Overview The Mint 400 is a desert off-road race south of Las Vegas, and its 1971 running is the one Hunter S. Thompson wrote into Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It takes a week: a vehicle parade down the Las Vegas Strip, a festival on Fremont Street and two days of racing out of Primm, Nevada, with trucks, cars and buggies in more than 50 classes. Norm Johnson, promotions director at Del Webb's Mint Hotel and Casino, created it in 1968. The race went dark from 1989 to 2007 and bills itself as the oldest off-road race in America. Mad Media runs it. On site The 2027 week runs like this. A desert clean-up at Jean opens it the weekend before. Midweek brings tech inspection, the parade of race vehicles down the Strip in the afternoon and a kick-off party. Thursday is driver and pit-crew registration at the Golden Nugget, the host hotel, and an all-day festival on Fremont Street East. Friday and Saturday the start and finish line at Primm runs from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., with qualifying, youth divisions and the Unlimited Trucks going off through the day and a grid walk and opening ceremonies on Saturday morning. Around the line sit a midway, a jump in front of the VIP and main spectator area, an obstacle course and the VIP hospitality suite. Sunday closes with an awards banquet in the VIP tent. Audience The race says about 500 teams come from 25 states and 15 countries, and their drivers and pit crews register downtown the day before racing starts. The parade and the Fremont Street day put race vehicles in front of crowds on the Strip and downtown, and the livestream reaches another 800,000 viewers, by the race's count. Talent and Influencers Steve McQueen and James Garner raced the Mint 400 in its first era. In the modern race Adam Householder and Trevor Ellingham won the Unlimited Truck class in 2024 and again in 2025. Track record General Tire and the Southern Nevada Off-Road Enthusiasts revived the race on March 29, 2008. In 2012 it partnered with the Best in the Desert Racing Association, grew to 323 teams and added a 100-mile loop inside the original 400-mile course. From 2020 the Martelli brothers built an Unlimited Off-Road Racing series around it. Brand presence BFGoodrich held the title in 2026, when the race ran as the BFGoodrich Mint 400 and the VIP suite carried its name too. Nearly every part of the week is sold separately: the parade, with a branded lead vehicle; the Desert Clean-Up, run under Republic Services' name; the Pit Crew Challenge on its own stage; the Fremont Street festival, whose title partner parks display vehicles at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont; the start and finish midway, the grid walk and the jump. The obstacle course gives its partner five obstacles for people to test-drive its vehicles, and a category partner becomes the official one of the Mint 400 with exclusive activation on Fremont Street and at the line. Every level gets a call-out in the livestream, and associate partners and up are also in the race's television show.