91����

Drag and drive events are the drag racing equivalent of a torture test. Racers are allowed to bring any car they want, and run as quick as they possibly can—as long as whatever they race can also drive 300 miles (usually at night) to the next dragstrip and make another pass. Trailers are only allowed if they are towed by the racecar. It’s race, drive, repeat.

Drag and drives are a spectacular form of competition that’s become one of the coolest things you can do with a streetcar, but they can also be incredibly lonely. Typically racers are only at a dragstrip long enough to run a quick time, fix whatever broke in that pursuit, and then hit the road with their co-pilot. It can be a crazy pace with little sleep and most of the audience only sees the action on the track through livestreams or social media.

NHRA was out to change all of that at the 2023 Gerber Collision & Glass NHRA Route 66 Nationals, presented by PEAK Performance where it hosted a special Drag and Drive eight-car exhibition featuring Alex Taylor, Tom Bailey, Steve Morris, Bryant Goldstone, Clark Rosenstengel, Clint Sodowsky, Rick Trunkett and Bob Hess Jr. All of these drivers hold NHRA competition licenses, and all of the cars are capable of 5 or 6-second quarter-mile times. Yet their most unique feature is that they all have license plates and can drive to the track!

The Peak Street Car Shootout in Chicago began with Friday night qualifying where the first matchup was Tom Bailey in his street-legal Pro Mod Camaro lined up against Bryant Goldston's street-legal AMC Javelin.

On Saturday race fans got to see more 200-mph runs by these Drag and Drive street cars and see Goldstone run a 6.62-second pass.

In the final round race, fans saw Bryant Goldstone’s twin-turbo big-block Chevy-powered AMC Javelin win. Goldstone said, “It’s great to race in front of a big crowd and nice to be able to hang out at the track for a change.”

Goldstone is a mainstay at the Sick Week and Hot Rod Drag Week events, where he has competed in his Javelin and, before that, a Chevelle. Some of you may also recognize Goldstone’s AMC from the run it made at the 2019 NHRA U.S. Nationals as part of a street car exhibition.

Where will we see Goldstones’ Javelin next? He said he hopes to be part of Tom Bailey’s Sick Summer event in June, but will definitely be at Roadkill Nights in Detroit in August, Drag Week in September, and Sick Week in 2024. What about another NHRA event? Goldstone’s certainly open to it. He said, “Everybody [in Chicago] was so great and super cool to me.”

You can check out Alex Taylor speaking with NHRA on FOX's Bruno Massel from the Sunday broadcast.