The drag-and-drive segment of drag racing was merely an infant when the original “25 Reasons to Be Excited About Drag Racing” appeared in DI #44 in 2010. HOT ROD Drag Week, which is largely credited with kicking off the drag-and-drive movement, started in 2005 and steadily picked up steam. Almost 20 years later, drag-and-drive is one of the hottest things going in drag racing. It’s attracting droves of new participants and fans, its stars are veritable car culture heroes, and sponsors are rushing to be a part of the gold rush.
[Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in DI #190, the State of Drag Issue, in September/ October of 2024.]
In a day when drag racing magazine titles can easily be counted on one hand, the drag-and-drive movement even inspired its own print publication. Michigan’s Tom Bailey, one of the icons of the drag-and-drive world, launched Sick The Magazine in 2021 to cover the rapidly growing list of drag-and-drive events popping up around the country. The next year, the Sick team created Sick Week, a five-day, four-track drag-and-drive event in Florida and Georgia. The Drag-and-Drive Calendar on Sick’s website lists nearly 50 events this year, from Alaska to Florida and England to Australia, including Sick Week, Sick Summer, and the forthcoming Edelbrock Sick 66 in October.
As the editor of Sick The Magazine, Luke Nieuwhof has an in-depth knowledge of the drag-and-drive scene. In addition to producing the magazine, he works with Bailey and the Sick team to determine the routes for Sick events. He also attends numerous other drag-and-drive events to provide coverage, while contributing writers and photographers from around the country and even around the world submit content from their local events. Over the last few years, he’s seen the community explode with popularity.
“There are more events than ever, yet events are still selling out,” Nieuwhof says. “Sick Week, Sick Summer, Drag Week, Rocky Mountain Race Week – they’re all full. Smaller events have popped up in every region of the country. Where other trends like radial drag racing have popped up in a more regional fashion, drag-and-drive seems to be without boundaries. I truly believe it is as significant a development in drag racing as bracket racing was in terms of attracting new people to the sport.”
One of the factors fueling the segment’s growth is the media coverage it receives.
“Obviously, HOT ROD kicked off the drag-and-drive craze, so it has been media-driven from the start,” Nieuwhof says. “What they started, the YouTubers like 1320Video and Cleetus McFarland then sent into overdrive. Now there’s a whole ecosystem of media going on, from what we do at Sick The Magazine to the dozens of YouTube channels you can find dedicated to drag-and-drive builds. Even relatively small race teams will often have a YouTube channel dedicated to their builds.”
But very few of the hundreds of competitors who pull through the gates for a drag-and-drive event expect to become a YouTube star or a trade show celebrity. Some want to set records. Others want to prove to themselves and others that the car they built can withstand a week of torture on the dragstrip and on the road. But almost all of them just want to have fun with their family, their friends, and their car while enjoying the camaraderie of the drag-and-drive community.
“Every trend in drag racing has a life span,” Nieuwhof starts. “We saw it with Outlaw 10.5, radial tires, and so on. But I think drag-and-drive is unique because it’s a totally different way of experiencing drag racing. You can do it with your family, you can have a vacation at the same time, you get to see the country, and you get to spend so much more time in the car.”
This story was originally published on November 11, 2024. 
