You’re standing there, looking at a beat-up 1982 Chevy S10. It’s got mismatched primer on the hood and tires that look like they belong on a tractor. The guy next to you, a "Resident Expert" named Ken Herring, looks at the same truck and bets it'll run a 10.50. You think he’s crazy. It looks like a 14-second junker. Then the light turns green, the front wheels lift three feet off the ground, and your jaw hits the floor.
That was the magic of the Pass Time TV show.
If you grew up with a cable subscription and a drop of gasoline in your veins during the late 2000s, you weren't watching sitcoms. You were on the Speed Channel. Before it turned into Fox Sports 1 and lost its soul, Speed was the Wild West of automotive television. Pass Time was the undisputed king of that era. It wasn't just about fast cars; it was a high-stakes guessing game that turned drag racing into a living room sport.
Honestly, the premise was so simple it’s a wonder nobody did it sooner.
How Pass Time Actually Worked
The show wasn't complicated. Two contestants and Ken Herring—the guy who seemed to know every engine displacement ever manufactured—would watch a car roll up to the line. Host Brett "Big Schwag" Wagner would introduce the driver, and then the guessing began.
You got one question. Just one.
"Is it on nitrous?" "What's the stall speed?" "How much does it weigh?"
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Based on that single answer and a quick look under the hood, you had to lock in a time. We're talking down to the hundredth of a second. If you nailed it, Schwag would peel off a crisp $100 bill and hand it to you right there. It felt gritty. It felt real.
The Rounds That Made (or Broke) You
The game progressed through four rounds, and the money got bigger as the cars got faster.
- Round 1: Three passes, each worth $100.
- Round 2: The "Combo Round" was the curveball. Two cars ran at once, and you had to predict the total combined time. It was math under pressure. Pure chaos.
- Round 3: This featured the "Go Big" pass. You could double your money or lose it all.
- Round 4: The big finale. One pass for $500.
At the end, the person with the most cash walked away with everything, usually around $2,000. It wasn't life-changing money, but for a car nerd sitting in a studio at 2:00 AM, it was the world.
The Personalities: Big Schwag and Ken Herring
You can’t talk about the Pass Time TV show without talking about the "Big Schwag." Brett Wagner was the perfect host for this. He had this booming, gravelly voice and a vibe that suggested he’d just come from a backyard BBQ. He wasn't some polished Hollywood suit. He was a car guy through and through.
Then there was Ken Herring.
Ken was the "Resident Expert," and he earned that title. He didn't just guess; he calculated. He’d look at the tire width, the humidity, and the way the driver talked, then drop a time that was almost always within a tenth of a second. He was the "final boss" for the contestants. If you beat Ken, you earned serious bragging rights in the racing community.
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And we can’t forget Paige Duke (then Paige Simpson), the car wrangler. She’d bring the drivers out and keep the show moving, often acting as the voice of reason when the guys started arguing over gear ratios.
Why It Hit Different
Most car shows back then were about building things. You watched Monster Garage or Overhaulin’ to see a transformation. Pass Time was different because it invited you to play.
You’d be sitting on your couch shouting, "There's no way that Mustang runs a 9!" and then feeling like a genius when it clocked a 12.2. It tapped into that universal human urge to be right. It also humanized the drag racing world. These weren't professional NHRA teams with million-dollar budgets. These were guys from Tyler, Texas, or Montgomery, Alabama, who spent their weekends turning wrenches in a shed.
The show aired from 2008 to 2013, totaling about 160 episodes. When the Speed Channel died, Pass Time went with it, leaving a massive hole in automotive programming.
What People Get Wrong About the Show
A lot of people think the show was staged. It wasn't.
Sure, the producers picked interesting cars, but the times were genuine. If a car broke—what Schwag called a "Catastrophic Failure"—that was it. The money went to the person who guessed the slowest time. There were no retakes for the races. If a guy missed a shift and ran a 20-second pass in a 10-second car, the contestants just had to eat it.
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That unpredictability is why it still holds up today on reruns or YouTube clips. You’re seeing real physics and real mistakes.
The Legacy: Where Can You Watch It Now?
If you're feeling nostalgic, you’re in luck. While the Speed Channel is a ghost, the Pass Time TV show lives on through streaming.
You can often find episodes on POWERtube TV or tucked away in the corners of Discovery's catalog. It's also a staple for "fast-forward" viewing on YouTube, where fans have uploaded hours of the best passes. It’s funny—the cars look a bit dated now (lots of early 2000s tuners and Fox bodies), but the thrill of the "dial-in" hasn't aged a day.
How to Sharpen Your Own Guessing Skills
If you want to watch the old episodes and actually stand a chance against Ken, keep these tips in mind:
- Look at the tires first. If they're street tires, they aren't hooking. Add at least a second to whatever the engine sounds like it can do.
- Listen to the "one question." If a driver says they're running a "small" shot of nitrous, they're probably lying.
- Weight is king. A gutted Honda Civic with 300 horsepower will often outrun a heavy Dodge Charger with 500.
The Pass Time TV show wasn't just a "pass time." It was a masterclass in automotive intuition. It taught a generation of fans how to look past the paint job and see the mechanics of speed.
To get your fix of classic drag racing action today, check out the archives on MotorTrend+ or search for official clips on the POWERtube TV YouTube channel. Seeing the Big Schwag hand out those $100 bills is still as satisfying as it was fifteen years ago.