Shell Rotella SuperRigs: Six standout trucks and truckers

Todd Dills: We were recently on the ground at Bristol Motor Speedway for the 44th annual Shell Rotella SuperRigs truck show, learning the stories behind some of the best looking working rigs in North America. SuperRigs stands out among other truck shows by being open to actively working trucks only.

Jeremiah Wolfe: A lot of shows that you end up going to, they claim their truck is a working truck, but I like the way Shell makes you prove that you work your truck.

John Barker III: For me, a guy that can show up here, clean, polish his truck, show, win a trophy, and then go pick up a load on Monday morning. That's what it's all about.

Bruce Wilson: We go to almost every truck show there is in the U.S., right? And I see a lot of trucks here that I haven't seen any truck shows. 

Steven Cheirs: If people have never been, you should come. And I'm not, they are not paying me to say that. But they put on an actual great show.

Todd Dills: The official judging for the show is now wrapped up. If you want to see who took home the trophies this year, find our full article covering all the winners linked below. In this video, though, we want to take you down to the show lot to feature six specific trucks that really caught our eye. Share a bit of their story. To see a full video on each of the trucks featured here today, make sure to subscribe! We'll be publishing those in the coming weeks.

Bruce Wilson: Well, my name is Bruce Wilson. I've got a YouTube channel. I have a tractor dealership, but behind me is my 2025 Scania R770. We brought this truck all the way over from Sweden. You heard that right, across the pond. And this is something no one has ever done. Brought a brand new Scania truck to the U.S., and we've been showing it for about a year and a half.

And this is the last and final show the truck will ever be at. But what's crazy is this truck cannot stay in the U.S. permanently because it's here on a temporary import, which means it basically has a visa. So the reason it cannot be here is because even though it's a much safer, more efficient and cleaner burning truck, it doesn't meet the exact regulations on paper that the U.S. wants to see, so that's why it has to leave. 

I mean, we've had a pretty rough go at it, letting the American truckers see this thing and their blunt opinions, which I welcome everyone, you know, they're welcome to have their own opinion on everything. But people seem, their mind seems to change once they get in the truck and drive it.

John Barker III: John Barker's my name. We run our own private farm. We haul our horses out of our '97 Peterbilt here in the '97 Streamliner Deluxe horse trailer. It's been a work in progress since about, I don't know, say '98, '99, something like that. And just adding lights, chrome. 

As far as the trailer goes, the trailer was factory built here in Bristol, Virginia, but everything is oak, so we've got oak plywood paneling up top here. It's all butcher block oak lower down here. Obviously the vinyl is real nice. That's how they came when they were built here in Bristol, Virginia. They never mass produced them. They built one-off. Everyone was one-off. You know, if you don't know about the horse trailers, it's real cool. And if you do, you appreciate what this trailer is. So it's a real head-turner. So that's fun.

Jeff Dills: Jeff Dills, I'm out of Catawba, North Carolina, been a truck driver for 20 years now. Before this, I had a motorcycle accident back in 1994, left me a T7 paraplegic. I went on to start playing wheelchair sports, and then in 2004, I made the Paralympic team to go to Athens, Greece. In 2005, I decided, I said, "I'm going to drive a truck."

I've always been around 'em, my dad and my friends, family. Everybody's drove trucks all my life. So I just started doing some research and called a guy about the lift. That was the biggest challenge was the lift. The only other modifications I have, I have a set of hand controls is one lever hand control. And if you pull back through the gas and then you got to push down for the brake, so it's all in one lever. And that's about the only other modification I have, except for it's automatic. It's a 13-speed automatic. 

Don't let anybody tell you you can't. The more somebody tells me I can't do it, the more I want to do it to prove them wrong. And if you're ready to get in trucking, you know, make sure that's what you want to do, because it's a life.

Steven Cheirs: Hi, my name is Steve Cheirs, and I'm the owner of Cheirs Transportation. We run out of Madisonville, Kentucky, originally from Hickman, Kentucky, and I run this Kenworth. What we have here is like a 1995. This series here is what they call a limited edition. 200 of them was made. This one here is 167 of that 200 that's still out there, maybe a few, not probably in the best shape like this one is, maybe one. Maybe.

Lawson Rudisill: So this is the truck that you got your start in trucking?

Steven Cheirs: This is my first start in trucking, and the last one. Just the only one I've ever had.

Lawson Rudisill: And how many years is that?

Steven Cheirs: Since 2001.

Lawson Rudisill: Tell me about "Luxury Tax."

Steven Cheirs: Well, I was listening to a song by a rapper named Luxury Tax, and then I was like, that's it. Because when you pay for something like, you know, it doesn't have anything, it just costs. So and that's why it's like it's like a luxury tax and you can be taxed on it. So but it's really no fun in the tax of it. I got it really listening to a song and it made sense. So that's why that's where the Luxury Tax come from.

Erin Barrick: My name is Erin Barrick, I'm from Lincoln, Illinois, and I grew up in the trucking industry. My family business started in 1935 and my great-grandfather started it. And then since, my grandfather and my dad. And then I'm next up, fourth generation to take over. 

This is a 1986 Peterbilt 359. It started, it was a blue day cab and we pretty much changed everything about it, added a bunk, painted everything. We've touched every square inch of this truck. It ended up being a tribute to my grandpa. He used to drive a sprint car called the Black Deuce. It's the most winningest sprint car in history, and it's black and white with a red interior and red touches. So that's what I brought into the truck. 

Yeah, it took five whole days to lay the tape to make those stripes. I didn't want to have stripes that were like anybody else's. So I just spent, I probably spent two weeks playing with tape, just figuring out how I wanted it, and I think it was worth it. It turned out pretty nice.

Chris McCay: Hi, my name is Chris McCay. I'm from Jacobstown, New Jersey. This is my truck, and I haul rock and roll bands and large live trees.

Lawson Rudisill: What kind of what kind of bands? If you can say. What kind of bands have you hauled equipment for?

Chris McCay: Well, I can say, I don't know if they'll like me saying, but...

Lawson Rudisill: It's up to you.

Chris McCay: I was just out with Journey a few weeks ago. One of my friend's motor went down, and I stepped in and hauled for him. But I've done a lot of the big guys -- Billy Joel, Springsteen, U2, Daryl Hall. So I've toured with some of the big ones. Show doesn't go on without us. 

Okay, well, it's a 1998 W900L Kenworth, so this is a 72-inch bunk, and it's a studio sleeper. I'm told that that's a rarity, that not many 72 inch bunks have studios. So when you have a studio, you have the couch that folds down into a bed. And there's also an upper bunk. I don't know if that's 100% true. I'm told that most of the studios are the 86-inch bunks. 

Well, I found that sun, and I really liked it because it looked like it was blowing in the breeze, and we were able to put a face of a friend of mine in the picture of the sun.

Lawson Rudisill: So it's a real face?

Chris McCay: It's a real face. We call it Bruce. It's inspired by Bruce.