The Wild West of 1980s NASCAR Truckers: Ole School Stories with Darrell Andrews

We got caught running 121 mph. I said, "Henry, we both going to jail." >> Did stuff like that happen a lot back then? >> So, you just rode with Henry Benfield? >> I helped him drive. >> Oh, >> I could drive. >> So, you were like co-driving out there? >> Yeah. I got to the racetrack and they blew up back then. You qualified one at a time and we were the third one to go out and we blew up in practice. They jumped in there and it was Junior and Jeff Hammond and Sandy Jones changing them up. We didn't have three guys and the truck drivers. Well, I didn't have nothing to do and and I'm a mechanic by trade. So, I jumped in there and helped them change motors. I wasn't doing nothing. So, I just jumped in there and helped them change motors. Races with we jump. We won the race. I got back home. I drove the truck back. Junior called me and I'd never worked there before. And Junior's exact words. He said, "I couldn't help but notice you jumped there and helped us change motors like you'd been doing it all your life." I said, "Well, you know, mechanic trade and the truck driver." He said, he said, "I can get anybody driving that truck." And he said, "You want to work on my race car?" So, I started changing. Yep. From then on, I've worked on a race car. >> That's awesome. So, you worked You worked on the team on the race car and drove the truck. >> I didn't drive the truck. No, I didn't. I went for years and didn't drive a truck. I flew and worked on the race car and flew home. And then when my wife got sick, I quit. And Jack Rouses always treated me. I was in the seventh cave. The one I made a movie about >> the Mel Gibson movie. >> Yeah. Before uh Fox Sports called me want to do an interview with me and I wouldn't do it. I said I don't talk about Vietnam. I've been in a garage all them years. Nobody knew I'd even been to Vietnam. >> Wow. >> And Matt Yokum knew it cuz me and him rode motorcycles together. And he begged me to agree to do the interview. He talked me into it. They came here and interviewed me. I can still wear my uniform when I come home. Class A's. They did their homework on me. They knew every firefight I'd been in. They knew what ward I was in at Walter Reed. They knew me about me going. They' done their research on me and they showed it on the big screen at Charlotte. I thought it'd be a little 30 second deal, but it was several minutes. They lined up forest mirror them trailers down pit road shake hands with me. Didn't know that I had been through all that. >> That's freaking awesome. >> I'd already went to work up at Pennis. I quit to take care of my wife. She got real sick before she passed away. And uh I was in street clothes. I come walking up pit road and somebody hollered at me. I turned around and it was Jack Rous. He's he's a big military buff anyway. He said, "You don't work for nobody now. You're not wearing a uniform." I said, "No." I said, "I quit taking care of my wife. My wife is sick. I go every day and feed her." He laid his briefcase up on a stack of tires, flipped it open, started writing something down. He handed me a piece of paper and he said, "If you ever decide to get back in racing, give me a call. You've always got a job with me." Well, I still had my hard card. I just left Pettis. You know, to sign in, you got to have a license. You just can't walk up and get a garage pass without a license. So, I called him and I said, "Can I sign in on one of your cars and get a license?" And he had three teams on one of your cars. so I can get a license to go to a few races every now and then. He said, "Oh, no. You need a hard car." I said, "No, no, no, no, no. I don't want a hard card. It cost too much money. I won't go to enough races to justify hard." UPS was here the next day with all the paperwork fell out for a hard car. >> But did he pay for it? >> Yeah, I did pay for it. >> That's awesome. >> He bought me a hard card. So, I went to auto five or six races that year and they called me uh the transportation director, whatever. I forget his name. He called me. They were at Daytona. He said, "One of our drivers is sick. Can you fly to Daytona and drive the truck home?" I said, "Sure." I couldn't say no. I drove it home from Daytona and I worked there seven years driving the truck. >> A good place to work. >> This past season, Steuart Hos called me and wanted me to come ask what I've been arrested in driving their Exfinity truck full time. >> Yeah. >> I said, "No, thank you. I'm done." How did you know Henry Benfield for him to call you and ask you to to ride with him in the first place? >> I forget where I had met him and we'd become friends and I had talked to him and met him and I' met him on the road and and and Henry don't meet a stranger. He he's friendly to everybody and we'd befriended each other and he just called me up out of the blue. He knew I drove a truck to go with him to Riverside. You hear all kinds of stories about him putting things in people's food. Like, >> let me tell you something. They're true. >> Did he ever do it to you? >> Not to me. I have spent the night. Henry's OCD. All his labels are turned the same in his pantry. He lives by himself. He's got white carpet over his house. He vacuums himself to the door so there won't be footprints and leaves the vacuum cleaner right over the door. I have stood in his house over the stove and stirred the brownies with XLax in them. [laughter] >> So, you were an accomplice. >> Yeah. >> We get to the racetrack and of course Henry stuttered. Henry said, "Uh, no, no, no, no. Get nothing out of that cooler." Said, "I got cro all all them drinks cuz people come over and get free stuff all the time." He was a thrill. We got to Richmond one time. Me and him went to Richmond. It was hot. God, it was hot. We'd won a championship and had the end parking spot. We wasn't far to the Westland bus right there from our truck. We pulled up to the gate. We went to the grocery store and we had drinks and bread and stuff to feed the guys. Henry told the guard said, "We just going in right there. Let us go in here and unload." And the guard said, "No, no vehicles in the garage area." He said, "Henry, we're just going right over there." He wouldn't let us in. We had I went and got a wagon and we we had we took it all in the wagon loads. Well, we got in. Henry said, [snorts] "I bet them guys is hot and thirsty." He fixed some lemonade for him, poured crin oil in it, had him squirting like a goose. Carried out there said, "Ah." He said, "I know it's hot. Y'all want some lemonade? [laughter] But he got even with him, not let us in. >> Wow. >> Oh, he was a trail piccolo player. He's a character. >> Is that how somebody would have to like he wouldn't just do that to random people? You had to do something to piss him off. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I'll tell you a good uh Let me think of his name. Oh, he was in racing forever and ever and ever. Oh, what was this guy's name? He used to come over to our truck all the time. All the time. I want something to eat. Want something to eat. And just aggravate Henry to death. Want to eat. Want to eat. I kid you not. Henry went and bought a can of alpo dog food and it looks just like stew beef. [snorts] He poured it out, put it in the microwave and got it hot and he come over there and wanted something to eat. He said, "I I got some stew beef right here. I I just fixed it." He ate two bowls of that alpo dog food. He got like Henry. Henry's real funny. He stutters and said when he walked out of the truck he said you be be careful out on pit road. Turn look. What are you talking about? He said I don't want you to lay down be licking your dick and get run over out there. [laughter] >> [gasps] >> Oh my god. >> Did he ever find out that was dog food? >> I have no idea. >> Did he like it? >> Oh, he said it was good. >> Wow. A good dog food ad. >> It was It looked just like a bowl of stew beef. We were coming back from California and was driving the cab. Guy behind us with his lights on bright and Henry always just flew. Oh, back then you could fly. He just We'll probably run 85 90 mph. This guy's right on the back of trailer with his lights on bright. Henry blinked the trailer lights. He wouldn't dim them. Dropped off on his shoulder and dusted him real good and he still would dim them. And I did not know this was in the truck. I'm sitting up on the right side and it said reach back there and that little tray behind behind me and give me that Ziploc bag. I [snorts] thought see there there's a tray at the end of each sleeper at the end of in the bed. So he had a bag of marbles cloud knockers no big ones not the little marbles but the big ones. He rolled the window down and poured them out. And when them marbles hit the pavement that they did it but a second that guy was in total darkness find I bet knocked his windshield out. He knocked all his headlights out. All his [laughter] He was in total darkness. I bet it shattered his windshield and he hit all them marbles. But it knocked out all his headlights. Them marbles hit his headlights and busted them out. [snorts] >> Did he keep those there just for that? >> Yeah. >> That's That's diabolical. >> That's Piccolo. I didn't even know they were in the truck, but he kept a Ziploc bag full of marbles in that I call a cubby hole right behind the seat to where he could reach back there and get them and pour them out the window. And when marbles hit pavement, they just bounce. [snorts] They go everywhere cuz they're hard and the pavement's hard. But the second that guy was in total darkness, >> I can't imagine a road through pack of those. I mean, that'd dent your truck up. That that could like >> Oh, it destroy you. >> That destroy your freaking truck. >> We was We were coming back one time out west and this in the middle of the night and everybody on CB back then. Somebody got on CB was hollering about this Electra 225 pulling Airstream in the left lane running about 34 mile under speed limit and wouldn't get in the right lane. Well, apparently that guy had a CB. His eyes r any lane I want to. Y'all can just kiss my ass. Well, that's way ahead of us. Henny reached over and got ready said, "What's the mile marker? Where's this guy at?" We'll run along. He had the transmission turned around backwards in the truck to where it would run triple digits. And they get him off. He stood in the gas, shifted gears. We passed that guy. I bet we was running a 100 when we passed him. Contined to crowd him a little bit. And when that trailer killing the wind, the last time I saw him, he was in the middle of the desert doing this. [laughter] >> Thank God. >> If a tractor trailer fa passes you, you're running about 30 40 mph faster than you are real close to you. The turbulence from the back of that trailer when he goes by, you'll blow your slam out the road if you're in something big. Oh, I could believe that when I'm towing my race trailer behind my truck, if I don't have the load bars on it and somebody passes me, it it like the the low pressure between them sucks you over a little bit. >> Yeah. So, I could totally see if if you got absolutely toasted. >> We was in Arizona and I mean the road was straight as an arrow and I bet we was running over a hundred when he passed that dude and I he was just doing this [laughter] with an air stream and a 225 lecture. >> Yeah. that I don't even know what how could that even be illegal other than speeding cuz he didn't touch him. >> No, >> that's >> We didn't stop either. >> Did anybody come back on the CB and say like >> nobody said a word? [snorts] >> It was quiet as a mass. >> Stuff like that happened a lot back then. >> You didn't mess with them. >> You you gang going on the CB and >> Yeah, you you didn't brag about nothing. He just kept quiet. He just kept quiet. >> That sounds like a move. He was >> Harold Tenner was a flag man years ago. They always wore white suits. He pooped all over yourself and allowed an entire Henry fed him brownies before the race and he couldn't come out of the flag stand during the race. And when soon as the race over here coming, he had pooped all in his pants where XA accidentally hit him because he's in that flag stand about four or five hours during race. >> Yeah. Henry was known for his his >> brownies. What did he do to deserve that? Huh? >> What did he do to piss off Henry to make him do that? >> I have no idea. Piccolo. >> Gotta love him. >> Did you ever have any uh James Bond moves in your truck out on the road? >> No. >> What was some stuff that was normal going down the road that was like normal that is that you could never do now? >> Oh, good lord. You used to run fast. You want to go there with now that there's either a DOT or a trooper every 3 miles one or the other. Before you hardly ever see a trooper and you never saw a DOT man. [snorts] You just go. They didn't bother trucks. Now then they could they're not race fans. They could care less to give you a ticket. >> So when you were hauling a race car, you could get away with more than you could a normal truck. >> Oh yeah. >> Yeah. Do you like >> I'd be going to California be driving Henry be in the back asleep and all the troopers got CBS troopers. Is that Piccolo player over there? No, he's in the bed asleep. I'm driving. But they all knew him. All every troop from here to California knew him. >> That's hilarious. >> We got caught down Spartanber, South Carolina was going I don't can't remember if he was going to Texas or Riverside or where but Henry just flew cuz he knew everybody. We got stopped. We got caught running a 121 mile hour in in a cab over Kennorth. I said, "Henry, we both going to jail." Dar Walter was our driver. Then Henry gave that trooper a racing uniform, three cases of Mountain Dew, and a case of hats and we left. >> 121 and a cab over. >> Yeah. >> What did you have done to that thing to even do that? Yeah, it had a KT in it and he had taken the the 12513 and reversed the counter shaves in it. I mean, you'd run 80 90 mph still being left to gear cuz he left the So, when Henry got hurt, I drove the truck by myself and we'd all I'd always have to go up to the house and Floss said, "Why do you operate this truck so much cheaper than Henry?" Flossy asked me. I said, "I use self-service fuel and I don't run that fast. It takes a ton of more fuel to run that speed." And I hardly ever run 775 California back. I didn't burn near the fuel he burned. And I always bought the cheap self-service fuel rather than full service. >> So when you two would switch, you'd go from like running for hours >> every time. Every time I fueled it up, I'd always pull up to a self- self-service pump and pump it myself. See, back in the day, you had self-service and full service. You could get either one. And full service was always more because they got to pay that guy that's pumping it in. >> So, you just pull up and get out and go eat some food or whatever. And >> yeah, I I just pull up. I pull up self-service and fuel it up and then go park the truck, then we go eat. I never I've never been one for full service. I'm always cheap as I can. I can remember I used to pull in at the truck stop at in Millersville, Maryland, the transit truck terminal. Fuel was 17 cents a gallon and I wouldn't pay it. I'd go on up to Savon and get it for 15. [snorts] >> That's back back in ' 63. I get 15 cents a gallon. >> 15 cents back then is probably like a few dollars now. something just like you you buy a new car for two grand or something. >> I bought in ' 66 I bought a SS Sup Sport big block Impala and I give I believe it was $3,200 for it and thought it was a fortune for it. >> $3,200 wouldn't even get you a rebuild for a transmission in [clears throat] like that. >> Yeah, >> that's it's insane. Yeah. I I'm probably going have to put a transmission in this and they're wanting like 5,000 for >> Yeah. >> a remand. >> It's crazy. 3200's like the torque converter. >> Yeah. >> When did it start getting harder to do the the fun stuff like throwing marbles out the window or blowing cars off the road? >> No, you don't do that stuff now. >> Like when when did that that wild west era of trucking end? >> Oh, that that that ended in in the late I'd say in the late 80s, early 90s. There's just so many more trucks and so many more troopers and many and the DOT got involved and you had to keep a you had to be pretty clean to stay out there or to take your license. >> Did that happen to anybody you knew? >> No. Every everybody pretty much behaved yourself. >> All those crazy stories like that. I'm surprised that nothing happened to Henry like or like ran off the road or >> he likely got kicked out of racing at Rockingham. He put a live real blacknake in Allan Quicky's car and it bit the guy that was inside of the car doing the interior work. The blacknake did. And he almost got H was all time messing with rubber snake scaring people. But he put a real snake in Allen Kicky's car and Dick Batty was running things then and they almost they threatened him to kick him out. >> Why did Why Allen's car? He knew the guy that was going to get inside this this horse playing with him. >> Oh, >> the beaten story though, Kell Yber was when he was around at race car was strictly business. No horse play. Buddy Baker was always horse playing, always pranking. K told him said, "Don't f with me when I'm around this race car." Well, Baker was always horse playing. And he kept messing with everybody, you know. I think we was in Atlanta. Kale showed up and had a burlap sack and he had caught an old timber rattler down in Tennisville and took a pair of dikes and cut his fangs out. And back then we used to qualify one at a time. He waited till Baker was in his car strapped down the net up was the next car to roll off pit road to qualify. He walked over there and poured that rattlesnake out in his lap and that snake's hitting him all in the face. didn't didn't have a didn't have closed helmets then and he thought he didn't know this fangs he like had a heart attack he strapped in couldn't get couldn't go nowhere and that snake just hitting him the rattlesnake's pissed off cuz he been in that bag all the way down there you know >> had his fangs clipped out >> had his fangs clipped out where he couldn't hurt you and bear come over said I won't f with you no more never he said damn near you had a heart attack >> that's insane Hey, >> that's crazy. So, Kale just did he clip the fangs out himself? >> Yeah. I I don't know. He had taken a pair of dikes and cut and cut the fangs out of that rattlesnake. I I don't know. He had him in a burlap sack and showed up in Atlanta with >> just showed up to the track with a rattlesnake and it's like, "Yeah, it's got this thing here." That requires a lot of thought beforehand to do that. >> Yeah. >> Glad we could do this. >> Yeah. >> I love learning about that stuff. Like I'm not I don't know much about these things, but I appreciate what like learning about it and seeing what people do to them and >> and how it's >> I just don't want people to think that they're just strictly show trucks. Those are working trucks. I drive the old cab all the time. Most of the…