Tesla fan and automotive enthusiast Jay Leno went from talking about the 1/4-mile record performance of the Model S Plaid to driving it on a dragstrip, a new interview from CNBC reveals. Leno had the opportunity to drive the world’s fastest production vehicle for a spin with the help of Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen.
Interestingly, rumors of the 1/4-mile dragstrip time were circulating through the Tesla community like wildfire. After the near face-melting performance made its rounds through various outlets, Leno appeared on an episode of Spike’s Car Radio podcast and talked about the record, which he effectively confirmed. The initial consensus was that a Model S Plaid ran a world-record 9.247-second quarter-mile drag with a top speed of 152.09 MPH. The record was previously held by the Bugatti Chiron Sport set in 2018. The Bugatti completed the 1/4-mile in 9.4 seconds with a speed of 158 MPH.
Leno confirmed the record and said:
“I’ll tell you what I did. I went up to Famoso Dragway in Bakersfield. And the Tesla Plaid…I drove by, and the NHRA guy was there to make it official. It turned a 9.247, at 152 MPH.”
It appears that Leno, who has had special privileges thanks to an evident friendship with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, then had the opportunity to experience the speed and acceleration of the Model S Plaid on the dragstrip all for himself. An episode of Jay Leno’s Garage on MSNBC shows that Leno got behind the wheel and took the newly-unveiled Model S Plaid to the strip.
In an interview on The News with Shepard Smith, Leno talked about the 1/4-mile run. “It was a winner,” the former late-night television host said. “I mean, it is now the fastest production car you can buy. Faster than any Ferrari, faster than any $3.5 million Bugatti.”
The Model S Plaid is one of Tesla’s most impressive machines. With a 1.99-second 0-60 MPH time and a tremendous 390 miles of range, the Model S Plaid is one of the most well-rounded vehicles available to buyers if they’re willing to chalk up $129,900 for the vehicle. Tesla also kept its safety-first mentality with the newly-redesigned Model S, which was the company’s flagship sedan when it first rolled off production lines in 2012. Musk, in a presentation to an exclusive group of invitees, highlighted the Model S Plaid’s already-revolutionary safety, but the company plans to improve even further. “We think we can get the lowest probability of [injury] any car ever tested,” Musk said.
Unfortunately, the new season of Jay Leno’s Garage won’t premier until this Fall, so Tesla enthusiasts won’t get to see what time Leno actually ran during his 1/4-mile attempt in the Model S Plaid. Fortunately, though, Tesla has already solidified itself as a solid contender to hold the record for some time, especially with its continuing tradition of high-end performance combined with luxury automotive designs.
Check out Leno’s full interview with Shepard Smith below.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets its latest short from Michael Burry: ‘Happy it jumped back to this level’
Tesla short seller Michael Burry, the subject of the film “The Big Short,” where he was portrayed by Steve Carell, has revealed he has opened a new bet against the stock.
In a new update to his Substack newsletter in a post titled “Trading Post June 30, 2026,” Burry revealed a new set of bets against Tesla, Caterpillar, NVIDIA, Applied Materials Inc., and the iShares Semiconductor ETF.
In regard to Tesla, Burry wrote:
“And finally I shorted Tesla at 416.22. Happy it jumped back to this level.”
This means Burry likely opened his new short position after the company’s recent rally on Wall Street, which saw Tesla shares sink in mid-May, only to recover to well over the $400 mark. Currently, shares trade at around $427.
The company saw a big Tuesday as shares climbed considerably, over 10 percent. The size of the Tesla short was not provided, nor did Burry give any information on the position’s structure, the number of shares, dollar value, or whether options were used in the short.
The Tesla and SpaceX merger everyone is talking about is quietly building
Over the years, Burry has been one of the more vocal critics of Tesla, calling its share price “media inflated,” and saying it was “ridiculously overvalued” as recently as December.
The company has largely transitioned away from being known as an automotive company and instead is much more widely regarded as an AI play, mostly due to its Full Self-Driving efforts, Optimus robot development, and data collection related to both.
This has not pulled those skeptics away from being vocal about their distaste for how Tesla is valued, but there’s no denying that the company is a global force in many things, including sustainable energy, automotive, and AI.
Investor's Corner
SpaceX gets initial stock coverage from Tesla’s biggest bull
Wedbush Securities is initiating stock coverage on SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX), marking the first comments on the company since it went public several weeks ago. Wedbush and its analyst handling coverage, Dan Ives, are widely bullish on fellow Musk company Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).
Ives wrote his first note initiating coverage of SpaceX shares on Wednesday with a $190 price target and an ‘Outperform’ rating. The firm believes the company is well positioned off of its IPO because of its wide array of projects, including AI compute power and infrastructure, connectivity projects, and launches.
“We view SpaceX as one of the most differentiated assets within the tech market with a strong footprint across its three core markets, with Starlink driving success with connectivity,” Ives wrote, “Starship launches leading to a demand flywheel and increasing deal flow for its Colossus clusters.”
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Wedbush leans heavily on Starlink, which they say is the “profitability driver given the strength of its recurring revenue base of ~12 million subscribers as of June 5th.” Ives believes Starlink is still in the “early innings” of penetrating the global telecommunications and broadband market, as it only holds less than a 1 percent share. However, this number is sure to increase over time.
It also highlights the importance of Starship, which it says is an “essential layer” of SpaceX’s overall success. SpaceX developing and displaying the ability to reuse rockets is a major cost and reliability advantage “as it reduces the necessary hardware launch costs while generating a feedback loop for future flights to improve their launch flight rate without accelerating capex spend.”
Finally, SpaceX’s recent AI/Compute projects are also very elementary, Ives writes. It is worth mentioning Wedbush said its $190 price target is derived from a valuation forecast that sees the company yielding roughly $2.48 trillion of implied enterprise value.
There are also some factors that Wedbush did not take into account with its initial coverage. The firm wrote in the note:
“We note that there is optional value coming from Starship’s accelerating scale towards sub-$200/kg unit economics, orbital data centers, and enterprise AI monetization as these factors could drive meaningful upside but these face major hurdles, so we do not take that into account with our valuation.”
SpaceX shares are down just over 2 percent today, trading at around $167 at the time of publication.
News
Tesla expands massive safety feature worldwide in latest update
Tesla has expanded the footprint of a massive safety feature worldwide with a recent Software Update labeled as 2026.20.6. The expansion of the “Blind Spot Warning While Parked” feature represents the more widespread availability of the feature, which aims to prevent “dooring.”
Dooring is when a driver or passenger opens a car door into the path of an oncoming road user, usually a cyclist or motorcyclist. It is among the most common types of cycling accidents, the League of American Bicyclists says.
For this reason, Tesla created a feature that warns occupants not to open the door because an object is approaching. The feature will sound a chime, and it will also delay the opening of the door to prevent an incident.
The release notes state (via Not a Tesla App):
“If you attempt to open a door while an approaching object is detected in your blind spot (for example, a bicyclist approaching from behind) a chime sounds, and your door will not open upon initial button press. Wait a short time and press the button a second time to override the warning.”
Tesla initially rolled out this feature back in 2024 with the Model 3 “Highland.” However, it remained with the Model 3 exclusively for over a year; that was until Tesla added it to the Cybertruck this past Spring.
Now, it is making its way to the new Model Y, 2021 and newer Model S, and 2021 or newer Model X.
The prevention of dooring incidents could eliminate many injuries to cyclists, especially in an urban setting. Dooring accounts for 10-20 percent of bike-related crashes in major cities, and over 17,000 dooring-related incidents were treated in the U.S. over the course of a decade. These usually involve fractures, contusions, and head trauma.