Last year, Dave Smith went from being Crew Chief for KING KRUNCH to driving the truck. In his four year tenure with the organization, he did receive some instruction from former driver Scott Stephens and also got seat experience from time to time when he subbed in for Stephens who is driving FIRE MOUTH this season. As Crew Chief, driving the truck gave Smith insight into the business. "It helps you understand the things you have to fix," said Smith. Now, coming into the second season as the driver for KING KRUNCH, Smith is able to use his years of experience behind the scenes to go wild on the track. With Smith busting onto the scene last season driving an already stablished truck, there was some added pressure that came along with it. "You want to be sure to uphold the 20 years of tradition that the truck has," he says. In addition to crewing for KING KRUNCH, Smith also has some experience in quarter-mile drag racing, though he notes that that is "just a hobby."

He describes his first season as a "fun time" and is proud of the fact that although the truck did have some breakage, it was able to finish about 98 percent of the events. "At every show, it's all about beating the two top guys in freestyle; then you win over the crowd." Smith's strategy for freestyle is to try to show the people something they haven't seen before, like being the first to gun it over the van - or using the Freestyle Motocross Ramp! Smith describes jumping the ramp as "the biggest rush. It's like doing an extended sky wheelie. You land very smooth however, if you hit the backside of the ramp right." Smith's ultimate goal in freestyle? "I want to beat Dennis Anderson, he's the legend."

During the course of his first season, Smith was able to perform at both USHRA and Thunder Nationals events. He likes performing on the dirt tracks (USHRA events) over the non-dirt events because he says there's more of a choice of things to work with during freestyle. His favorite type of track is the new J-turn course although he admits he has to work on his turning.

As for his favorite moment from his rookie season, well that didn't happen during freestyle, but during the racing portion of an event. At the January 13th Houston Astrodome event, the Texas-themed KING KRUNCH, won the Monster Truck racing in front of his hometown crowd. "We had a humongous cheering section," Smith recalls.

When he's not racing, Smith says he's usually fixing the truck! "Monster trucks are what I thrive on," he says. To relax on the road, Smith can sometimes be found in his trailer watching the movie Days of Thunder or the famed television show, Who's Line Is It Anyway.

This off-season, Smith oversaw a complete overhaul of the KING KRUNCH truck. According to Smith the plans for the overhaul were to change the truck a little to make it perform better for the 2004 season. "We have revamped the shocks and lightened the truck a little. Combining this with the truck's longer chassis (wheelbase of 153 versus the 140-147 on other trucks) should result in the truck handling better during freestyle, especially on the big air jumps," said Smith. "We completely re-worked the truck with new rearends, engine, rebuilt shocks, and a rebuilt transmission."