Zac Quinn 
MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge is officially moving the epic annual event to a different location. But don’t worry; it’ll still occur near America’s automotive city. The street-legal drag racing on famed Woodward Avenue will be moved to the center of downtown Pontiac, Michigan. But, there are plans also to grow the overall footprint of the one-day horsepower festival. The popular enthusiast event is scheduled to take place on Saturday, August 12, 2023.
Roadkill Nights: New Location, New Format
Last year, Roadkill Nights set a one-day attendance record of more than 40,000 attendees in 2022, showing that passion is still alive and well for American muscle, especially in the place where it all started. Thanks to the facilitation provided by the M1 Concourse, all of those people were easily accommodated. But because of road construction happening around the original strip of road where the drag racing took place, Dodge and the Roadkill team are moving the starting line right into the heart of Pontiac, at Woodward Avenue and W. Pike Street.
That’s right around the corner from Fillmore 13 Brewery, The Crofoot, and all of the other main attractions of the city.
This will be the eighth year of this epic event, but it will be the second stop for the event in 2023. It’s hard to forget about the Dodge Last Call Powered by Roadkill Nights Las Vegas event, which took place at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 20, 2023, where the legendary Dodge Challenger Demon 170 was delivered via helicopter for its debut. This brought the horsepower festival out west for the first time.
In addition to street-legal drag racing, the second Roadkill Nights event of 2023 will feature a classic and modern muscle car show, Dodge Thrill Rides, Dodge displays, and Dodge performance vehicles. Additionally, a vendor midway and much more will bring tens of thousands out to the streets of downtown Pontiac, Michigan. In the coming weeks, we expect to see even more details on the 2023 MotorTrend Presents Roadkill Nights Powered by Dodge event. We’re sure there will be even more exciting reasons to attend the event, though what MotorTrend has up its sleeves for this year remains to be seen. Still, with an expanded footprint, we imagine it’ll be epic, even without a legendary car flying in on a helicopter.
As covered previously, Roadkill Nights 2023 will feature a few major plot twists. The first is the introduction of a Mentor/Protege team format, where influencer participants of previous RKN events are paired up with rookie influencers in a Grudge Match. In addition, the race car builds will all feature Hurricrate 3.0L TT inline-six engines, a subtle nod to what’s likely Dodge’s future product plans.
