Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge has been a popular event in Detroit each year since 2015 (with the exception of a year off in 2020 due to COVID), drawing spectators and racers from all over the United States and Canada. While the event has routinely drawn some crowds from the West Coast, it is a pretty long haul for racers and those who want to show their car, leading to the ongoing call for a Roadkill Nights event somewhere out west. With the Last Call event held at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Monday, March 20, those folks who live west of the Mississippi got their wish – and the event was every bit as exciting as Roadkill Nights in Detroit.

Dodge Last Call Powered by Roadkill Nights Vegas had many popular attractions – drag racing, the Cruise-In area, Dodge Thrill Rides, the Demon driving simulators, an array of the latest Dodge brand vehicles and, of course, the debut of the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT^® Demon 170. There were also food and beverage stands, free Dodge spray-on tattoo areas, a tractor trailer full of Dodge, Roadkill and Last Call apparel and some manufacturer’s displays such as Mickey Thompson tires and Radford Racing School – the official performance driving education program of the Dodge brand. Finally, there was a special VIP area with free food, free beverages and some free goodies to take home for members of the media, select Dodge enthusiasts/owners and the attendees of the national dealership convention that overlapped with Roadkill Nights Vegas. The evening was capped off by a performance by the musical artist Diplo.

It was yet another incredible event held by the Dodge brand, enjoyed by more than 10,000 spectators in person at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, including celebrities Bill Goldberg, Jay Leno, Kenny Wayne Shepard, David Freiburger and Mike Finnegan. For those who couldn’t make it to Vegas, here is a look at what all went on at the Dodge Last Call event on Monday, March 20.

Drag Racing

The biggest attraction at every Dodge Roadkill Nights event is the drag racing, and while the debut of the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 was a global news story, many spectators came out for the racing program. Other than the geographic location, the biggest difference between Roadkill Nights Detroit and Roadkill Nights Vegas was the drag racing format. In Detroit, they literally race on a section of Woodward Avenue. The legal street racing is cool, but the track is narrow, a bit rough and slippery, making for some unique challenges for the racers. At the Las Vegas event, the racing program took place at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, so the drivers were competing on a smooth prepped track.

There is no denying that the street racing program in Detroit is cool, but most drivers struggle to run anywhere near their best numbers on the slick, rough surface of the public street. On the other hand, what the drag strip in Las Vegas lacked in cool points, it quickly regained in some incredibly fast racing. The quickest cars were running the 8^th mile in the low-5-second range, which would lead to a quarter-mile time in the high-7-second range. In other words, the racers in Vegas were getting down the track hard, with a bunch of vehicles that ran in the 5s falling short of the two class shootouts. There were also plenty of awesome wheels-up starts, which we don’t get to enjoy on Woodward Ave.

While the biggest advantage of the drag strip in Las Vegas over a Detroit street was the sticky starting line, the fact that the rest of the surface was smooth and clean allowed all of the drivers to really hammer hard all of the way down the track without too much concern about skating into the wall of the narrow street track.

Don’t get me wrong – we still love Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge in Detroit with the rare chance to legally street race – but seeing the cars really run hard on the track in Vegas made for a great show. In total, 65 drivers battled for the top four spots in the two classes, with Chris Yanez taking the win in Small Tire, while Christopher Thompson won the Big Tire class.

The Cruise-In Area

Every Roadkill event has had a Cruise-In area – like a car show, but no judging or trophies – and the Las Vegas Last Call event had more than 400 vehicles lined up for spectators to check out. The Cruise-In field was overwhelmingly Dodge-heavy, but there was a nice mix of Ram and Chrysler vehicles, along with a small group of non-Mopar_® vehicles.

While the most popular attraction at every Roadkill Nights event is the racing program, the sprawling Cruise-In area gives spectators a chance to get out away from the track and enjoy some monster muscle cars and trucks at rest. As you can imagine, the car culture from Vegas and the surrounding area brought out a great mix of different styles of show cars, from slammed lowriders with vertical doors and insane sound systems to SRT Hellcat-powered monsters built to tear up the street racing scene.

Dodge Thrill Rides and Demon Simulators

Many automotive events have drag racing and a car show, but only events Powered by Dodge have the Demon driving simulator and the Dodge Thrill Rides. Both of these unique attractions have proven to be very popular at the Detroit Roadkill events and the Vegas crowd was no different, with more than 1,300 people participating in either the Demon simulator, the Thrill Rides or both.

The Dodge Thrill Ride gives spectators a chance to go for a ride in either an SRT Hellcat Challenger or SRT Hellcat Charger driven by a professional high-performance driver. The driver roasts the tires of the supercharged Dodge around the tight course, allowing spectators a chance to experience the raw power of the SRT Hellcat cars when controlled by an expert. Having spoken to many people who have participated in the Dodge Thrill Ride program in the past few years, it is something that literally everyone enjoys experiencing.

As for the Demon driving simulator, it allows spectators of all ages the chance to virtually race the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon down the quarter-mile while sitting in an actual 2018 Demon. There are two cars positioned side-by-side in front of large video screens. Those screens essentially show a drag racing video game that is controlled by the actual controls inside of the 2018 SRT Demons sitting in front of the screen. Participants use the steering wheel and gas pedal to race down the virtual drag strip, complete with the car moving when you hit the throttle. Each car has a simple lift system under the front end, so when the SRT Demon launches on the screen, the car in which the participants are sitting rise up and do a wheelie, just like the cars on the track.

The best part about the Dodge Thrill Rides and the Demon driving simulator is that they are both free, and everyone who signed up at the Roadkill Nights Vegas event to do either activity got a free shirt as well.

Dodge VIP Area

Select members of the crowd at the Dodge Last Call Roadkill Nights Vegas event were granted VIP status, which got them into a special area near the starting line of the drag strip. This area had free beverages, free snacks, a free barbecue dinner, covered seating with televisions to watch the live streamed racing action, free hand-rolled cigars, a DJ and a giant beer pong game using 55-gallon drums and large, red playground balls. Once the SRT Demon 170 was introduced, those 55-gallon drums were labeled with the logo of the new, 1,025-horsepower muscle car.

The Grand Debut

Finally, at 6 p.m. Vegas time, Tim Kuniskis took to the stage opposite the crowded grandstands to discuss the history of Dodge performance and to introduce the 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170. Many people expected that the new muscle car would roll from behind the track’s small timing tower, but instead, Kuniskis made the event even more outrageous by having the SRT Demon 170 lowered from the sky by a helicopter.

The helicopter rose into view of the crowd off in the distance, outside of the drag racing portion of the huge motorsports complex. Once the helicopter got high enough, the crowd could see that there was something hanging far below it and as it flew closer, we could see that it was a Dodge Challenger swaying in the extremely high winds. The pilot flew to the starting line area and then along the track, expertly lowering the car down into the left-hand lane of the drag strip near the finish line, pointed perfectly back toward the starting line. That is where SRT Engineer and resident quarter-mile driving expert Jim Wilder climbed aboard.

Wilder drove the car up the track in front of the crowd, looped around to drive through some dramatic lighting and then pulled into the burnout box. After a quick burnout, he pulled the new Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 up to the starting line and when the green lights dropped, the front tires of the 1,025-horsepower muscle car went up. Wilder carried the front wheels for a few seconds, brought them down for a shift and then brought them right back up for another short wheelie while a line of pyrotechnic canons went off in the background – providing a backdrop of fire to the world’s quickest production car.

Jim Wilder circled around and drove back up the track, turning to head back into the burnout box. This time, he did not make a quarter-mile, wheels-up pass but instead, he did a monster burnout that extended well down the track. After that, he again returned to the starting line where he got out to pose for some photos with the car before the media descended on the new Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 for a closer look.

• 

• 

Finally, the crowd was permitted to flow down around the SRT Demon 170 for the performance by Diplo on the large stage next to the track.

For everyone in attendance, it was an incredible experience that few are likely to forget. The Roadkill Nights automotive festival is always a great time for participants and spectators alike, but this Vegas edition of Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge gave more than 10,000 people a chance to be there for the making of history with the debut of the first American muscle car with more than a thousand horsepower – and Dodge delivered it by dropping it from the sky.