Hot Rod Power Tour 2023

As I write this, I’m in a hotel in Paducah, Kentucky. It’s early in the morning, the Saturday after Hot Rod Power Tour 2023. I’m looking back on a week full of adventures with new friends, and I’m proud to have checked off a line on my bucket list. I’m also a little tired.

We covered over a thousand miles in our Project Chevelle, a ’72 Chevelle that we hopped up with some bolt-on suspension goodies, a Tremec 5-speed, and a 500-horse 6.0 LS. This was a shakedown run for the new engine, since it only had a couple hundred miles on it, some of them a quarter-mile at a time. We weren’t sure we would even make it, but sitting here looking back, we’re very proud that it did.

Monday’s kickoff was at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Speedway Motors set up shop in the vendor area in the infield after Project Chevelle spent the night in one of the garages used during the NASCAR races. Pretty cool line on its resume, and we have pictures to prove it. We were expecting Motor Trend star David Newbern and Dan from DD Speed Shop to roll in with their Tri-Fives after a three-day thrash that got friend Brandon’s ’57 on the road. You can see more of that silliness on Newbern’s YouTube.

They rolled in a little late after spending some time at the courthouse making the car legal for the trip, but once they did, the Speedway Motors booth was surrounded by fans eager for an autograph or photo. The anticipation of an epic week was in the air, and it added to the atmosphere that made for a terrific day.

This morning’s drive took us from Atlanta to Columbia, South Carolina. We were in a hurry to get to the show, so we stayed off the backroads of the official tour route and hit the freeway, which was also jammed with Power Tour cars. We found this to be the case on every day of the tour. No matter what road you take between Power Tour destinations, there will be a ton of hot rods, trucks, and muscle cars headed in the same direction.

Chevelle ran great, it was a beautiful morning, all was well. Columbia is a beautiful city, and when we arrived the South Carolina State Fairgrounds were bursting at the seams with cars.

Instead of just hitting the freeway to Rockingham Speedway, we joined the group doing the official Power Tour route and were rewarded with a more scenic and slow-paced drive. We also got a taste of what Power Tour really looks like. There will be locals from all of the small towns along the way sitting in lawn chairs watching the spectacle, and every gas station and fast-food joint will not have any available parking spots. It’s madness, in the best way imaginable.

We spent more time on the official route on Thursday to really immerse ourselves in the Power Tour experience. This meant another morning of scenic two-lane roads, small towns clogged with cars, and gas stations turned into pop-up car shows. This also meant that I arrived at zMAX Dragway to find that Zach, my copilot for the week, had already done all the work to set up the Speedway Motors booth without me. The Chevelle had once again run without so much as a hiccup, and shortly after I arrived our pals Dan and Newbern showed up for another meet an greet.

This was by far the best day of driving. A map of the tour route would look exactly like a giant snake, coiling and curving its way through the Blue Ridge mountains. Our caravan included Newbern, Dan, and a very throttle happy Lucky Costa. So as much as we would have loved a leisurely stroll to enjoy the scenery, this was a bit more of a road rally that put the suspension on Project Chevelle to the test. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy the heck out of this hammer-down run through the twisties.

After a long morning of grabbing gears and hanging on, we arrived at Bristol Motor Speedway. We took a minute to absorb the bittersweet reality that we had accomplished our goal of making it into the Long Haul Gang, but Power Tour was over. What a week!