HOT ROD Power Tour 2025 Day 2—Drag Racing in Joliet—Route 66 Gallery
A massive turnout for the biggest Power Tour ever.
Last year we didn’t think the Chevrolet Performance HOT ROD Power Tour Driven by Hagerty could get any bigger. We were wrong. Turnout this year seems to be record breaking so far, and a huge number of cars showed up for day 2 of the 2025 HRPT at Route 66 Dragway in Joliet, Illinois.
AI Quick Summary
The 2025 HOT ROD Power Tour saw record turnout on Day 2 at Route 66 Dragway in Joliet, with 399 tech cards filled and 646 drag passes. The event featured a scenic 188-mile cruise from Indianapolis, attracting locals. Day 3 heads to Fort Wayne with more activities planned.
This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article
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How many cars? Well, 399 tech cards were filled out for the drag strip where 646 passes were made during the day. That’s a ton of drag race action, but that was only a fraction of the cars on site for the day’s festivities.
Of course, the biggest part of the day was the 188-mile Route 66 cruise from day one’s kickoff at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis Indiana. The HRPT tries to avoid the super interstates and instead utilizes back roads through small towns. Having historic Route 66 available made the cruise even better.
Every gas station and greasy spoon along the route became a mini car show as thousands of hot rodders wound their way along the route.
The locals along the way turned out in force to check out the rolling car show. For many of these small towns, this is the most cars they’ve ever seen at once. One HRPT tradition is to toss die-cast toy cars to the kids. But sometimes the locals have gifts for the hot rodders. Who knows, tossing out a toy car might inspire some kids to build a hot rod of their own one day.
Each day HOT ROD’s John McGann and designer Murray Pfaff pick five rides for a Power Parker Award. These cars get prime parking spots near the stage and represent a variety of cool cars that caught the pair’s attention. McGann said it was hard to pick just five from the thousands of cars at the venue.
As we said, the drag racing at this hard-to-race-on track was over the top popular Tuesday. We imagine this is the oddest matchup ever at this track.
Pro Street Alley was back and full of sweet big-tire and over-the-top hot-rodding goodness.
If you want weird and offbeat, then the HOT ROD Power Tour is for you. What will you find along the cruise and at the stopping points? Who knows, but we promise you’ll be surprised.
The manufacturer’s midway was slammed with spectators and participants eager to check out new products and maybe pick up a few freebies.
Wednesday will be more of a chill day as the 2025 Chevrolet Performance HOT ROD Power Tour Driven by Hagerty travels 181 miles to the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. No drag racing here, but there will be a ton of activities for the participants and spectators to enjoy.
31st Annual HOT ROD Power Tour 2025 Schedule
- KICKOFF / Day 1: Monday, June 9—Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Brownsburg, Indiana
- Day 2: Tuesday, June 10—Route 66 Raceway, Joliet, Illinois
- Day 3: Wednesday, June 11—Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, Fort Wayne, Indiana
- Day 4: Thursday, June 12—Monroe County Fairgrounds, Monroe, Michigan
- Day 5: Friday, June 13—Summit Motorsports Park, Norwalk, Ohio
Born and raised in Southern California I started as the technical editor for Popular Hot Rodding (PHR) magazine where I learned the business before moving over to work with Nick Licata, at Camaro Performers, as his tech editor. At PHR I built a 1968 Camaro called Bad Penny that was one of the earlier pro-touring cars that actually ran the track hard. We won the first Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational in 2008 and placed well several other years. At Camaro Performers we started several project cars and did a ton of tech. Eventually I was made editor of Vette magazine for a short time before being slotted to run Super Chevy magazine. Running the brands was fun, but I've always enjoyed being a technical writer more. So after more than 15 years I'm back to writing tech content, this time for the HOT ROD network. I enjoy being with my family, shooting, and working on my latest car, a 1969 Camaro called Tri Tip.
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