taking a page from that iconic 1992 event and expanding on it.

Looking back at history can give us a clearer picture of what the future may hold, and that ideal plays into the most recent update on Tom Bailey’s ‘Sick Seconds 2.0’ ’69 Camaro, as Bailey will debut it with the fresh look at this week’s Performance & Racing Industry (PRI) show in Indianapolis, Indiana in the Gear Vendors Overdrive booth.

We’ve only got six days left before our current vehicle giveaway, the 1952 Nash wagon, which comes to an end on Sunday, December 15th 2024. Packing a fresh 396 cubic inch small block Chevy, with an extra 150 horsepower of nitrous onboard, the Nash could be your ticket to 9-second time slips!

But, in the spirit of the holiday season, we can’t wait any longer to show off our next giveaway car, a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Indy Pace Car! And for the next six days, you can double your chances to win one of our cars!

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.

Even though the 1986 model El Camino known as ‘Mullet’ has scored wins on both the drag-and-drive calendar, as well as a World Cup Finals victory in 2022, the last few years haven’t been as good. Competition has gotten faster, and although Tye and the Cleetus crew revamped the car with a new rear end and aftermarket 4-link set-up, it wasn’t the answer.

After tapping Cameron Johnson Race Cars in Lakeland, Florida to build a 5-second Pro 275-class ’69 Camaro recently, Cleetus took advantage of an open spot in their schedule to slide Mullet in for the next round of upgrades.

As the drag-and-drive community and event schedule grows, there have been several articles and inquiries into the origin of the first drag-and-drive, Hot Rod Magazine’s Drag Week in 2005.

Hot Rod also played host to the Fastest Street Car Shootout, held in Memphis, Tennessee, where several drivers etched their names as the first competitors in a street-legal car shootout. One of them was Rick Dyer, and sadly, we’ve gotten word that the Michigan resident has passed away.

Just over two months after ending their 2023 season, Battlefield Dragstrip changed that status to permanent closure for the 2024 season.

Despite thirty years of operation in Stonewall, Mississippi and recent upgrades, the track’s future looked bleak.

But recently, news broke that Battlefield Dragstrip will get its latest operator this month, as the track is scheduled to see action for the first time in nearly fifteen months on December 21st, 2024.

Auto enthusiasts can be drawn to a particular vehicle for several reasons. It could be the styling, the power, the handling, or even the chance to fulfill a dream of owning one when you couldn’t earlier in life. But then there’s cars and trucks with history, or a family connection, and the bonds and memories created with these rides can be some powerful ones.

The 1968 Mercury Cougar of Josh Dowies has a sixteen-year history in his family starting when his father bought the car for his mother to drive. “She always wanted to have a little hot rod to cruise around,” said Josh. She passed away back in 2017, and the car sat until 2022, when Josh bought it. “Getting to build this car has been as much for me, as it has been for my mom and in memory of my mom."

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?

Since the introduction of Junior Dragsters into the National Hot Rod Association in 1992, thousands of kids have gotten the chance to become competitors in the sport of drag racing. Competition at hundreds of tracks across North America, as well as larger national events just for junior dragsters, have proved a springboard for racing careers, world champions, and a second class, Junior Street, that’s been incorporated into select drag-and-drive events.

Junior Dragsters have been a big force behind not only a new wave of racers competing, but also the second, third and even fourth-generation of a family getting into the sport.

With the success of Junior Dragster, the NHRA introduced the Junior Street class to give thirteen-sixteen year old boys and girls a chance to compete in a street-legal car or truck with an adult co-driver as their teammate.

As one of the participants that’s attended every year of Sick Week presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive, Matt Lamphier has experienced the highs and lows of a drag-and-drive event. He won the hotly-contested 235 Outlaw Street Race class at Sick Week in 2022, but had the reversal of fortune the last two years of Sick Week. But Matt and his wife / co-pilot Meg have a plan for 2025 to return to winning ways.

One year after scoring a coveted Sick the Magazine class-winning orange helmet, Matt and the LS-swapped 1992 Mazda Miata known as “The Turtle” had the engine lock up less than an hour from his day two destination – Bradenton Motorsports Park. Last year he exploded an engine.

Can Matt and Meg find the magic from their 2022 Sick Week and collect a second helmet in 2025?

The BoostedBoiz have built several cars and trucks that can make most people do a double take. From constructing a 7-second Honda engine-swapped MR2, to the ‘Rowdyssey’ Honda Odyssey van sporting a turbocharged Honda 4-cylinder and clocking mid 9-second times, the crew has come up with some crazy builds.

But their latest creation, merging a Tesla Plaid S chassis with a Dodge Challenger body, could prove to be one that gets even more attention, and might change a few opinions on muscle cars as well.

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.

Many people might associate the ‘LeRoy’ C5 Corvette as the car that kickstarted the Cleetus McFarland YouTube channel. But it was the C7 supercharged C7 Corvette known as ‘The Bald Eagle Machine’ that was featured first by Cleetus. The El Camino known as ‘Mullet’ has one of the more recognizable rides from the Cleetus’ garage, and it has captured a slew of drag-and-drive wins, as well as a World Cup Finals victory in 2022.

Mullet has run as quick as 6.3-seconds and over 235 mph at nearly 3600-pounds, but Cleetus knew the car needed changes. “I’ve been a little frustrated with Mullet lately,” said Cleetus this past May. “We’ve been trying to make it go faster, and it just doesn’t seem to want to go faster.” Now, the El Camino is in line for upgrades at Cameron Johnson Race Cars.

“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.

There are some cars that stand out in the crowd just a little more. Whether it’s because of performance, appearance or the story behind it all, some rides are just more prevalent in our minds. From the first time we saw Robbie Price’s Mercury station wagon known as ‘Shelia’s Dream’, we knew it would be one of those cars, and now the Price family is working on more reasons to make us remember the wagon.

After the wagon completed its second Sick Summer in 2024, owner Robbie wanted more. For 2025, the Price wagon is making the change to turbocharged motivation, as a pair of units will replace the nitrous on the wagon.