(EDITOR’S NOTE: The opinions expressed below are not necessarily the opinions of the author or Drag Illustrated. The following is a recap of events that aired on Street Outlaws: Fastest in America season 2. The description of events is being recounted as told to DI in a recent interview with Chris “Block” Gordon about the altercation while filming.)
Drama is part of racing. Anytime you put a group of testosterone-fueled, ego-driven maniacs together, the results can be explosive. Emotions run high, tempers flare, and when you add extremely large amounts of money in the mix, volatility is guaranteed. This is the case with an on-air altercation that took place during the filming process of season two of Street Outlaws: Fastest in America in Casper, Wyoming. Chris “Block” Gordon brought a team of racers from the South Carolina area to Wyoming to race against 11 other teams from across the country, all for the chance to win $300,000 in total (not including side bets). This amount of money has the potential to bring out the best and worse in people, and if you watch the series, both are on full display.
The Street Outlaws franchise is no stranger to on-set altercations, but at the end of the day, reality TV is largely based around drama. Many Street Outlaws critics have been vocal over the years about the authenticity of the show, but this author can speak from firsthand knowledge and experience that most of what you see on TV is real. The reality is that the lion’s share of the drama that plays out on television is organic and 100-percent of the racing real in every way.
Until Fastest In America, with few exceptions, the number of cast member on set is normally relatively low. With so many teams on hand at the Wyoming race spot spectating in an attempt to gain an advantage over the other teams, the number of personalities in attendance was significant. Occasionally, when the right (or wrong) blend of personality, emotion, and money are mixed together, the powder keg can explode.
Block In His Own Words
“So, the night before, when I came on set right before the altercation, before the Cali and Texas race, my wife had already been telling me something just doesn’t feel right,” Block begins to explain. “Me being me, I didn’t pay her any attention. You know women, they always think something is wrong. When we got on set that night, none of my team had arrived yet, other than one car. When we got there a producer pulled me to the side, which is not unusual, and he said something in the context of, Block, this isn’t your episode, so just tone it down and if I need you to turn it up, I’ll come over and tell you to turn it up. That’s common, so I’m like, all right, cool. Not even five minutes later, JJ walks past me and he’s like, what’s wrong, Block, Hollywood told you to be quiet? I’m JJ the motherfucking boss, nobody tells me to be quiet! At that moment, I’m like, what the hell was that about? The producer tells me to be quiet or calm down, and then JJ comes with that. He’s antagonizing me, you know what I mean? So, what do him and the producer have going on? First of all, how would JJ know that they told me to calm it down? How would he know that unless they told him, and why would the producer tell me to be quiet? And then why would JJ antagonize me for no reason? I wasn’t even speaking to him, then he goes off like he’s some Billy bad ass. So, I brushed that off. I asked my wife, what should I do, and she’s said just keep going and don’t let it bother you.
“After the pairing that night, JJ and his entourage leave,” Block explains. “So, we’re doing grudge rounds after the pairings were over. With JJ gone, I take the opportunity to flag almost every race that night. I helped put the races together, and basically was the racemaster for the night. I basically did JJ’s job since he wasn’t there. I was like, hell, this is camera time, I’m going to go ahead and get it. In my mind, I didn’t think anything of it, other than getting more camera time. When I’m on set, I’m front and center, and it’s noticeable. We go to filming the next day, which is Texas versus Cali (grudge night). Before the race even starts, we are up there, you know, up there where you see it on TV. Now, how they played it on TV was that it was a part of the grudge night. It was not a part of the grudge night. It all happened before we even started filming the Texas and Cali race. Basically, JJ and Boddie were teaming up on Boogie (Team South Carolina member). At that point, there was no bad blood or anything going on between me and Boogie yet. So, when Boddie and JJ teamed up against Boogie, me as Boogie’s team captain, I step up, because that’s my job as the team captain. If it’s two of them against him, why shouldn’t I stand up? So, I came into the conversation and it just escalated quickly.
“It’s hard telling the story looking back at it,” Block adds. “I’m entitled to my own opinion, and I think it was a set up. They really weren’t talking about anything. Nothing was really happening, looking back at it. But in that moment, I’m going to stand up for my teammate and try to help him out. So, they’re arguing back and forth, and I don’t remember much—you could watch and see what happens until they take the camera away and show you stupid camera angles. They don’t actually show you what happened. JJ told me I had ‘no oil pressure,’ and I either said, ‘bitch, your motor’s in the back of your truck,’ or ‘your motor’s in the back of your truck, bitch.’ And that is when I got hit. I got blindsided. I wasn’t even looking at him when he hit me, but that wasn’t the bad part. First of all, I didn’t know who hit me at first. I would have been all right if it was just him, but they ganged me. I can’t tell you exactly, but I think it was five-on-one. I couldn’t put my hand on a Bible and say that, but I know it was JJ, Doughboy, and [Doughboy’s] wife, Chelsea, for sure. I was getting the best of JJ, people have told me, and then Doughboy tackled me from the back. And then Chelsea, you can barely see her in the mix, but she was definitely kicking me in my face. So, you got Precious, you got Chelsea, you got Doughboy, you got JJ, and nobody helps me. Nobody. I was attacked for no reason. I didn’t call his wife a bitch. Cause that’s the rumor I’m pretty sure I’ve heard that I called his wife a bitch, or I called his mother a bitch. I didn’t even call him a bitch. And from all the episodes I’ve shot so far, if I talk shit to somebody, I have never left myself defenseless. Like when I called the one guy a bitch on one of the episodes, I was ready. If he really took it that personally, guess what, we would have had to [fight], you know what I mean? When I was talking crap to Chuckie Davis in that meeting that one time and it got rowdy, I was ready for war. I’m ready to fight if that’s what it comes down to, but for this man to take a cheap shot and sucker punch me and then they gang me, and then that’s not the bad part. The bad part is to give the narrative like [JJ] put me in my place is uncalled for. This man can’t slap mayonnaise on bread, less slap Block Motorsports. But the power of Pilgrim and the producers, I don’t know what it is to protect him, but they just let him have his way. They didn’t have any problem showing the other guy sucker punching the other guy and look at the rap he’s got (in reference to an on-set altercation on the original Street Outlaws show), but we’re not going to show JJ sucker punch Block because that shows him as the coward and the nutless hack that he is.
“My thing is, me flagging the races that full night before, then the comment that he made like Pilgrim was controlling me, in retrospect, right before this happened, was JJ intimidated by my character and my persona? That’s what made him snap. I was jumped. I was sucker punched for nothing. I didn’t stand a chance by myself. Even with him sucker punching me, I still could have taken him one-on-one. Me personally, I think JJ was intimidated by me. I even have a producer on the recording directly before I went in the ambulance saying ‘I have a loose cannon up there. I don’t know what sets him off.’ And he says, you have to understand that this show is his livelihood. And when [he] feels threatened, stuff happens.
“It basically just went downhill from there,” Block states. “At that moment, I could have packed up. I could have had JJ arrested. I could have had the show shut down, and we could have gone home. I had all that power in my hands, right there. The police officer told me that. He said, if I give the word, they’ll shut everything down. But hindsight is 20/20 looking at everything now. But you know, at that moment I said, people have traveled a long way to do this race, blah, blah, blah, whatever, spend a lot of money. My team was pulling in as we spoke. That’s why my wife wasn’t there when the attack went down. She went to help one of our people find a parking spot at the fairgrounds. I said, babe, we’ll just go to the hospital. And we didn’t have him arrested. From a legal standpoint, I wish I had, but it is what it is at this point. Looking at it now, you know, the people I was looking out for, nobody looked out for me, not one person who saw what happened, came to me face-to-face on set and said, man, that’s messed up what he did or has stood up for me one time. They’re not going to go against the grain. I’m a lone ranger right now, and that’s unfortunate.”
Anytime there is an altercation and hands are thrown, damage is done. Whether it’s physical or emotional, the damage has lasting effect. From our conversation with Block, the damage was significantly more physical. The altercation left Block with a facial injury that required surgery and netted a medial bill of approximately $20,000.
“I had a broken nose, black eyes, bruises on the side of my face. Both my eyes were black because I was kicked in the nose. And I bit my bottom lip from being kicked in the face. None of my damage came from JJ. All of my damage, other than maybe a little bruise on the side of my head, came from being kicked in the face from a girl with boots on. JJ did nothing but be the coward that he is. It was brutal, brutal. You know, I was bleeding everywhere. My nose was crooked on my face. It was rough. And then, when my wife got back, she didn’t even know anything had happened. Boogie and Jimmy went and told my wife that JJ had sucker punched me, but now their whole story’s changed.
“Everybody’s not built like me,” Block explains. “I didn’t kiss any ass to get on the TV show and I sure ain’t kissing no ass to stay on it, you know? [After the fight] we didn’t really come on set until the night before we were supposed to race so I could test the car. I didn’t hear from JJ at all until the night before we filmed against Black Sheep Mafia. He called me a couple of hours before we went on set. He didn’t even say sorry. He didn’t apologize. He just called me so we could make TV that night. If you watch the drivers’ meeting when we picked Black Sheep Mafia, look at the look on Doughboy face because nothing had been said, so they were all tense and tight. Now I had a team with me, so they couldn’t jump me anymore. They thought I was going to be the careless one and fly off the hook.
“On set that night, looking out for my team, I put on a good front to protect them and to make good TV for them. The team made the best of a less-than-perfect situation, but we tried make good TV and I did my best as their leader. Then after everything’s a wrap, I come to find out, once we get back home, the producers called them, telling them to get away from me cause I’m pursuing legal action. And I’m like, what am I supposed to do? I got $20,000 in medical bills. I had to have surgery on my nose and everything while I was in Wyoming.
“There’s nothing going to happen [legally] unless I find him an attorney that will go through arbitration with Pilgrim,” Block explains. “And I’m at the point now because of my next move, I’m just going to suck it up. Lesson learned, even though it’s the shittiest lesson and I did nothing wrong. this man’s got millions of dollars, but fuck Block’s $20,000 and it’s not even his fault. So basically, once I got an attorney, the producers called my team and tell them, oh, y’all need to get away from Block. And that goes to show, if somebody was supposed to be my friend, I wouldn’t have paid that any attention, or at least let me know. I knew nothing. Producers reached out to them and told them, oh yeah, he’s pursuing legal against us and Discovery, and JJ or whatever. But nothing’s going to happen because I signed a release and basically my attorney says, we can beat the release, but at what cost? That’s the point we’re at. But you know, really, the only thing that pisses me off is how they edited it to make me the fall guy. If you watch JJ talk about ‘Block and his crap,’ what crap? You were the, excuse me, the bitch who sucker punched me. If we’re going to be frankly clear.
“At the end of the day, I have to live with people who don’t realize that we’re watching a TV show and they think JJ taught me a lesson, when in all actuality he was a coward. You understand? So, you know, it is what it is, but I did not call his wife a bitch, people thought I called his mother a bitch, but I did not. I didn’t even call him a bitch, but he acted like a bitch in sucker punching me. I mean, you don’t want to be called one, but you act like one. I mean it’s kind of comical.”
Egos and tempers can push people into ugly situations. No matter what side of the situation you choose to follow, the fact is the fight is over. Or is it? If you haven’t seen Block’s recent Facebook Live video addressing the incident, there is potentially more to the story and the fight may not be over just yet.
Get In The Ring
Block wants a shot at a fair fight. As a boisterous grudge racer, he is never one step down from a volatile situation, which is why he has proposed a sporting end to the feud. He has even brought in super-promoter and avid, and extremely vocal, Street Outlaws-critic, Donald Long on the action.
“I am going to call JJ out in a boxing ring,” Block tells us. “Twelve rounds. People love drama. Donald ‘Duck’ Long thinks it’s the best idea ever. This way Pilgrim cannot edit this. If he’s the man that he’s portrayed to be, put on these boxing gloves and let’s get in the ring face-to-face. We’ll make this happen if you’re not a coward. You tried to ruin my name and say all this stuff about me when it’s not true. You said you had to ‘take care of Block,’ which is not true. The damage that I had on my face didn’t even come from you. So now it’s time for you to answer. Either be the man that you have told America that you are and step in the ring and see if you can really beat me where there’s a referee and everything sanctioned, and everything’s legit, or just be the coward. If you don’t accept, you’re a coward because you can’t do it.”
Never the one to shy away from drama and publicity, Long was quick to back Block with his own words about the situation.
“I stand behind any Street Outlaw or No Prep Kings member that gets kicked off the show by some little Napoleon power-tripping motherfucker,” states Long. “It’s a real shame that the show picks money over human decency. Somebody getting beat up and not standing up for all their racers, just their so-called golden gooses is unacceptable.”
“There’s going to be no excuse that [JJ] did not know that I called him out,” Block adds. “You had the balls, the audacity to put your hands on me when you knew that Pilgrim and Discovery can make you look good. Let’s see if they can make you look good and train you to get in this ring!”
We asked Block if this could be settled on the track as opposed to another fight.
“We left the racing behind when he put his hands on me,” Block explains. “We left the racing behind when he sucker punched me. When he threw his hands, he made that decision. I might have let everything go if they never played the fight at all. Discovery, Pilgrim, JJ, they made the decision to play the altercation of him sucker punching me. They made the decision of not telling the truth and making me look like I caused what happened like it was a head-on fight. And they made the decision not to even take care of my medical bills and say fuck you Block, and basically blackballed me from the show. So now I’ve made the decision to call out his coward ass and tell him to get in the ring and let me beat his ass where they can’t edit it.”
Will JJ Da Boss respond? Will we see more hands thrown before this feud is laid to rest? Only time will tell, but one this is for sure, this is far from over!
This story was originally published on January 1, 2021. 
