Last week, Food Network served up a double pump of new episodes of The Great Food Truck Race which brought about a pair of shocking eliminations!
In a pair of back-to-back shocking eliminations, we watched as G’s Cheesesteaks were sent home followed by frontrunners Fat Kid Food Co., with both teams going home in some of the season’s tightest eliminations. The eliminations proved that all it takes is one bad leg in a race for a team to fall to the bottom and be forced to hand in their keys.
This week, Food Network brought us just one episode, but that episode was once again filled with drama as the final four teams took to the streets of Darlington with the hopes of making it through to the next round. With the final inching closer and closer, the competition could not be tighter and we knew every dish would make a difference!
NASCAR's Mamba Smith and Todd Gilliland hand out the first wins of the leg
Kicking off the Darlington leg of the competition, the teams made their way out to Darlington Raceway where Chef Tyler Florence was joined by NASCAR’s Mamba Smith and Todd Gilliland. For the first challenge in this leg of the race, the teams were challenged with elevating a popular tailgate dish.
On the line were two major advantages. The team that made the tastiest dish would walk away with an extra $300 for their till, while the team that made their dish in the fastest amount of time would win the ability to shut down two competitors for an hour.
It was Stop Drop N Roll that won the speed challenge, getting their dish prepped for serving in less than ten minutes with Good Fortune just seconds behind them. With their speedy prep, Stop Drop N Roll won their first challenge of the season and, with it, the ability to shut down two of their competitors at some point during the leg.
For their dish, Stop Drop N Roll served up their Jalapeño Business dish, an elevated jalapeño poppers dish. It was up against Cooking with Que’s Raceway Filet elevated sliders, Good Fortune’s Burnout Wings, and Nishaan’s Get Smoked Lamb Chops.
From there, the teams headed out to begin selling, and things went pretty smoothly for every team. After pranking Que by making them think they were forcing them to stop sales, Stop Drop N Roll stuck to their alliance and shut down Nishaan and Good Fortune. It was shortly after the shutdown that Day 1 came to a close, and we moved along to Day 2.
The teams go nuts for Day 2’s special challenge
Shortly after Day 2 began, Tyler called up the teams to issue a new challenge to the team inspired by NASCAR. As Tyler told the teams, just like in a NASCAR race, a food truck is a team sport, but there is only one person in the driver’s seat.
For this challenge, each team’s sales rep who takes orders from customers and takes the call from Tyler must decide whether to opt into or out of the day’s challenge. The twist is that he will not reveal what the challenge is, and they cannot discuss the decision with their team. What he does tell them is that those who opt into the challenge will have the chance to win $500, and there will possibly be more than one winner.
Everyone decides to participate in the challenge with the exception of Stop Drop N Roll, who sits the challenge out.
Once the teams have made their decision, Good Fortune, Cooking with Que, and Nishaan all shut down their trucks temporarily to go meet Tyler. When they arrive, he informs them that the Peanut Patch team will be supplying them each with boiled peanuts to add to a new special. They have to shell the nuts provided before they can begin selling their dish and resume sales, which the teams complete in minutes. To win the $500, they must use all of the nuts provided and sell out their dish.
As they catch wind of what the challenge is, Stop Drop N Roll regrets the decision not to participate in the challenge. This regret grows when all three teams that did partake in the challenge succeed, earning $500 for their till.
Who went home on The Great Food Truck Race this week?
Just like in NASCAR, when you never know what each race will hold, this leg of the race brought about a shocking turn, in that no one went home this week on The Great Food Truck Race! That's right, no one went home in episode 5 with the leg being a non-elimination leg that turned into a two-part leg in the race!
As is always the case, following the second day of sales, Chef Tyler brought the teams together to reveal the results of the leg. Despite winning the first two challenges of the leg, it was Stop Drop N Roll that almost saw their time in the race come to an end. The decision to skip the challenge proved costly as Stop Drop N Roll finished the leg with the lowest earnings and almost saw their time in the race end.
Fortunately, Tyler reveals that, like in NASCAR, legs have laps, and this is just the first completed lap for the teams! All four teams are moving on to the next leg of the race, with their totals from Darlington carrying over into the next leg of the race. This means, Stop Drop N Roll will be playing from behind in the next leg and will have to pull out all the stops to avoid remaining at the bottom of the leaderboard.
Despite being shut down, Good Fortune and Nishaan both took the top spots on the leaderboard and will have a nice leg up heading into the second lap in this leg of the race. These totals will be added to the teams' earnings in Virginia Beach, Virginia, which will determine who goes home:
- Good Fortune - $6,563
- Nishaan - $6,076
- Cooking with Que - $5,633
- Stop Drop N Roll - $5,468
Don't miss a new episode of The Great Food Truck Race on Sunday, Aug. 31 at 9/8c on Food Network!