The Journey of Driving a NASCAR Hauler: From Daytona to Mexico & Every Mile in Between

June 12, 2025 – For over 30 years, Featherlite’s race car transporters, also known as haulers, have been a vital part of NASCAR, reliably moving race cars and equipment to tracks across the country every week of the season.

And as part of Featherlite’s NASCAR partnership, Featherlite regularly provides at-track support and service for the Featherlite haulers of both the series itself and the NASCAR teams. It’s estimated that around 95 percent of the NASCAR Cup Series haulers are Featherlite trailers.

This year’s schedule, which features 38 races, includes the usual visits to Daytona, Charlotte, Phoenix and cities in between. But this year found a new addition to the schedule – Mexico City. And the logistics that have gone into planning for this event have highlighted even more the work and commitment of hauler drivers and other support personnel.

For Featherlite Trailers that includes Featherlite drivers Tammy Bates and Gregg Burbank, along with Service Technician Todd Rogers.

The Featherlite Team
Bates became part of the Featherlite Trailers team midway through the 2017 race season, taking on her first full NASCAR schedule in 2018. Each week, she’s behind the wheel of Featherlite’s race transporter as it travels track to track for that week’s Cup Series race. The Featherlite transporter hauls essential tools, parts and equipment that are needed to complete repair and maintenance work on other transporters at the tracks each week. The trailer also transports a Featherlite vehicle and golf cart for use at the track. In addition to serving as a mobile support and service hub, office space within this hauler is often utilized as well by the TV networks, whether it be FOX, NBC or Amazon Prime.

It was 2009 when Bates received a commercial driver’s license (CDL) after a career with a real estate title company. The following year, she joined her husband, Bruce, also a CDL driver, at Champion Tire & Wheel, another NASCAR partner, before eventually joining the Featherlite team. She’s currently one of the few female hauler drivers involved with NASCAR and is the only female hauler driver in the Cup garage.

Rogers first worked for Featherlite back in the early 2000s at its Mocksville, N.C. sales and service facility before it closed in 2007. It was in 2020 that Rogers had the opportunity to rejoin the team as a Service Technician to travel onsite to NASCAR races. Currently, onsite support is available at 24 of the races each year.

As part of its partnership with NASCAR, Featherlite has also formed relationships with the television networks broadcasting the races. With this came the opportunity to provide a transporter and driver to accompany the series as part of the broadcast team. And that’s where Burbank comes in as the driver for the Featherlite mobile production office.

Burbank joined the company in 2013 as one of the original Universal Freight drivers. Universal Freight is the sister company of Featherlite and delivers trailers to customers and dealers as well as other freight and cargo. In 2015 and 2016, Burbank drove the office trailer part-time as needed before embarking on a full season in 2017 and has been part of the Featherlite and NASCAR team since then.

Burbank received his CDL in 1990 and has been an OTR driver ever since. “When I was a little kid, I was fascinated with trucks,” Burbank said. “From an early age, I always told my mom I wanted to be a truck driver when I grew up.”

Family & Fans
Bates and her husband became well known on the road among the hauler drivers and in the NASCAR garage. “For those of us in the garage, we’re a family,” Bates said. “We’re with these people more than we are with our own family.” Tammy’s husband sadly passed away in 2021. Bates took time off before eventually deciding to stay on the road and in this job. “I knew this was where I belonged,” she said. “I feel closer to my husband here.”

“When I came on board, I transitioned from a NASCAR fan to an employee,” Rogers said. “But it’s really cool to be involved in something like this. Fans come through the gates, they ask questions about what’s inside the haulers. It’s just neat to see their enthusiasm and be part of something that’s providing excitement to fans.”

Rogers said while he’s usually busy doing paperwork on Sundays during the races, he usually tries to take some time to live the fan experience and enjoy a few laps of the race or watch a pit stop.

While Burbank says it can be hard to be away from family and friends, “they know that I’m doing what I love,” he said.

Featherlite Support
In a typical week, Bates usually arrives in the next city on the NASCAR schedule on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the truck and trailer are washed, and everything is set up with the trailer, before the Truck, Xfinity and/or Cup Series haulers start arriving Thursday or Friday, depending on that weekend’s schedule.

Throughout the week and into the weekend, she handles her normal work and offers support to Rogers when needed. She’s even learned a few things for weeks when Rogers is not at the track. “I’ve learned more about parts and generators than I ever thought I’d know,” Bates said, adding that she takes pride in learning by doing. She’d rather be shown instead of having someone do the work for her.

Sunday involves tearing everything down and packing the trailer back up. Rogers and Bates are the last to leave the track as they make sure all haulers get on the road with no issues.

Rogers usually arrives at the track on Thursdays during a standard week. Service jobs at the track can vary week to week, but he says the workflow can often be influenced by the temperature. Service on A/Cs during hot weather months, for example, can be a popular request. In addition to A/Cs, top requests for service work include generators and liftgates, which Rogers points out are critical for teams being able to unload and load cars and equipment. Otherwise, on a smaller scale, Rogers may also take care of work on cabinet door hinges, refrigerators, lights and other minor maintenance requests.

“One of the craziest times at the track each week is when the teams arrive, and they begin the unloading process, as well as when they are loading back up at the end,” Rogers said. “So I know how important it is that we take care of our haulers for these teams so they can do their jobs.”

Burbank is parked in the TV compound at the next track on Tuesday each week to meet the networks’ schedules and sets the trailer up as far as the generator, slideouts, awning, etc. The TV crews unload all the equipment from the transporter and begin their set up process on Wednesday. He’ll assist and provide support as needed throughout the week and weekend both in the TV compound and at the Featherlite hauler.

The Featherlite transporter in the compound provides workspace week-to-week for ten people. “There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes to broadcasting the races,” Burbank said.

The TV compound is a self-sufficient area usually outside the track that includes a dozen or more trucks. Over the years, he’s worked with staff from various networks as the TV contracts have changed, and he said there’s usually 200 people that travel each week with the TV crew for each race. This year marked Amazon Prime’s first year broadcasting NASCAR races, which includes the Viva Mexico 250 in Mexico City.

“Our relationship with NASCAR and with so many of these race teams, along with being present at the track each week, is something that we’ve valued for over 30 years,” Featherlite Trailers CEO Tim Masud said. “We’re proud to support their operations and play a role in keeping the show on the road, week after week.”

The Road to Mexico City
In a normal race week, unlike Bates and Burbank, the team hauler drivers return home to load and unload the cars and equipment and other items week to week. Part of what makes this trip to Mexico unique is that all haulers departed from Michigan International Speedway following the June 8 race. That involved teams having to swap their cars and equipment between their main haulers and backup haulers that had arrived in Michigan.

For the months and weeks leading up to this departure from Michigan, a lot of paperwork had to be completed, including a manifest of all items onboard the transporters. Rogers said the manifest had to include every piece of equipment, tool, bolt and so on.

After leaving Michigan, the Cup Series hauler drivers made their way to Laredo, Texas, where they would be crossing the border and traveling with security. The teams were put into caravan groups, and Tammy was selected to be a team leader in her group of drivers. Scheduled fuel stops were to be done as a group. After departing the border, the 130-plus haulers were to be in Mexico City in the early morning hours of Wednesday, June 11. The Xfinity haulers arrived on Tuesday in Mexico City.

After the race on Sunday, the haulers will depart with the same coordination to return to the United States, before preparing for the next race at Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania.

For this trip, John Green is serving as Bates’ co-driver while Tim (T.J.) Anderson was driving with Burbank. Due to Burbank’s tighter turnaround time between tracks, Anderson, who’s been with Universal Freight since 2016, co-drives with Burbank throughout the season as needed.

The Love of the Road
“For me, I love being on the road and seeing everything across the country,” Burbank said. “I’m also not one meant to be inside.”

“I enjoy this job,” Tammy said. “I don’t know what else I would do. But it’s not for everyone. You’re never in the same city in one week, and you’re living out of a suitcase.”

“I enjoy my job as I like the traveling, and I’ve always been around trucks and trailers and their drivers,” Rogers said. “There’s never a dull moment. You’re always moving around and doing different things. There are so many things that go into the trailer beyond the car, and people don’t realize all the working pieces of the teams.” He says it’s impressive to see the pride teams take in their haulers and equipment, and the love they have for their Featherlite haulers.

“It takes a special talent to be a driver,” as he discusses those he works with within the series. As the date for the Mexico race neared, Rogers said, “The excitement is starting to rise as it gets closer.” He also gave credit to NASCAR for their “excellent job preparing and communicating information to everyone.”

“The team we have on the road each week is so essential to our relationship with NASCAR,” Masud said. “Week in and week out, they go above and beyond and that’s been even more apparent as they prepared for this trip to Mexico City. We’re very proud to have them representing our brand on the road.”

While Bates had some worries about the unknowns of this Mexico trip when planning first began, she said, “This whole process has definitely been interesting. But we’re in it together, and we all have the same purpose.”