West Bound and Down

Two legs of the annual West Coast Swing for JR Motorsports are in the books, and the seven hand-picked long-haul drivers from JRM partner TMC Transportation have headed back to their respective home bases, secure in the knowledge that they provided a vital service for the North Carolina-based racing team. Early in March, JRM’s primary truck drivers departed for ISM Raceway in Phoenix, Ariz., back in the saddle after a bruising round-trip run from Charlotte, NC, to Las Vegas and back. It’s an all-hands evolution, and thanks to partner TMC Transportation, it’s a little easier to accomplish. On the trip to Las Vegas, JRM’s primary drivers - Jeff Miles (No. 1), Mark Armstrong (No. 7), Mark Daniells (No. 8) and Chris Burton (No. 9) - and their co-drivers - John Pounds (No. 1), Steven Kenahan (No. 7), Troy Cole (No. 8) and Daryl Matthews (No. 9) - handled the 36-hour run out. After the race, the primary drivers flew home with the team while the co-drivers handled the return with a quartet of TMC drivers filling in for the first leg. Professional truck drivers are, in a word, professional. Driving is what they do, and the actual process of it is no different than the jobs they do every day for TMC. It’s still really cool, however, to drive one of JRM’s transporters cross-country. The first four drivers who handled the return trip were impressed with the whole thing. That’s saying something, considering the fact that among them, they have 81 combined years behind the wheel. The drivers—Matthew Bohl (Vermilion, Ohio), Jesse Beasley (Mt. Vernon, Ill.), Mike Harris (St. Charles, Iowa) and Tony Beres (Des Moines, Iowa)—were chosen out of a hat after being nominated by various department heads at TMC. “A group of department heads throw in names of drivers that they’ve interacted with, guys that have proven themselves and represented the TMC brand for many years,” Beres revealed. “It’s kind of like winning the lottery as names get pulled out of a hat. We get a good, diverse group, drivers from different divisions. The whole fleet is represented.” Beres, a 23-year veteran with TMC, has lived this life before, wheeling NASCAR rigs for several teams throughout the years and handling transportation duties with drivers and their motorhomes as well. He knows how the process works, having driven driver Michael Annett’s motorhome out to the West Coast for the swing. Bohl, also a 23-year veteran with TMC, usually drives a dedicated route hauling steel coils, and has experience with oversize loads and cross-country routes as well. He was in the No. 8 transporter with veteran Troy Cole. “This is a different experience,” he said. “Fast-paced, really nice. A lot of drivers would be envious, because it is a different lifestyle behind the scenes. Seeing what they do now, they’re so busy. They don’t just drive the truck, so it’s pretty nice.” A NASCAR fan, Bohl tries to make a couple of NASCAR races a year. Even with that knowledge, his JRM experience was a keeper. “There’s so much,” he said. “The whole experience was awesome. You get to see the other side.” Bohl also has a personal interest in helping the team Annett drives for, because he’s been with TMC since Annett was a lad. “Everybody wants to do it (the JRM run),” he said. “You can only get so many (drivers in) per year, but it’s a privilege to do it. It’s a very good deal for us. I watched Michael grow up, and to see this, it’s really nice.” Beasley, who has spent 13 of his 21 years as a driver with TMC, came through the line-haul, boat and specialized cargo divisions with TMC and now spends much of his road time hauling agricultural equipment and oversized loads. The fact that he co-drove the No. 7 hauler (with its BRANDT Professional Agriculture livery) was a nice touch. “I like that I got picked to drive that one because he (driver Justin Allgaier) is an outstanding driver, really sociable,” Beasley said. The hurry-up nature of the NASCAR run is just fine with Beasley, who said that was something that surprised him. “It’s a fast time pace, but I like to get from point A to point B as fast as I can. This is a once-in-a-lifetime deal. I always saw these going down the road when I was younger and never thought I would get picked to drive one.” What stood out most to him, other than the above, was the similarity between TMC and JR Motorsports in the way the companies are run. “It’s a family,” he said of TMC, “and it is kind of like that here at JRM. It’s a family and they’re super-nice people.” Beres echoed that thought. “JRM has a very good reputation in the NASCAR world, very professional,” he said. “Just like JRM is known for their professionalism, quality and commitment, on the TMC side we feel just the same way about what we do in the trucking industry. It kind of goes hand in hand and it’s the best of both worlds. It’s the best of NASCAR and what I consider the best in the trucking industry in TMC.” The partnership between the two is in its third season, and TMC drivers have aided the cross-country migrations every time. Harris, a 10-year veteran with TMC, did cross-country routes before coming into the office at TMC, and his return to the road was a good one. “I loved it,” he said. “It was the first time I’d been back out on the road in about four and a half years, so I got right back in it and it made me realize how much I missed it. I loved the ride. It was just like I remembered it. I covered all 48 (contiguous) states for TMC, so this wasn’t my first cross-country run.” Harris noted the similarities between his over-the-road trips and the one he took with JRM. “It was the same hustle every day getting stuff done,” he said. “I love the race track, been following NASCAR for 20-some years.” Driving the No. 9 hauler coming back, Harris was impressed with the attention shown by fellow travelers, too. “We got the waves and the occasional pictures they were trying to get when we were running past them,” he said with a laugh. Beres put a capper on the first of two trips he’ll do this year for JRM (and he’s been part of every TMC run with the team since TMC came on board in 2017). “I can speak on behalf of my guys, the awesome drivers that we have at TMC, they see these trucks going up and down the road,” Beres said. “Even when we stop (at Pilot Flying J) to fuel, these guys are like, ‘man, this is my dream job,’ and the key word there is job. “Sometimes when you see something, your vision of it is one way, but the reality is quite a bit different. As much as these guys have enjoyed this, and will treasure this opportunity, if you asked them right now, they’d say it’s quite a bit different from what they thought it would be going in. There’s a lot of stress, and so many things we can control and many more that we can’t. Something can put you behind schedule seven or eight hours, on this tight of a schedule. Until you sit in that seat, you don’t feel that pressure. It’s such an honor for these guys. They can wear that badge of honor that they drove a NASCAR hauler for JR Motorsports.” The next three drivers that assisted in closing out the final leg from ISM Raceway are veterans of coast-to-coast work with the TMC, so there was little they didn’t know about the actual job. Where the awe-factor really stepped to the fore was in the details. Derek Boykin, a 22-year TMC veteran, lives near ISM Raceway, in Buckeye, Ariz., and had never been to the 1-mile desert oval as a fan. “I had never been inside the track at Phoenix...I’ve been fishing right behind it, but never inside, so that was exciting,” Boykin said with a grin. Hauling building materials and steel—“pretty much everything that can go on a flatbed”—the trip itself was nothing new to him, but the actual duties at the track were. “What really shocked me is the amount of work that goes into everything,” Boykin said of his time behind the wheel of the No. 9 JRM transporter. “Everybody plays a part, and it’s a pivotal part no matter how small it is. It’s pivotal from the bottom man on up. Everything that gets done is very important. It’s the same with me; everything gets done with expertise, and I kind of like that. It’s a sharp outfit.” One other aspect of what the JRM drivers do drew a comment as well. “Night driving, all-night driving,” he said with a laugh. “It’s amazing what these guys do. They’re very good, showed me a lot of things I didn’t know.” That’s saying a lot, teaching a long-time veteran of over-the-road trucking something he doesn’t know. Rocky Rawls, from Collins, Miss., is another TMC driver who got his first taste of NASCAR Xfinity Series racing at Phoenix with JRM’s No. 8 transporter team. “I’ve seen this on TV, but I’ve never been to a race,” said Rawls, who has been with TMC for 18 years. “My first race, to have this experience, I don’t know if it will ever be the same. This was unreal.” One of the things that stood out to Rawls was the amount of attention paid to both the transporters on the road...and pretty much everywhere else. “Being image-conscious,” Rawls said. “Mr. Annett (Harrold), he demands professionalism everywhere you go, but here...it’s unreal. Everybody looks at you, wearing this logo, and everybody judges every move you make, so you have to watch everything you do.” That said, the actual experience of driving the bigger, closed-trailer haulers was a bit daunting. “It was a lot different,” he said. “I’ve pulled a van before so it was a lot like that. The trailer is a lot bigger, so you have to watch yourself a lot more.” The pace of the trip—the drivers switch out during fuel stops after each stint—was an eye-opener, too. “The dynamics are different. You utilize every second you have otherwise you pay for it on the other end.” The pace of the cross-country run is simple: the quicker the trucks get back to Mooresville, the quicker they can unload and take on the cars for the following week’s race at Auto Club Speedway, which completes the swing. Gene Richardson, the final TMC driver chosen by the company to participate in the annual trek, is a longtime fan of NASCAR, having backed both Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his father, Dale Sr., before him. The opportunity to do the run was a bit overwhelming, he said. “It was very exciting,” he began. “I was a big Dale Sr. fan, and then when Junior came on the scene...it’s kind of hard to pick between the two. Now, to be stepping in and actually driving one of the trucks...it was very humbling. It’s incredible the way it is set up.” Richardson, who has been with TMC for six of his 25 years behind the wheel, is a cross-country driver as well in the specialized division (agricultural and oversized/overweight), used to make the California run from his home in Ringgold, Ga. “I’ve run with a lot of NASCAR trucks before,” he said with a smile. Asked what the most surprising part of his trip was, Richardson didn’t hesitate. “Getting the phone call from Tony (Beres) asking if I was interested in doing this,” he said. “I had to sit down, literally. It was wild.” “What it all comes down to is, when they are selected to do this, it’s an honor, and it’s an honor they’ve earned,” Beres said. “That makes it special to them, and the JR Motorsports truck drivers are just so good to work with. It’s a big thing for TMC to be part of this as well, because the two companies are very compatible in the way they operate and the excellence that both companies are known to have.” <