Congratulations John!
Did you think you would be able to earn the title of Racing Champion of the World?

You always go in hoping you can do it. You try to prepare yourself, but it’s more of a dream come true. We’ve been in this business for a long time, so to be able to pull it off is just phenomenal. After practice and qualifying rounds we felt really confident and decided to try a couple things with the truck. I felt good too, I wasn’t cocky, I just felt that we had a good shot.

What was going through your head just as you were about to take your final run against the legendary Dennis Anderson?

Trying to stay calm. It’s funny because we’ve been racing for so long, and we do a lot of TV interviews and TV shows between racing. When you do an interview you need to think real quick on your feet to do the job right. As I was going down all the rounds, I was doing my interviews for each round but I wasn’t really paying attention to who I was racing. I was trying to stay in my own lane, I was trying to run my own race and not let the other guy beat me. When it wound up being Dennis, I didn’t really put a whole lot of thought into who was in the other lane.

I’ve been a good friend of Dennis’ for forever and have nothing but the utmost respect for him and all the other guys out there that are competitors, but I was trying to run my own race and trying to stay calm and trying to get down the track as best as I could.


What did you think of the course layout for racing?

I thought it was good. I thought it was fast. There was definitely a difference between the 2 lanes, but what one lane lacked, the other makes up for. Everybody had their own preference. As a driver, it’s easier to make left-handed turns than it is to make right-handed turns. It’s just a natural thing. At first I wanted the right lane, but then I was doing so well in the left lane that I stayed in the left lane.

Then in the final round, it was great because there were no head games played. Dennis had lane choice to get the lane he wanted, I got the lane I wanted. There were no games, it was just a good, straight, heads up race.

I thought the track was really good and really fair. The conditions changed constantly. When you drag race, you’re on a quarter mile track on asphalt. If you’re racing Nascar, you know you’re gonna go fast and go left on asphalt. The conditions don’t change that much. But with monster trucks, every pass changes. The ramps will change, the track will change, the cars will crush down a certain way so you have to stay on top of all that. But I thought the track crew did a phenomenal job trying to create the best track they could.

Were you nervous during your first race of the night?
Uh, I get more nervous during intros. Whether it’s the World Finals or any other show, I get nervous during the introductions. Once I get in the truck I feel more comfortable. When the truck powers up and everything is good, especially for the World Finals because people come from all around the world to see us, the last thing I want to do is let them down. So once it’s powered I feel much better.

I tried really hard to stay calm and keep my head on straight. I knew the truck was 100%. My crew worked hard to give me the best truck they could and we had the whole thing tore apart before the event so we knew that every nut and bolt was new and that everything was tight. As we went through each round, I stayed in the truck and Cody was running around looking at everything. I was yelling out to him what to look for and what to check for just as it would come to my mind from my experience over the years. I wouldn’t say I had butterflies. I was not really nervous, more anxious. I wanted to get down that track and get the first one out of the way.

What did you think of the track layout for freestyle?
I thought it was the best ever. I think in years past, we realized more isn’t better. There was always the thing about having more obstacles out there which doesn’t really allow you to do what you can best. If there are too many things out there, you end up just bouncing off of stuff.

The monster trucks are kind of like dancing with a water buffalo. They’re really big but we also finesse them. People think if it’s muddy out that it’s really cool to see a monster truck but that’s not always the case because you can’t do as much with it. You can’t control it like you normally could. I thought the freestyle obstacles were huge this year, but that’s Vegas. I thought the whole thing was really good. I wish I would’ve lasted longer in freestyle. We pounded the truck hard in racing and in my second jump in freestyle we ended up bending the axle housing and breaking a tie rod among other things and finally flipping the truck over. But at least it made it to freestyle. It wasn’t a heck of a performance in freestyle, but it lasted long enough to win the championship in racing!

Tell me about the flames that you added to the back of the truck.

The flames are cool. All the guys at the shop in North Carolina deserve the credit for that, Dan and Paul. It was something that Charlie Mancuso (President of Live Nation) thought would be cool to have and we knew that we were gonna do it so we wanted to do it for him as a surprise. For introductions, we hit the flames for the first time. As I was driving down, I could see the glare off the fans faces and I could see people point. I couldn’t see the flames but apparently it looked really cool. I saw a picture and it looked really awesome. It was definitely different, like a little added touch to make yourself stand out from everyone else. The back of my truck is really cool the way it is so it just gave it more attitude.

Do you think the truck provided any good luck to you?

I’m pretty superstitious when it comes to all that stuff. We did some things with the Kid’s Wish Network and this little kid Riley gave me a little circle that had his picture on it and it had a little angel on it so I had that in my pocket. Another gentleman came by with a $2 bill that he had signed and I put that in my pocket. Another little girl wrote me a love note asking me to marry her, I had that in my pocket too. Probably the biggest thing was something that I cried so much for. There were some people from Iraq, they were coming to the show and were my fans. Of the 5 guys on their team, only one made it back. The gentleman came to Double Down and was telling me a little bit of the story and I promised I’d give him my shirt. He had a special shirt that the team wore over there. During the pit party he came up and reminded me who he was and he said, I have that shirt for you. He asked if I had my Batman shirt. I told him I did but it was 80 degrees out here and I’m all sweaty. He said, I don’t care, so in the middle of the pit party we swapped shirts. I told him if we won, we would dedicate it to everyone in Iraq that is defending our country. I’m not a saint but I do have my beliefs and I pray before every race. I think all the prayers and fans support kept me calm and got us to the win.

That’s great! Pablo mentioned having that same coin and Riley’s name as well.

It’s kind of funny that we both had that same coin both from Riley. Riley was awesome. We had him doing donuts in his wheelchair. He was just a really cool kid. All those kids are just really great. To have all of them there and to have them cheer us on, I thank God for the chance to meet all these great people.
At the awards banquet, they were able to fly out your kids so they could be there to celebrate your win. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about that?

That was unbelievable. It meant a lot to my boys. Over the years, they’ve grown up with monster trucks. It’s what they know and who they are. I’d come home after a weekend away and they’d pull out their Hot Wheels toys and say Daddy you should try this in the corner to go faster or try this in freestyle. They’ve been my biggest supporters forever. I wanted them to be there at the actual event but they couldn’t come. After we won, Live Nation flew them out there and I didn’t know anything about it.

We were sitting at the awards banquet and Pablo and I had our own tables up front. I was sitting at my table with Mike Wales, Keith Speller and my crew. They were about to present my award then they opened up the curtain and my boys walked out with my trophy. I lost it! I went up on stage and just started holding them and hugging them.

In 3 months, I probably saw them for 4 hours. We’ve been on the road the whole time. To have them there meant so much. Roy Janson was giving a speech and I don’t know what he said. I gave a speech and I don’t ever know what I really said. There was just so much emotion and it was so good to see my boys because I missed them so much. Having them there to share something like that was so important. It’s not only my trophy it’s my crews, my family, my fans, and everyone that has supported me.

What are your goals for the coming year as a result of this win?

It hasn’t really all sunk in. Everyone’s calling me champ and congratulating me but it hasn’t really sunk in yet. I always want to do the best for my fans. I want to constantly defend the title. Every time we go out, we race to win, but now I have a big target on my back now. Now I also have Tom and Dennis after me! I used to be chasing after them, but now their after me. I’m proud that I had the chance to win, but now I want to be the best champion and come back in Vegas and try to defend it.

What do you think about the overall event in Las Vegas this year?

Well, I was really personally disappointed in my freestyle.

It’s amazing. They turn the stadium into a little town. I mean there were more people in the parking lot there than in my hometown! The production of it, everything is just phenomenal. The fireworks! The fans! They spend their hard earned money to get out there and they plan family vacations around it. It’s a family event. It’s a shame the building isn’t bigger to get more people in it, but it’s a nice personal atmosphere. I think the whole thing was a great experience for anyone and I was just glad to be a part of it.

Any one particular thing that stood out the most besides your Racing win?

The whole thing. I’m a big kid. The whole experience of Vegas. At our display, I was doing hand stands with one of the kids and we took pictures of it. The whole experience was unbelievable. The Make-A-Wish kids, I go back to that all the time, but those kids just have so much heart and soul and are so positive that I feel like being around them they make me a better person.

We’re always here for the fans, but at the Double Down people got to see things that they never get to see. You get to see the actual pressures and see us without the bodies on. At the Double Down, you can see us taking those jumps and watching how hard it is when we hit and how we get jolted. People said that was really neat because they’d never seen that before. I thought that was a neat experience. I can’t really say there was just one thing that stuck out, it was the whole thing. It was magical from the beginning.

Any Final Comments?
Thank you all! Thank you all for your support and faith and emails. You can’t imagine how much it means to us.

We all say it but we are there for the fans and we do whatever it takes to make them happy. There are a lot of people behind the scenes that deserve credit: the crew, the marketing people, sales people, operations, the body shop people, the mechanics shop guys, and so many that deserve credit that not everyone gets to meet. The nice thing about Vegas is that everyone gets to be there and see it all. Overall though, I can’t thank the fans enough for giving me a chance to live my dreams!