Filming a television show that follows the same off-the-grid, grassroots vibe as their fan-favorite brand of street racing was a natural progression for Street Outlaws veterans Farmtruck and AZN. Still, they admit it was a leap of faith. Their new Discovery Channel series, Street Outlaws: Locals Only, wasn’t always a sure bet to see the light of day.
“We shot an entire season and traveled the country,” Farmtruck explains. “Once we wrapped, there was this looming fear that none of it might air. The locals had been promised national TV exposure. We had told them, ‘Hey, this is your shot.’ But for a while, there was silence. We basically started unpacking our bags, figuring maybe it was all over.”
That nervous waiting period is something the duo has become accustomed to over nearly a dozen years in front of cameras. “It’s a weird feeling,” says AZN. “But every season, we’d wrap, look at each other and go, ‘Well, that might be it. We’ve probably done our last show.’ And we’d just go back to our lives. It happened over and over.”
In Locals Only, Farmtruck and AZN tour the country in conjunction with the No Prep Kings schedule, inviting eight drivers from each track’s home region to battle for five grand. The last local standing squares off against a name-brand Street Outlaw for an additional paycheck. It’s a stripped-down, brackety “game show” twist on the street-or-strip race format fans already know.
“First and foremost, we’re racers,” Farmtruck says. “But when they offered us this, and we saw a chance to highlight these up-and-coming guys, we jumped at it. It’s an instant spotlight on your average local racer who might never get another opportunity like this. Maybe you’re the fastest in your town, but racing Daddy Dave or Murder Nova? That’s a life-changer.”
Many racers were overjoyed by the invitation, but the fear factor was real, too. “We put out social media calls for submissions,” AZN recalls. “And a lot of people froze. You’ve got to video yourself, talk about why you deserve the shot—folks get nervous when you point a camera at them. But we managed to get a group of eight everywhere we went, and they put on a show.”
Farmtruck says the goal now is to rally fans to support the new show and, by extension, drag racing on TV. “People come up to us saying, ‘Man, I miss the old days of Street Outlaws.’ Well, if we can all get behind this, show the network that folks want to see racing, then we can keep it going. These fans don’t realize how much power they have to keep drag racing on television.”
Ultimately, whether Locals Only opens a new chapter or wraps after one run, Farmtruck and AZN are at peace—just as they’ve been since the original series took off more than a decade ago. “We’re fortunate. None of this was planned,” AZN says. “We just said yes to an opportunity to race on TV, and it grew from there. If we end up done tomorrow, we’ll still have the crazy stories. But if the fans show up, who knows what might happen? We might pack our bags again soon.”
This story was originally published on April 3, 2025. 
