Texas Tornado Red Truck Driver Found

CLAY: I wanted to finish with a positive story. We got a huge crowd down in Texas. We appreciate all of you listening in the great state of Texas. A tornado… Viral moment, Buck. A tornado came through and caught a red pickup truck. If you haven’t seen this video, it’s pretty incredible. It’s Austin, Texas, area, this kid’s driving a red Chevy pickup truck. The tornado picks up the truck, spins it around, flips it! The kid is spinning around inside in the car.

And then the tornado flips it back on its wheels, and the kid just keeps driving. So if you haven’t seen this video, it’s unbelievable. I say the kid, because until now, we didn’t know who was driving the red pickup truck in the middle of this viral story. Well, they have tracked him down. Fox 7 News in Austin, Texas.

It is a 16-year-old high school junior named Riley Leon. He was coming back — in an ultimate Texas story — from an interview to get a job at Whataburger, and you need to hear this kid. If this isn’t the front piece of the Chevy marketing campaign going forward — “Like a Rock,” indeed — Listen to this.

BUCK: First of all (laughs), I’m just glad the kid is okay. He’s very self-effacing, seems like a really good guy. (laughing) I love though, “I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody.”

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: I’m sure you would not!

CLAY: I wouldn’t recommend a tornado picking up your truck, spinning you around on your hood. Here’s the other thing, Buck. If that video isn’t out, what are the odds that his buddy ever believes him, right? Because if you were in high school and your buddy came in and was like, “Hey, man, that tornado was pretty crazy,” and one of them said, “Yeah. You know, I got caught in that, and my truck got picked up, flipped over, spun around on its hood; then I got flipped back on the other side and I just kept driving home.” No one would believe it.

BUCK: No one would believe him.

CLAY: They’d say, “Sure, whatever.”

BUCK: The actual video of it. Do we have it up at ClayAndBuck.com? Because we will if we don’t. (interruption) It is up? Okay. Great. We will shortly. You can go to ClayAndBuck.com for the video. Because what I will tell you, it looks like what they had to use CGI to create in the movie Twister.

CLAY: That’s right.

BUCK: You look at it and you’re like (R.I.P.) Bill Paxton? Where is the cast of Twister?

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: That’s how… It’s as real as it gets, man. It’s crazy. But was he kind of driving a little…? It looks to me like he wasn’t going that fast. Maybe he was wondering which direction to go in, because he wasn’t flooring it, right?

CLAY: No. I think he was… Again, according to the kid, he was doing an interview at Whataburger. Which, by the way, I mean, if Whataburger doesn’t hire this kid, they should fire whoever the manager of that Whataburger is for just being an imbecile, right? He should get Whataburger for life after that, frankly!

BUCK: Yeah. That’s dedication.

CLAY: I think what happened was — and if you’ve ever been out in weather, especially if you’re a young kid, but anybody out in weather. And I live in Nashville, so we have tornadoes every now and then. Trying to figure out what direction the tornado is coming from can be super difficult, especially because it’s such a weird environment when I think the barometric pressure is dropping like that.

I have stood and watched massive tornado funnel clouds before. And it is, I think, one of the most jaw-dropping scary moments that is out there, and so I think the kid just found himself in the middle of it. Didn’t know where to go. Wasn’t driving very fast. Next thing you know, he’s upside down, spinning around!

BUCK: Just conceptually… I know this is one of these things: Conceptually, do you think a tornado, hurricane, tidal wave, or earthquake sounds like the scariest? Because, to me, I feel like a tornado. It sounds like it’s the most terrifying.

CLAY: I have been in three of the four. I haven’t ever been in a tidal wave. I have been in fairly decent sized earthquakes, at the top of buildings in California, when they’ve been going down. In San Diego and in LA. When the big one hit LA or one of the big ones the last couple years, I was in the top floor of a hotel. That was scary. Tornado was the scariest. I’ve been in a hurricane. I’m not… (laughs)

BUCK: Yeah.

CLAY: I don’t work for the Weather Channel. But I’ve in three of those four. Tornado was scary.

BUCK: And there was, of course, when you got struck by lightning when you met Mrs. Travis, Clay, for the first time.

CLAY: (laughing) Wow. I need to pull that. Hopefully she’s listening. It’s not even our anniversary.

BUCK: Use that one later.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: Put that one in the bank.