Weekend Rewind! Goodguys 28th Speedway Motors Southwest Nationals
Every great cruise eventually reaches its conclusion, and that’s just what happened this past weekend in Arizona at the 28th Speedway Motors Southwest Nationals. The long and winding road through the 2025 Goodguys event season has circled back to where it started and brought this year’s hot rod journey to an end at WestWorld of Scottsdale. And in true Goodguys fashion, we ended the year the best way we know how, with several days of car-crazy fun, good times, and a few thousand great friends gathered in the desert.
The Southwest Nationals is a long-running pre-Thanksgiving hot rod tradition and a spectacular season sendoff that always brings cool cars and even cooler people together. After our traditional Hot Rod Cruise on Thursday, we rolled right into a full Friday at WestWorld. While the forecast wasn’t as sunny as we’d hoped, the first day was dry and we basked in plenty of shine from some of the brightest stars of our show, the terrific Top 12 winners presented by BASF. These amazing machines were lined up just outside the main vendor tent with their customized Snap-on toolboxes on display in front of them. The Top 12 winners represent the best our hobby has to offer and showcase some of the best craftsmanship and creativity in our industry. What a cool way to welcome spectators to the event!
While the Top 12 was already determined before the Southwest Nationals, there were dozens more awards slated to be selected during the weekend. Chief among those were the Builder’s Choice Top 10 trophies given out by our friend Dean Livermore of Hot Rods by Dean. He’s got a great sense of style and a true appreciation for build quality and detail that was apparent in all his selections.
More than 75 other awards were chosen by the Goodguys crew throughout the Southwest Nationals, including several finalists for regional Top 12 awards for 2026. This included Travis Milton’s ’56 F100 as the LMC Truck of the Year Early finalist, Mikey Dascon’s ’69 International Scout as the Dakota Digital Truck of the Year Late finalist, and Ben Gonnerman’s ’70 Olds 442 as the Snap-on Muscle Car of the Year finalist. The Goodguys media team tapped Jerry Pignolo’s ’56 Mercury as the Goodguys Feature Pick.
The Southwest Nationals also marked the conclusion of the 2025 Goodguys AutoCross season. Racers came from across the country to conquer cones and duke it out in the season-finale Duel in the Desert shootout on Saturday, which provided competitors in five classes with one last chance to gain season points and qualify for the King of the Desert shootouts. Top performers in the Duels included Robby Unser in the Speedtech Performance PRO-X class, Bob Bertelsen in the Summit Racing PRO class, Andrew Chenoweth in the Forgeline Street Machine class, George Reiss in the No Limit Engineering Truck class, Tim Molzen in the Sports Car class, and Tanner Bruch in the Challenger class. Unfortunately, rain showers on Saturday afternoon prevented the running of the King of the Desert shootouts and brought the AutoCross season to a premature end. Wet track conditions also prevented All American Sunday competition.
While the forecast tried to dampen enthusiasm for the Southwest Nationals season sendoff, actual precipitation was limited to a few hours Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Most enthusiasts ignored the clouds and chose to enjoy this autumn outing to the fullest. They were rewarded with a host of great happenings, including the best swap meet on the Goodguys calendar, several ground-shaking Summit Racing Nitro Thunderfest exhibitions, scores of vendors both inside and out, a new Goodgals Gallery, great food, plenty of fun family activities, and even a visit from Santa that helped mark the shift from car show season to the holiday season.
And just like that, another event season draws to a close. All of us at Goodguys extend a heartfelt thank you to all of you who joined us along the way during 2025. Your energy, enthusiasm, and hot rod spirit allow us to bring Cool Cars and Good Times to all areas of the country, and we couldn’t deliver the signature brand of Goodguys fun without you. We’re grateful for all of you who came out to celebrate the season sendoff in Scottsdale, and we can’t wait to see all of you again in just a few short months when we kick off our 2026 event season!
Photos by Damon Lee and Terry Lysak
