On July 3, 2006, Russ Wicks drove a NASCAR-spec Ford Taurus to break the World Speed Record for stock cars. He averaged 222 MPH through the measured mile. The runs across the Bonneville Salt Flats broke Bobby Isaac's 216 MPH record set in 1971. Wicks also drove the Autodesk Stock Car in a non-spec NASCAR configuration and made a 237 MPH one-way pass through the measured mile.
The "flying mile" World Speed Record for Stock Cars had not been broken in nearly 35 years. Bobby Isaac previously set the benchmark of 216 miles per hour in September 1971 in a NASCAR Grand National-spec vehicle on the Bonneville Salt Flats near Wendover, Utah.
This made Russ Wicks the only living driver to have set official speed records of over 200 mph on land and water, as he also holds the mile record for propeller-driven boats of 205.494 mph, set June 15, 2000, in the Miss Freei unlimited hydroplane on Seattle’s Lake Washington.
