(No. 51 team from left to right: Michael Roberts, Shane Wilson, Michael Hutton, Shawn Peets, Phil Foster (bottom), Steve Price)
Congratulations to Michael “Cowboy” Hutton, who took home first place in the TA Truck Service Challenge at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sept. 12. This is his second first place win this year, in addition to winning the first ever TA Truck Service Challenge cook off, where hauler drivers got to show off a different set of skills.
While this is only Michael’s second year participating in the Challenge, he has consistently progressed to the top of the leaderboards since his first place win at the Charlotte event last year.
At one of the most difficult obstacle courses this season, Michael impressed everyone in Las Vegas as he lined up the starting turn perfectly without knocking over a cone, despite only having three feet of clearance on each side of the truck. On the obstacle course were a total of 82 cones, which drivers are penalized for if knocked over during their run. Across all the individual obstacle course runs, there were a total of 178 cones knocked over, none of which came from Michael.
“This was the tightest course of the year so far,” he said. “It was so hard to line up the corners. I really liked it, but it was hard to manage.”
After his truck driving duties are done each race weekend, Michael is the car chief for Jeremy Clements’ No. 51 Xfinity Series car. As a pit crew member, he fuels the car on race day, which adds a lot of pressure to do a good job so Jeremy can get a good track position.
Like many other NASCAR teams, the Jeremy Clements Racing team shows their solidarity for everyone who makes each race weekend a success, whether they’re on or off the track. It’s evident in the way they show up for Michael during and after the Challenge events, as you can see in the picture above.
“Jeremy, our driver, is very proud anytime we excel as a team,” Michael said. “Our team is a family, and we’re happy when any of us does well, so I’m proud to win the Las Vegas event for our whole Jeremy Clements Racing Team.”
After Michael donates some of his Las Vegas winnings to his church and a project he and his wife are working on, he’s going after the win in Charlotte and a top spot on the overall leaderboard for this season. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @TATruckServiceChallenge to keep up with the Challenge as we wrap up our second season.
