They say everything is big in Texas. We present LS Fest Texas 2026. LS Fest brings biggest and best builds out into the open, unleashing a weekend of tire smoke, high-rpm chaos, and pedal-down Chevy V8 action at Texas Motor Speedway. From drag racing and autocross to drifting, burnout competition, and a first-class car show, the two-day event allows heavy-footed owners to put their LS-powered machines to the ultimate test. The 'Festivities kicked off with an impromptu meet up at the Fort Worth Stock Yards. Check out our short reel-type video here.

Stories Behind the Smoke — Robinson Family Swaps

Drop an LS into a Pontiac and people will grumble, but most can be talked down. Pontiac and Chevrolet lived under the same GM roof, after all. Drop one into a Dodge, though, and now you’re really asking for it.

That’s part of the fun here.

This isn’t a story about brand purity. It’s about two longtime Army buddies, one very involved son, and three vehicles that all landed on the same conclusion: the LS works.

Val Christopher Robinson and Darryl Peck have been friends for roughly 30 years. They met in the Army at Fort McClellan, Alabama, where Robinson was a drill sergeant, and Peck was an instructor. Both worked with the U.S. Army Chemical Corps, but the friendship started in the most car-guy way possible.

“We met looking at a Car Craft magazine back in 1997,” Peck says. “And we’ve just been building cars ever since.”

Robinson’s 1973 Firebird Esprit was pulled from a salvage yard in 1995 and has been rebuilt into something far removed from its rescue-mission beginnings. It runs an LSX 376ci crate engine with a Boost District LSA supercharger, a Magnum F six-speed from Tick Performance, triple-disc clutch, torque-arm rear suspension, Watts link, and Weld wheels. Robinson says it makes roughly 650 horsepower at the rear tires.

His reason for the whole thing is simple.

“Why not?”

Peck’s 1972 Firebird Esprit came into his life in 2007, partly because Robinson talked him into buying it. It runs a six-liter LS, T56, Texas Speed heads, custom torque arm, Ford 9-inch with 3.90 gears, and plenty of details Peck built himself at home. The hood mods, fender work, door handles, spoiler, and other small body changes were all garage-built.

That’s where this story gets better than the spec sheets. These cars aren’t just swapped. They’re personal.

Then there’s the Dakota.

Val Nikolas Robinson’s 2004 regular-cab Dodge Dakota started as a V6 five-speed after he let go of his first truck, a ’99 Dakota R/T. That truck was fun, he says, “but it wasn’t fast enough.” So he and his dad yanked the original drivetrain, first installed an LS1, then moved to an LQ9 six-liter after the LS1 developed oiling issues.

The current setup uses ported 5.3 heads, a Texas Speed Magic Stick Stage 3 cam, Holley Hi-Ram intake, 92mm throttle body, six-speed, stock Mopar 9.25 rearend, 4.10 gears, and Viper wheels with 315s at all four corners. It makes 460 horsepower and 420 lb-ft at the tires.

“She does real good,” Robinson says. “She’s stout enough to keep up with Hellcats and C8s with very little effort.”

His LS loyalty came from watching his dad’s 2001 Firebird WS6 while the family lived in Germany during his father’s military career. His dad autocrossed the car overseas and did the engine work himself. Watching it run with Ferraris, Porsches, and Lamborghinis left a mark. “After seeing that, I’m like, ‘Yep, this is the engine for me,’” Robinson says.

That line ties the whole thing together. Two Pontiacs, one Dodge, two Army buddies, and a father-son thread running straight through the middle. You can argue about where an LS belongs.

For this group, the answer is easy: wherever it makes the car faster, more fun, and harder to underestimate.

Friday Night Gambler Drag Race

Under the lights on a warm Texas Friday night, the Gambler race brought out the baddest street and strip machines for a no-prep, no-time, winner-take-all showdown. With $250 buy-ins, chip-draw pairings, and single eliminations, there were no excuses and no second chances once racers rolled onto pit road. The surface was slick, the pressure was high, and every pass came down to driver instinct and raw horsepower. From hard-launching muscle cars to boosted street machines fighting for traction, the action stayed intense all night long. When the smoke cleared, Tommy Head (pictured below) wheeled his 1999 C5 Corvette through the chaos and claimed the cash in one of the most hard-fought Gambler races of the weekend.

Stories Behind the Smoke — Meet The Vanimal

A 1995 GMC Safari is not supposed to make people stop what they’re doing in the staging lanes.

That’s the point.

Jason Pollard’s van still has the basic "people mover" shape of something you’d expect to see idling outside a grocery store, possibly with soccer gear in the back and a sticky cupholder somewhere up front. But underneath that wonderfully harmless minivan skin is a 408-inch LS, an LSA supercharger, a 4L80 transmission, a Dana 60, ladder bars, coilovers, a roll cage, A/C, a back seat, and plenty of nitrous.

It runs around 10.40s in the quarter-mile.

Pollard didn’t go looking for a minivan. He was in Houston to pick up an LSA supercharger for another car when he did what every car person with poor impulse control does: he checked Facebook Marketplace. The Safari was only about 15 miles away. The van had no engine or transmission, but the hard work had already started. It was tubbed, caged, and set up as a roller. Pollard later learned it was built for the TV show Pinks.

“We got to buy it,” he remembers thinking. “It may not be fast, but at least it’ll be cool.” That blower he went to buy for another car? It ended up on the van. Pollard jokes that the Safari saved his Camaro from going under the knife.

What followed was not exactly a simple street-car build, because nothing about a supercharged, drag-and-drive Safari is simple for long. The 408 LS runs about 10 pounds of boost, depending on “what mood it’s in,” and Pollard manages it with a Holley Terminator X Max. He had tuned factory GM computers before, but says the Holley setup makes diagnosing problems much quicker, especially with boost involved.

“I wouldn’t do it any other way,” he says. “You can actually diagnose a problem in 30 seconds that might take you all day trying to find on the factory [ECM].”

The van has already lived the kind of life that explains why it now has extra bars tying the front subframe back toward the trailer hitch. On Sick Week, Pollard says it broke a Heim joint, put one tire on the ground and the other several feet in the air, and bent the van enough that the doors would not open. They stretched it back out with a winch and added structure to keep the gaps where they belong.

Drag-and-drive cars are funny that way. A build can be absurd and practical at the same time. The Safari has been driven roughly 2,000 miles on drag-and-drive events. It has A/C. It has a back seat. It can pull a trailer. Pollard says with the crew, gear, and trailer, the whole circus was around 5,000 pounds in the van plus another 2,000 pounds behind it.

Nicole Pollard did not immediately see the vision.

“He has so many freaking cool cars,” she says. “He has a Chevelle, a Camaro, and I love those. This is a grandma van. He brought this home, and I was so mad at him.”

Then Jason fired it up in public.

“Everybody’s like, ‘Wait a minute, what is that?’” she says. “Then we took it to LS Fest up in Bowling Green. Everybody loved it.”

Now? “The “Vanimal” is my favorite hot rod.”

That might be the best part of the whole van. Nobody expects much from it, and nobody walks away hating it. It is a childhood backseat daydream made real—the family van that secretly became a supercharged, nitrous-ready drag-and-drive monster. Jason could have cut up the Camaro. Instead, he found a Safari. Good call.

LS Fest Texas Drag Racing

All classes run heads-up over the 1/8 mile, right on the Texas Motor Speedway pit road—no timing clocks, just a win light at the stripe. Racers launch off an instant green and since it is a no-prep showdown, no traction compound, no gimmicks — traction is at a premium.

The Drag & Drive classes include a legit open-road cruise on public roads around Texas Motor Speedway—no trailers, no tire swaps. When you roll back in, you head straight into eliminations. No cool-down, no excuses.

Cody Hoffman won the Truck Class but missed the post-race festivities… the rest of the winners are shown below.

Holley Shine Shop

Introduced at the first LS Fest in Las Vegas, the Holley Shine Shop offers event goers a chance to clean and shine their ride at the event. The Shine Shop is way to get our new line of car care products in the hands of enthusiasts… we get some feedback; they get a clean car. The initial offering consists of six products; each can be bought individually or as a four-pack.

Wash & Wax is a two-stage shampoo that combines a thorough clean and protective finish in one step, giving drivers a fast, efficient way to maintain shine before a drive, event, or weekend

Speed Wash is a fast, waterless car wash solution that is great when your paint is too dirty for a spray detailer, but you don’t have access to water like at a car show or race, on a road trip, or anytime you need a quality high-lubricity wash without a hose.

Speed Finish is a ceramic-infused quick detail spray designed to enhance gloss, repel contaminants and extend protection between washes, helping enthusiasts maintain a glistening gloss and hydrophobic performance between full, shampoo and bucket washes.

Tire Shine is a versatile exterior dressing designed to restore a deep, rich finish to tires and exterior trim while protecting surfaces from fading and environmental exposure. Our high-performance solvent-based formula restores a deep, rich finish while drying quickly to help reduce sling and protect against fading.

Wheel Clean is a powerful formula designed to break down brake dust and road grime with ease. Its acid-free formula clings to the surface, dissolving brake dust, grease, and contaminants to restore a clean, like-new finish.

Interior Protect is a two-stage cleaner and protectant designed to clean and refresh interior surfaces do produce a natural look, without greasy residue, heavy shine, or using multiple products. Our advanced formula works great on dashboards, consoles, and trim.

Shop Holley High-Performance Car Care here.

LS Fest Texas Drift Challenge

The smoke was particularly thick for the Drift Challenge Top 16. The course was short featuring a quick left-right transition just off the starting line and a super long sweeping left-hander with the finish line just off the exit of the turn.

The final battle came down to Taylor Hull and his “Do It For Dale Monte Carlo Corvette” and Caleb Quanbeck and his Kenda Tires/Walther Arms E46 BMW.

Taylor led in the first run and initiated way hard into the first section and carried more angle all the way to the sweeper. Caleb lacked the angle early and washed out wide a bit in the sweeper, allowing Taylor to pull away. Advantage Taylor.

Caleb initiated harder on his lead run but not as dramatically as Taylor did on his lead run. Caleb’s antics were effective as Taylor bobbled a bit on initiation and lacked angle in the first section and, although closer in proximity, was out-drifted in the sweeper. Advantage Caleb.

A One More Time was declared. Taylor led first and again out-initiated Caleb and used his horsepower advantage to maintain angle and pull away. Seeing this, Caleb hurried to close but overcooked the corner, sliding off course, and spinning out in the grass. Smoke could have played a part in Caleb losing his way on the course. The winner was decided. On Caleb’s lead Taylor stayed close and was door-handle-to-door-handle on the sweeper.

First Place - Taylor Hull

Second Place - Caleb Quanbeck

Third Place - Jake Wise Wallace

LS Fest Texas Burnout Wars

While smoke can be a problem for drifters, it’s the driving force in a burnout contest. In the Burnout Wars burnout pit contestants took it to the next level entice flames from the dedicated tire shredding machines.

The competition was broken down into two categories : Pro and Bro with Pro welcoming dedicated professionally built vehicles and Bro aimed at more streel level rides. Seth Cavanaugh melted his ice cream inventory and his rig’s tires in Frosty, taking the win in high style.

Pro Class

First Place - Seth (@frostyburnouticecreamtruck)

Second Place - Brett (NSK Kustoms)

Third Place - Colin Thomas (rat rod Helen)

Bro Class

First Place - Gushi (@gushiburr)

Second Place - @brickler38

Third Place - @727motorsports

Stories Behind the Smoke — Cowboy Steve Goes to Texas

Jerome Portz didn’t exactly ease into LS Fest Texas.

He brought a chopped 1936 Chevy from Richmond, Virginia, to Texas Motor Speedway—a long haul for any freshly built hot rod, let alone one that had barely moved under its own power before the trip. According to Portz, the truck had only been driven a couple of times before the event, and this was “the first time we actually moved on its own and driven more than about 30 feet.”

That’s confidence. Or commitment. Probably both.

The truck, named Cowboy Steve, is a budget-built mashup in the best possible way: a ’36 Chevy body on an S10 frame, powered by a 6.0-liter LS with a Turbo 350, 3,800-stall converter, dual-plane intake with Holley Terminator X, and a side-exit exhaust that is really more of a warning system than a muffled exhaust note.

The recipe was not overthought.

“Everything we found laying around the shop from other builds got thrown into this,” Portz says. “Took about two months maybe to put together.”

Portz owns BP Automotive Repair, and the truck wears that shop-built attitude honestly. The chopped top was already done when he bought it—he guesses it’s been cut around six inches—and the body is still steel. The frame and suspension are largely S10 pieces for now, because the goal was simple: get it together and get it to Texas.

“It’ll get upgraded eventually,” he says, “but to make it here on time, that’s kind of what we had to do.”

“We’ve been wanting to come out here for a hot minute,” Portz says. “And because of the colors and everything else, the truck’s name is Cowboy Steve, so what better place to bring it than Texas?”

Fair enough.

3S Challenge Brings A New Twist To LS Fest

The 3S Challenge has always been one of the simplest concepts at LS Fest, which is exactly what makes it so difficult. Speed. Stop. Steering. A simple premise that helps find the best drivers and cars on the property.

Instead of the traditional side-by-side format with two cars launching on parallel courses, the team used the full Autocross Track 1 surface to create a single-car course.

Drivers launch from a standstill, charge down a short straight, then roll into a long, sweeping corner that carries the car around toward the stop box. By the time they were hard on the brakes, the car was pointed back toward the staging lane, roughly 90 degrees from the original launch direction.

It’s not a hard 180; instead, the long sweeping corner unsettles the car. This is where drivers can figure out a plan of attack. Treat it like one big corner, or cut it up into two apexes. Or just throttle down and hope for the best.

As always, the rules were unforgiving. Hit a cone, miss the box, or fail to stop cleanly inside the marked area, and the run was done.

The 3S Challenge remains an important piece of LS Fest competition and Grand Champion scoring, rewarding the cars and drivers that can do more than one thing well. Drag racing gets the horsepower headlines, and autocross gets the finesse, but 3S sits right in the middle.

It’s quick, violent, technical, and easy to understand from the fence.

Results

• Grand Champion Vintage Sean Aldinger Camaro
• Grand Champion Truck Jason Wilcox C10
• Grand Champion Late Model Duke Langley Corvette