Edelbrock Sick 66 Celebrates Route 66 Centennial With 200 Street Cars

Route 66 turns 100 years old in 2026, and it’s hard to imagine a more appropriate birthday party than filling the Mother Road with 200 legitimately fast street cars.

Edelbrock Sick 66 returns September 26 through October 3 with one of the most ambitious drag-and-drive formats on the calendar. Competitors will face six days of drag racing mixed with more than 1,400 miles of street driving as they travel along historic Route 66 through Missouri and Illinois.

Edelbrock Sick 66 will use three drag strips during the week: Mo-Kan Dragway, Bonne Terre Drag Strip, and Midstate Dragway. Each facility will appear twice on the schedule. The adventure begins near Joplin, Missouri, and works east toward Joliet, Illinois, before turning around and making the trip west again. Competitors will submit elapsed times at the racing stops, with the lowest average over the week determining the winners.

Daily routes are designed to follow historic Route 66 as closely as possible, giving competitors a chance to travel original sections of the Mother Road while visiting landmarks and roadside attractions tied to the highway’s 100-year history. Racing is expected to begin around 9 a.m. each day, with competitors typically heading onto the highway shortly after lunch. Some individual drive days will stretch beyond 300 miles.

The racing field won’t be the only attraction. The famous Hoonigan Camaro and What No Way Guy’s Family Truckster are also expected to be part of the week. That gives spectators something different to see throughout an event already loaded with unusual machinery. Unlike a traditional drag race where the focus stays primarily inside the facility, Sick 66 creates opportunities to see the cars at tracks, roadside stops, gas stations, and landmarks along the route.

Veteran drag-and-drive competitor Kevin Lowery will return with wife Cassie and their supercharged 1957 Chevrolet 210. They completed the first Edelbrock Sick 66, and the combination of racing and Route 66 history was enough to bring them back.

“We are going because we love the history behind it and the sights to see,” Lowery said. “We completed the first Edelbrock Sick 66 and it was so much fun. The route stops and tracks were amazing, along with the people. Being the 100-year anniversary of Route 66, that is special all in itself.”

Lowery and his wife have already been reminded this season that powerful street cars rarely cooperate just because the schedule says they should.

“The biggest challenge will be to not have to take the supercharger off of the car for major repairs!” he laughed. “This year we have blown piston rings apart and even had to swap cams and lifters at the track. It has been tough for my wife Cassie and I, but we always try to have fun with the folks around us, even if we are thrashing.”

You don’t have to enter the competition to experience the week. The Sick Ward gives enthusiasts a non-competitive way to join the trip. Participants can cruise the routes, visit the stops, interact with racers, and watch the action without putting their own vehicle on the drag strip.

For Sick The Magazine founder Tom Bailey, that’s an important part of what makes the Route 66 event different.

“Edelbrock Sick 66 is going to be an adventure like no other for Route 66’s 100th anniversary,” Bailey said. “Combine that with America’s 250th anniversary celebrations, and what better way to make memories than driving Route 66 with a group of awesome racers?

“This isn’t an event to watch from the couch. It’s an event to participate in. Grab a Sick Ward cruising ticket and bring any car along for the journey. It’s going to be epic.”

Putting 200 street-driven race cars on the Mother Road during its centennial gives racers a chance to take part in something that reaches beyond elapsed times and finishing positions. Yes, someone will leave with the quickest average. But everyone who finishes will have raced six days, driven more than 1,400 miles, and traveled one of America’s most recognizable highways in a car capable of making serious power at the drag strip.