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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Diesel Power Challenge 2015!
00:19 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:23 Well, it is a beautiful day here at Adams County Fairgrounds.
00:26 We left the wet and soggy Vandermeer Raceway
00:29 about 30 miles ago.
00:30 And we're here for the sled pulling portion of the 2015
00:33 Diesel Power Challenge presented by XDP.
00:36 The crew has been working very hard
00:38 to get the pulling course set up here at the Adams County
00:40 Fairgrounds.
00:41 The reason is you can see behind me how wet it is.
00:43 It's been very, very wet here.
00:44 This is a sandy soil, so it does drain.
00:47 They had a road grader out here.
00:48 They cut into the soil level.
00:50 They got a nice track out there.
00:51 And there is a very moist, packed down track.
00:53 So in reality, there should be some pretty good traction
00:55 for these trucks.
00:56 Every competitor gets one chance, only one shot,
00:59 to pull the weighted sled as far as they possibly can.
01:02 All right, so it will be LeVon Miller, the first truck up.
01:05 You see the green lights flashing on the sled.
01:06 That red flag being held by the starter
01:08 will soon be replaced with a green one.
01:10 The course is wet.
01:12 And here comes LeVon Miller.
01:14 And he is way hard in the throttle here,
01:15 pedaling the truck early in the run here.
01:17 Now he is up on the rev limiter.
01:19 And he is making big steam here, trying
01:21 to control the wheel speed.
01:23 Look at the head of steam he's got coming across the line.
01:25 And man, a pull of just past 300 feet for LeVon Miller.
01:29 A good run there.
01:30 Truck's a little bit warm.
01:32 You can see the little coolant coming out of the front of it.
01:34 Talk to me about the run.
01:35 It sounded like you were really having to modulate
01:36 the throttle in there.
01:37 Yeah, the track's super loose.
01:38 So I was just trying to keep from beating it up.
01:40 Kept hitting like 4,500 RPM.
01:42 I tried to keep it around 4,000.
01:44 And there at the end, I just pinned it.
01:46 Yeah, you had a good head of steam on you there.
01:48 And then obviously, the pan situation came into play.
01:50 And down you went.
01:51 Yep.
01:51 It hits really hard.
01:52 And when the track's this soft, it stops you pretty quick.
01:55 Well, cool.
01:55 Congratulations.
01:56 A very good way to open up the pulling session.
01:57 Great.
01:58 Thanks.
01:59 All right.
02:00 So the next truck up is going to be Jared Rice.
02:02 Rice is now hooked to the sled down there.
02:04 And if there's one thing that hurt him in the drag strip
02:05 that may help him here is that the weight of this truck--
02:08 8,900 pounds, according to Jared.
02:10 And they wrenched on this thing after exploding a turbo
02:12 in the drag strip for the sole purpose
02:14 of being able to get out here and pull it.
02:16 Runs in the work stock class.
02:17 So there's a stock appearing engine there
02:19 with a whole bunch of work done to it.
02:21 Here comes Jared Rice.
02:22 Oh, man.
02:24 Look at that thing work, the big dually for it.
02:26 He has got a huge head of steam as he comes through the 3/4.
02:28 Look at him.
02:29 Jared Rice is going to pull way past where LeVon Miller stopped.
02:33 Wow.
02:33 A very nice controlled run there for the big dually for it,
02:39 Jared Rice.
02:40 Well, Jared Rice, that was a very impressive looking
02:42 run out there.
02:42 The truck totally under control.
02:44 Miller was on and off the throttle.
02:46 But man, this thing was just dug in and rolling.
02:48 Yeah, we've got a lot of-- this is 179th pass on this truck.
02:50 So first on the new motor and everything,
02:52 and first time I've ever sprayed nitrous to it.
02:54 So it reacted how I wanted it to.
02:56 Very cool.
02:56 We'll get the number here in a minute.
02:58 But you were in real estate that Jevon Miller only
02:59 wished he could have been in.
03:00 So you're in a good spot down here.
03:02 That's what I was hoping for.
03:03 We've had a bad week, and hopefully this
03:05 will make us feel better going back home.
03:07 And it's Iowan Bill Witters will be the third truck
03:09 to hook to the sled, the third truck at our second dually.
03:12 We will see how Bill does.
03:13 He is not an experienced puller.
03:14 This, in fact, may be the first time
03:16 he has ever done anything with a sled hooked behind this truck.
03:18 Hopefully ready to go.
03:22 Light that baby off.
03:23 And he is underway.
03:31 Gently feeding the power into it.
03:33 And Witter's just going to muscle the thing down there.
03:52 Well, did you have fun this week?
03:54 Yeah.
03:54 Good group of guys, and certainly an e-group of trucks.
03:56 It was great to have the big GMC out here
03:58 competing with everybody.
03:59 Thanks for being out here.
04:00 Yeah, thank you.
04:01 Thanks, Bill.
04:01 All right, man.
04:03 The course is open for Jaron Holder
04:05 from Kentucky in the lightest truck in the field, 6,800
04:08 pounds.
04:09 And for as much as that heavyweight worked
04:10 for Jaron Rice, this lightweight is
04:12 going to be working against Jaron Holder.
04:14 Watch what happens at the end of the course
04:16 if he gets that far when the pan hits on the sled,
04:19 because it is going to stop this thing dead in its tracks.
04:21 Jaron starts to feed the power to it.
04:23 Oh, the truck bouncing very violently,
04:24 trying to keep ahead of steam up.
04:26 And Jaron, that light truck, going
04:27 to start to dig in right about now.
04:29 And I don't know if he's going to make do.
04:31 He's going to dig in right there.
04:32 So Jaron Holder, not a bad effort,
04:34 but does not put himself in the real estate with everybody
04:37 else.
04:39 Well, Jaron Holder, the truck built mostly for drag racing,
04:42 right?
04:42 Not really built as a pulling machine.
04:44 No, not at all.
04:44 Not at all.
04:47 Didn't have the weight, and I didn't
04:49 get enough boost at the beginning either.
04:52 Is that what you're trying to manage the power?
04:54 I really should have let out.
04:55 Just a stupid move on me.
04:57 Well, I'll tell you what.
04:58 It's been really fun watching this truck all week.
05:00 Put up a heck of an effort, and hopefully we'll
05:02 see you down the road.
05:03 Thank you.
05:04 Thanks, man.
05:05 So it's Buck Stoneburner coming out now.
05:07 It's kind of a surprise to see Stoneburner here.
05:09 He had a driveline failure at the drag strip.
05:11 They thrashed on it, and a mere couple hours later,
05:13 he has the truck hooked to the sled
05:15 here at Adams County Fairgrounds.
05:16 So a busy afternoon for Buck Stoneburner.
05:19 Now we get to see this Cummins Power Dodge rip its way down
05:22 the pulling course.
05:25 He's all in too well.
05:27 And something in the starting line causing some folks
05:30 to throw their hands up.
05:31 And Buck is going to climb out of the truck and look
05:38 underneath.
05:39 Not sure what exactly he is looking under there for.
05:41 Now, they were working.
05:42 I believe they were working on the transmission
05:44 at the drag strip.
05:46 It was an output shaft failure at the drag strip
05:49 that stopped the truck cold on the starting line.
05:51 And in the scheme of things, as you can imagine,
05:53 the fact that they got it fixed in a couple hours,
05:55 let you know that an input shaft failure would have ended
05:57 his week and almost certainly-- or his week almost certainly,
06:00 but the output shaft failure, a much easier fix.
06:02 But now he is under the truck, maybe finishing the job.
06:06 I'm not sure what he's doing under there.
06:08 And Buck is back in the drag strip.
06:11 And he's got a good look at the front of the truck.
06:13 And Buck is back in the cab of the truck.
06:17 We are ready to go.
06:18 Green flag's flying-- or red flag's flying,
06:23 I should say, on both ends of the course right now.
06:25 As the starter going to step back, he raises the green.
06:29 Finish line flag is green.
06:30 And it is go time.
06:31 Very conservative launch here for Buck.
06:40 And then he goes right to the deck with it.
06:44 Truck sounds very good.
06:46 It's chewing up some real estate out here.
06:48 Buck Stoneburn fighting the front end of the truck
06:50 as it works its way down, just shy of the nose
06:54 there, the 300 foot mark.
06:55 Well, Buck Stoneburn, it's been a pretty busy afternoon, man.
07:01 Talk to me about what happened at the drag strip
07:03 and what you had to do to get this thing
07:04 ready to pull this afternoon.
07:06 It twisted the output shaft off.
07:10 A long, out of billet one I put in.
07:13 Here we are.
07:13 Cool, man.
07:14 And talk about the pull a little bit.
07:15 You came off real conservative, and then he
07:17 went right to the deck with it.
07:19 It started to spool, and then I gave it to it.
07:21 But then it was over RPM, and so I backed out a little bit
07:24 and then got back in it.
07:26 I looked down, and it was down 4,600 RPMs.
07:28 And this is still VP44.
07:30 Yeah, it was screaming pretty good there.
07:32 But hey, good effort, and great week this week, man.
07:34 Good to see this truck out here.
07:36 Thanks a lot.
07:36 Thank you.
07:37 Thank you.
07:38 So here comes Rick Foxx, as we saw Levon Miller make
07:40 a very stout pull in a truck.
07:43 He was very fast at the drag strip.
07:44 Foxx has a high horsepower, 6.7 in high torque, obviously.
07:48 6.7 liter Cummins in the front of the Ram.
07:51 It performed very well in the dyno,
07:58 with Foxx actually coming out on top of the dyno portion.
08:01 Fared very well at the drag strip, qualifying number one,
08:03 running in the 10s.
08:05 So we know that power is not a problem for Rick Foxx.
08:08 But there's a lot of elements to truck pulling.
08:10 We'll see if he's able to apply them.
08:12 And wow, very aggressive, very early with Foxx,
08:14 trying to get the wheel speed up and just chew his way.
08:16 And look at Foxx.
08:17 You get that bounce going on there, though.
08:19 Oh, he's got to lift out of it.
08:20 Punches the throttle again.
08:21 Oh, violent bouncing.
08:22 And that-- oh, man, that ended with a flurry out there.
08:25 The truck really getting aggressive when the pan hit.
08:27 You saw it just clawing for the earth.
08:29 And Foxx works his way to a nice pull out here on the course.
08:35 Well, Rick Foxx, that looked like a pretty rough ride
08:37 at the end of things there.
08:38 That was pretty crazy, yeah.
08:41 Strategy-wise, seems like you came out
08:42 and you got into it pretty early.
08:43 As soon as the thing got some boost behind you,
08:45 you looked like you just stepped on it.
08:46 Yeah, we've got kind of more of a drag radial tire on it.
08:49 So I knew it was just going to spin and go like hell.
08:52 Well, cool.
08:53 It almost looked like the drive shaft broke.
08:54 But it didn't, obviously.
08:55 But, man, when that pan hit, it just stopped things.
08:57 I think the rear axle broke.
08:59 Oh, really?
09:00 There you go.
09:01 Well, limp her back over the pits.
09:02 It broke at the right time, anyway.
09:03 You finished the week.
09:04 You were the big horsepower guy.
09:05 The dyno put up big numbers at the drag strip.
09:07 All in all, a very impressive performance from the Ram.
09:09 Thank you.
09:11 So here comes Jesse Warren.
09:14 Warren in the truck that made the final round of the drag
09:17 strip before the rains came.
09:18 He was going to try to challenge Levon Miller for the big title
09:21 at Bandemere.
09:22 But the rain stopped all of that.
09:23 This truck is a very, very dedicated drag race setup,
09:27 much like Rick Foxx's was.
09:28 So we will see how that applies here on the pulling course.
09:33 Foxx's choice of tire was what he thought
09:36 might have been a detriment.
09:37 This tire, a little bit more aggressive on Warren's truck.
09:40 We'll see if that helps him out.
09:41 Another one of our six-liter competitors,
09:44 or the second of our six-liter competitors,
09:46 has been representing the engine family very well this week.
09:51 And Warren goes right to the deck.
09:53 Let's see if he gets on.
09:54 There's the-- oh, no.
09:54 He's on and off the throttle.
09:57 Man, that thing just banging away there.
09:59 He's on and off the nitrous.
10:02 And Jesse Warren just hammers the thing to the finish line.
10:05 Wow.
10:05 Oh, Jesse Warren, that was flat-out hateful looking, man.
10:11 That was mean stuff.
10:12 We'll get the number here in a minute.
10:14 But you're pretty far down the course here.
10:16 Just strategically, was that just put it on the wood
10:18 and hang on?
10:19 Pretty much.
10:20 I got to do the middle bounce there.
10:22 I do a lot of sled pulling back home,
10:23 so I tried to throttle just a little bit.
10:25 As soon as you pull through that midsection, you're usually OK.
10:27 I was going to say, he seemed to have caught it nice.
10:28 Because some guys get into that undulation,
10:30 and you can't get out.
10:30 But you settled the thing down.
10:31 You can't really just step back on it.
10:33 Yeah, it's really important not to lift the throttle all
10:35 the way.
10:35 You got to keep some load on the truck.
10:36 Let the bounce level out, and then lay into it.
10:39 Well, I can tell you from personal experience,
10:40 this thing sounded like pure hell
10:41 when it got down to the finish line.
10:43 So good work.
10:43 Thanks.
10:44 If you want to be somebody here, you
10:46 got to get up over 300 feet.
10:47 But somewhere in the mid-290s, it
10:48 puts you very close to the top of the pack.
10:50 Only two trucks have crested the 300-foot barrier so far today.
10:53 And Atkins going to try to make himself the third.
10:56 That thing is digging.
11:00 Now, he is steering the thing down the course.
11:02 He has a line he's trying to follow.
11:03 Seems to be working pretty good.
11:05 Oh, man, it is bouncing.
11:06 Truck starts-- oh, it starts to dig.
11:08 And it came to a stop in a hurry at the end there.
11:10 Right about 300 feet for the edge of the sled.
11:12 We'll have to check the measurement.
11:13 Well, Jerry Atkins, you finished up the pull there.
11:15 A pretty stout run in some rear real estate out here.
11:19 But man, it looked violent at the end.
11:20 Oh, it's rough.
11:21 This track is-- it hooked hard.
11:24 And I didn't expect it.
11:25 And I did my best.
11:27 And hopefully, we didn't break nothing.
11:29 Did you have to pedal it?
11:29 The truck did it again to a bounce.
11:31 I was trying every way in the world to pedal it.
11:33 And I just couldn't keep it--
11:34 couldn't keep it soft.
11:36 Well, you said you felt like something
11:37 might have broken the back end.
11:38 You're going to pull around the corner and take a look.
11:39 Yep.
11:40 All right, man.
11:40 Well, thanks for this week.
11:41 It's been great watching this big Cummins truck work.
11:43 Thank you.
11:45 And so at the close of the very intense sled pulling
11:47 competition, it was Jared Rice and the big 6.4 liter Ford
11:51 Dually getting the win at 319 feet of total distance.
11:55 He bested everybody by almost a full 20 feet.
11:57 So a great job for the truck that set up to do exactly what
12:00 it did today, dominate in the dirt.
12:02 [MUSIC PLAYING]
12:05 Well, as is tradition at the Diesel Power Challenge,
12:18 Thursday always begins at the fuel stop.
12:20 This is where the competitors will get their tanks topped off.
12:23 And the measurements will be made
12:24 to find out how much fuel they've been
12:25 consuming during the week.
12:27 This year, it's a little bit different than years past
12:29 in the fact that the competitors' tanks have
12:30 been sealed by the magazine.
12:32 And the fills are being made throughout the week as opposed
12:34 to just one day.
12:35 It gives a much more accurate measurement
12:37 of the fuel economy of the trucks
12:38 through all the different competitions we've had
12:40 and the street driving they've done.
12:41 It's a big day because these fuel economy
12:43 measurements play a big part in determining the winner
12:45 of the Diesel Power Challenge.
12:47 Well, KJ Jones, as much as the Diesel Power Challenge
12:49 is about showcasing the power that these trucks make,
12:51 it also is kind of interesting to showcase the economy
12:53 as well.
12:54 And that's kind of what we're getting established
12:55 here at the fuel stop.
12:56 We're here at the fuel stop to top off fuel, in a sense.
12:59 We're trying to see how much these diesels consume
13:03 as far as fuel when they're under load.
13:05 They've been dragging 10,000 pound trailers.
13:07 They've been running up and down a drag strip
13:09 going through the obstacle course.
13:10 We're trying to get some type of measurement
13:12 of how much consumption there is when you have that much
13:15 horsepower, you have big boosts, et cetera,
13:17 trying to get that type of-- just trying to gauge that.
13:20 Not only work horses, but also trotting horses as well here
13:23 at the fuel stop.
13:24 [MUSIC PLAYING]
13:52 Unlike years past, the fuel efficiency portion
13:54 of the Diesel Power Challenge was not measured on one drive,
13:57 but rather over the course of the week.
13:59 It ended up being three Cummins trucks that
14:00 prevailed in this challenge.
14:03 Buck Stonemurner came in number three.
14:04 Jerry Atkins was number two.
14:06 And Levon Miller once again claimed the top spot
14:09 in yet another competition at the 2015 Diesel Power
14:12 Challenge.
14:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]
14:17 You guys ready to find out who got the hardware?
14:20 Third place was somebody who came in second in the trailer
14:24 tow obstacle course, second in the drag race,
14:30 third in the sled pull, and overall was
14:33 pretty consistent throughout the event.
14:35 Out of a possible 100 points with 65.65, Jesse Warren.
14:43 [APPLAUSE]
14:47 [LAUGHTER]
14:50 In second place--
14:55 I won't tell you what he came in first in because you guys all
14:57 know who got second place.
14:58 I'll go backwards.
15:00 Came in third place in the drag race,
15:04 came in second place in the eighth mile trailer tow,
15:07 came in first place in the dyno, Rick Fox.
15:10 [APPLAUSE]
15:13 [CHEERING]
15:17 I don't know if you guys can guess who the first place
15:27 winner of this year is.
15:29 This has never happened in the history of Diesel Power
15:32 Challenge where somebody dominated so much.
15:36 This person had two second place finishes
15:42 and four first place finishes, earning 96.97 out of 100
15:49 points, Levon Miller.
15:51 [APPLAUSE]
15:55 Well, Levon Miller, one more time.
16:02 We're standing up here together.
16:04 The most dominating performance in the history,
16:06 the 10 year history of this event.
16:08 I don't have words for it, do you?
16:11 Very grateful.
16:13 We worked our butts off and we put together
16:16 a truck that works at elevation and it paid off.
16:19 You seem to be a guy who approaches
16:20 this almost with a system.
16:22 I mean, I think you seem to have a very detailed approach
16:25 to this event.
16:25 Is that just me thinking that or is that the truth?
16:28 No, definitely.
16:29 Definitely try to have a strategy for every event.
16:31 That's what's key.
16:32 You've got to think it out and try
16:33 to figure out what the other guys are going to do
16:36 and how are you going to beat them
16:37 and try to find a balance between it all.
16:39 And that's try to run a marathon to where you're
16:42 steady all the way through.
16:43 How much time do you spend pulling your hair out trying
16:45 to build an all around truck?
16:46 Because obviously this thing tests pretty much every aspect.
16:48 So when you think you've got one thing cornered,
16:50 you're kind of stealing from something else.
16:52 So how do you balance that?
16:53 Spend a lot of money.
16:56 It really is.
16:57 It costs a fortune.
16:59 But that's part of it.
17:01 I mean, you're not going to have something great
17:02 without spending some money on it.
17:04 But it's more than just you can spend all the money in the world
17:06 and not have an awesome rig.
17:08 It's well thought out buying good parts that are proven
17:10 and reaching out to people in the industry that
17:14 are experienced in different areas and drive train
17:16 and axles, et cetera, et cetera.
17:18 And then you eliminate some of the trial and error
17:21 that cost you a bunch of money.
17:23 So we've been fortunate to really--
17:25 we've invested about $20,000 in the truck
17:29 we have this year from what we did last year
17:31 with the new engine build, et cetera, et cetera.
17:34 Well, I know it was a pleasure on my behalf
17:35 to watch the thing work this week.
17:37 Congratulations.
17:37 You get a bunch of rowdy buddies and crew guys
17:39 who want to hang out.
17:40 So we'll let you get back at it.
17:41 Congratulations.
17:41 And it's time to start thinking about a three-peat, dude.
17:45 I don't even want to think about it right now.
17:47 I'll start thinking about it in a couple months.
17:48 Chug down some Monster.
17:49 Have a good night, man.
17:49 Congratulations.
17:50 Thank you.
17:52 Well, that puts a cap on the 2015 Diesel Power Challenge.
17:55 But when you think back over the weekend,
17:57 you think about a guy like Rick Fox dominating the dyno
18:00 challenge.
18:00 You think about a guy like Levon Miller taking
18:03 care of business on the trailer towing obstacle course.
18:05 Fox comes back and wins the eighth mile of trailer tow.
18:08 Then we go drag racing.
18:09 Levon Miller takes the drag race.
18:11 And it's kind of rain short, and that got weird.
18:13 Then we get to the truck pulling course.
18:14 And Jared lays the hammer down on that big Dually Ford,
18:17 pulls it out the back door to 319 feet.
18:19 We get to come back here and celebrate tonight.
18:21 At the end of the day, it was Levon Miller,
18:23 the most dominating performance in the history of this event.
18:26 He leaves with the second cup.
18:27 And he'll be coming back next year trying to win a third.
18:29 Smile.
18:30 [MUSIC PLAYING]
18:33 [ENGINE REVVING]
18:37 [MUSIC PLAYING]
18:41 [ENGINE REVVING]
18:45 [MUSIC PLAYING]
18:49 [ENGINE REVVING]
18:52 [MUSIC PLAYING]
18:56 [ENGINE REVVING]
19:06 [MUSIC PLAYING]
19:09 [ENGINE REVVING]
19:15 [MUSIC PLAYING]
19:19 [TIRES SQUEALING]
19:25 [MUSIC PLAYING]
19:28 [ENGINE REVVING]
19:32 They're off.
19:40 Oh, a huge starting line advantage.
19:43 [INAUDIBLE]
19:45 For Levon Miller.
19:47 And Miller, not going to work the truck too hard.
19:50 Knows he has him covered.
19:51 Miller goes 11.386, 122.
19:53 And Gleason goes 11.728 at 121 miles per hour.
19:58 So Miller, with a big starting line advantage,
20:00 gets down there without any sweat to knock off JD Gleason.