Hauler Driver – ‘On the Road’ presented by Valvoline, Ep. 9

My responsibility is that entire hauler. 80,000 pounds, 220 gallons of fuel, anything and everything we would ever need to go, you know, to win a race. Anything possible. Money wagon. You boys smile, don't mess up my photo shoot today. There's a lot of pride taken in that hauler. We call it the money wagon. You know, they call Kyle young money, so we we've named this the money wagon. Life of a trucker. Lots of ups and downs. Lance is a character. I would say our number one character on the team. Call him brother. He says brother a lot. What's up, brother? Life on the road with Lance. Coming to a streaming channel near you sometime. Thank you, boy. Thank you. Thank you, brother. He's a fun loving guy. He can talk to anybody. Even if he meets a stranger, that guy's not a stranger. He can make friends with anyone. And just that energy and that friendship. It's so much fun to be a part of healthy for us to have on the team. And he's a great asset to our team. He's just cool. I mean, he's he's a country, big country guy, you know, and it's like a big teddy bear. I'll still be there. What's up with that? Six o'clock. Our hauler drivers, they're the workhorses of our race team. I think they go greatly undermentioned. I want to say unappreciated because I think everybody that does this for a living and sees what those guys do, especially in motor sports, really appreciate them and admire them for, you know, just pounding the road week after week after week. You gotta like to not be home a lot. You know, the travel part is great. I enjoy all of it. I enjoy the travel part. I don't want to say my job's hard. It really isn't. I mean, if you love it, the hard part, I guess, would be driving 11 hours. You're not moving around enough to keep you awake. So you got to find things to do. That's all I do is freaking eat going down the road. Just something to pass time. I mean, I've done it long enough now. I don't, you don't, you don't have to think about it. You just do it. All right, come on in there. Instead of a cell phone, you've got a, you know, a CB radio where I can talk to the other trucks that are near me. Be careful up here. Hey, we're starting to check up. It's a tool for us. Yeah, we'll stop up here at exit 24 at the Lovey Doves. What line do you pick? You gonna pick the one that's gonna be quick or you gonna pick the one that's gonna be slow? That's been my trailer the whole time I've been in the cup series. Keeping it clean inside and out, you know, making that thing shine. That's a big thing for me. It's a lot of pride, you know, in getting to haul that thing up and down the road and let everybody see it. I think he thinks Kyle's driving this thing. Truck drivers, man, they have, they have the toughest job, I think. Gosh, they put in so many hours just driving. Time away from home makes that super tough. So, you know, I respect that job a lot. It takes a special human being to drive your truck and trailer as often as they do. Here we go. There it is, boys. The last great Coliseum. So, we're waiting on the escort to come in here and tell us when to leave? Yeah. I think we're gonna get ready to roll. We get in a, in an order of how we go in and park, based by who's number one in points in that team organization. So, I led the way and there's some places that are pretty sketchy getting in and out of. All right, here we go. Hold on. Everybody's like, golly, how, you know, how hard is it to go in Bristol? It's not, it's not that hard. You just point that thing and it's going. It's going in there whether you want it to or not. So, once you get in, it's all tight, you know, it's, Bristol's tight. Truck drivers, yes, they drive the transporter, housing the race cars to and from the racetrack. Just that job alone is so important and past that, while we're at the race weekend, you know, they've gotten the truck, the car, all the equipment there. The truck drivers are still responsible for helping the team coordinate all the parts and pieces and equipment that we need to conduct our business. The job never stops for a truck driver from Monday to Sunday. They're wide open and busy the whole time. You get parked and you drop the back gate and you start unloading. You get the garage all set up. We don't unload the cars by ourselves. We're waiting for the boys to come in when the garage opens and then we get the car off. All right, I gotta go get some gas. I'll be back. Get her dialed in there, Laterno. What's up, what's up? Yeah, fill them all the way up. Thank you, brother. Once we get through tech, you know, then we're going to move into our 20-minute practice and qualifying. Boy, it's nice when you get through the first time. It makes your day go by better. So then, you know, I'm getting the generator ready, getting the top put on and getting the monitor set up. Brian, I'm done up here. I gotta go take a nap. What in the hell is making that noise? Oh, it's the bush car. Getting ready to go to Pitt Road. I take the generator. We do use Valvoline oil in our small generators or stuff like that. We've got to have them and that's why we run Valvoline oil in them, you know, to make sure that we've got the best of the best. Keep the stuff running. Once we get done, you know, practice and qualifying, then you come back, turn the generator back down, get everything put away for the night, get your drugs vacuumed, get your trash taken out, and you're ready to go, you know, stock your cooler back up for tomorrow morning, you know, and you're back ready to go for the next day. And we come in and, you know, it's race day. Truck and roll, Lance. How many people you can take out at the bottom? That'd make a good video. There's a lot of people that think that we just get that thing there and then we just hang out until it's time to drive. We're not just the truck driver. We're, you know, we're a part of the team. We've got jobs and duties to do. Taking notes, keeping track of what's going off the truck, what I need to restock the next week, making sure that it's got all the parts and knowing where those parts are. At any given time, you know, anybody could, you know, ask, you know, hey, I need this and I need to be able to go get it at a moment's notice and get it back to them. Every single part and piece on these race cars, what it takes to get to the racetrack, the people behind the scenes, it all matters. It all has an influence to our performance. Working with the guys, they're my brothers. We all work good together. We work together for a while. Make sure, make sure you drink a lot of water today. I know. Used to when I'd have to sing, I'd drink water with lemon in it. Because you're going to be saying clear. Here we go, clear. Here we go, clear. I do pit support, so I'm behind the wall, so I hand in the second can of fuel and then catch the left rear tire. Once it stops over, you know, then I take the gas cans that we've used and go get them filled back up. Thank you, guys. You really can't have your primary guy go run fuel. There's times that I get 50 feet away from the pit box and caution's out. He needs to be there to fill it. That's why I do it. Plus, I probably can use a little bit of workout anyway. Good fight all around. Obviously, we started last, but a great fight to get up front. Have a good shot at it. Good team effort all around. We gave them a show. Almost pulled it off. Thanks for the fight. Oh, yeah. When the rest of us are leaving in rental cars and going back to get on airplanes and, you know, we'll be home in two to four or five hours, those guys are really just getting started on their next journey and that's getting everything back home safely for us. And so, much, much admiration and respect for that whole group that's doing that on a weekly basis for us. When we rolled out of Bristol, there's Bristol. It's gone there. I don't remember. I don't think about it. It's done. I move on from stuff pretty quick. So, yeah, we biked in. I got out, hooked the shore power to it and I actually got back in the truck and laid down in bed and went to sleep and got up that next Sunday morning and unloaded the bottom. Truck drivers will have a day off and then they're coming back in and prepping their truck and getting it stocked up for the next weekend and really kind of the final thing is when the car gets rolled to them to get loaded on the trailer when the team is done with it and then that cycle starts all over again. Man, I eat, sleep, and drink racing. I don't want to do anything else. This is what I've dreamt to do. My daddy did it. Most boys kind of always want to follow in their daddy's footsteps. So, I'm doing that. I'm living out my dream and it's awesome.