{"id":99910,"date":"2025-04-03T20:18:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-03T20:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/wes-buck-talks-significance-of-street-outlaws-on-drag-racing-making-car-culture-fashionable-more\/"},"modified":"2025-04-03T20:18:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T20:18:21","slug":"wes-buck-talks-significance-of-street-outlaws-on-drag-racing-making-car-culture-fashionable-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/drag-racing\/uncategorized\/wes-buck-talks-significance-of-street-outlaws-on-drag-racing-making-car-culture-fashionable-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Wes Buck Talks Significance of Street Outlaws on Drag Racing, Making Car Culture Fashionable & More"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the latest installment of The Wes Buck Show<\/em>\u2014Drag Illustrated\u2019s<\/em> flagship program, which just aired its 379th episode\u2014host Wes Buck welcomed a diverse cast of guests, including Farmtruck & AZN from Street Outlaws<\/em>, 16-time Pomona winner Greg Anderson, NHRA Top Fuel star Clay Millican, and iconic clutch guru Pat Norcia. But amid the wide-ranging discussions, Buck paused to highlight just how pivotal Street Outlaws<\/em> has been for the sport of drag racing and, more importantly, how he hopes to bring the entire industry under one tent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really what the show<\/a> is all about,\u201d Buck said at the top of the broadcast. \u201cIt\u2019s the Drag Illustrated<\/em> mission since day one\u2014to tear down walls and bring the racing community together. I\u2019ve said this seven thousand times at this point, but we strive to be a galvanizing force in the sport of drag racing. Throughout the course of history, this has been a sport that\u2019s insanely segmented, right? We\u2019ve got prep and no-prep, big tire and small tire, nostalgia, the latest and greatest, the pros, the sportsmen, grassroots bracket, Pro Mod\u2014there are all these various iterations. And it\u2019s one of the things that makes the sport special. But what\u2019s happened over a hundred years is everybody kind of cliqued up. Our goal from day one has been to unite those different groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Buck, Street Outlaws<\/em> became the perfect lightning rod to ignite interest from all corners. \u201cI really believe you can point to Street Outlaws<\/em>, going back about 11 years, as a much-needed shot in the arm for drag racing and for car culture in general,\u201d he said. \u201cIt brought a whole new audience\u2014people who had maybe never heard of Pro Mod or wouldn\u2019t normally watch an NHRA race. All of a sudden, they\u2019re seeing these big personalities, these guys who\u2019ve got grease on their hands, maybe working out of a small garage, and they realize you don\u2019t need a million dollars to be part of this scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buck explained how the show dismantled the old narrative of elitism. \u201cThey didn\u2019t showcase giant, multi-million-dollar operations,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey showcased local heroes, folks who pulled engines in their driveways, who had to bust knuckles just to keep a car running. It made it cool\u2014fashionable, honestly\u2014to be a car guy again. Or a car gal, for that matter. And I think the new fans they attracted are fans we might never have seen otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

That infiltration of fresh faces isn\u2019t just anecdotal. Buck has witnessed the changing crowd demographics firsthand, including at his own events. \u201cWhen I have people come up and say, \u2018I\u2019ve never been to a drag race before, but I watch Farmtruck & AZN or I watch Kye Kelley\u2014so I decided to come check it out,\u2019 that\u2019s a big deal. We\u2019re talking about new energy, new eyeballs, new blood. It doesn\u2019t matter if they grew up watching NHRA on ESPN or if they\u2019d never heard of a timing system in their life. They love cars, they love personalities, and that\u2019s enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Buck makes it clear the real triumph is bridging the gap between every style and sanction of drag racing. \u201cAt what point in drag racing history would you talk to guys who routinely street race and no-prep race, and then\u2014on the same show\u2014talk to an NHRA Pro Stock icon like Greg Anderson? It\u2019s just so cool to see these groups being presented as one. I want Greg Anderson to be mentioned in the same breath as Farmtruck & AZN, but I also want Farmtruck & AZN to be mentioned in the same breath as Clay Millican. It\u2019s a \u2018high tide lifts all boats\u2019 kind of situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also forthright about Drag Illustrated\u2019s<\/em> mission to unify an often fractured sport. \u201cWe\u2019ve got pros and sportsman racers, big tire and small tire, radial and slick, import and domestic. We\u2019ve always been notoriously cliqued-up. Our goal at Drag Illustrated <\/em>from the get-go was to tear those walls down. The minute we realize we\u2019re all sharing the same passion is the minute drag racing becomes unstoppable. That\u2019s why we work so hard to put these conversations in front of everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Buck sees it, Street Outlaws<\/em> is integral to that unity\u2014its popularity suggesting a blueprint for how racing, culture, and personality can merge to create sustained interest. \u201cI\u2019m proud of how it\u2019s brought a new, younger crowd. I\u2019m proud of how it\u2019s made those do-it-yourself, grassroots racers into household names. And yeah, it\u2019s gotten some flak from the purists, but at the end of the day, it\u2019s putting butts in seats and fresh eyes on the track. That\u2019s invaluable.\u201d<\/p>\n

He closed the show by doubling down on his commitment to \u201cgalvanizing\u201d drag racing. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to embrace the entertainment side,\u201d Buck said. \u201cYes, it\u2019s serious competition\u2014people invest their life savings, their blood, sweat, and tears. But it\u2019s still an entertainment product. We need more people seeing how awesome this sport is\u2014whether it\u2019s on a leased street, a no-prep dragstrip, or a national event. I believe if we keep standing together and keep bridging these gaps, there\u2019s nothing drag racing can\u2019t accomplish. Let\u2019s tear the walls down, once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published on April 3, 2025. \"Drag<\/p>\n

The post Wes Buck Talks Significance of Street Outlaws on Drag Racing, Making Car Culture Fashionable & More<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the latest installment of The Wes Buck Show\u2014Drag Illustrated\u2019s flagship program, which just aired its 379th episode\u2014host Wes Buck welcomed a diverse cast of guests, including Farmtruck & AZN from Street Outlaws, 16-time Pomona winner Greg Anderson, NHRA Top Fuel star Clay Millican, and iconic clutch guru Pat Norcia. But amid the wide-ranging discussions, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99910\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}