Daniel Siler's 1994 Rock Crawl Ranger

Since the time his grandfather gave him his first truck, a 1969 Ford, Blackfoot native Danny Siler said he has been obsessed.

“Trucks have just been my life,” Siler said. “I don’t even own any cars. I own trucks. Wheeling is just one of my things.”

That’s why when he saw an advertisement for “Truck Night in America,” a new truck competition show airing on the History Channel, he decided to check it out.

He loved the show so much that halfway through the first season, he decided to contact them on their Facebook page, asking how he could be on the show. They told him they would send a casting call for the second season, and as soon as they did, Siler applied.

“I applied kind of as a joke,” he said. “I didn’t think they’d even look at me.”

But they did. Siler said he was notified by the show that they wanted him for the second season, and he traveled to Georgia with his truck at the end of July to compete.

Each episode of the show features five drivers and their own personal trucks, usually customized with roll cages and massive tires for off-road terrain.

The truck Siler will be driving for the competition is a 1994 Ford Ranger with 40-inch tires.

Siler will compete against the four other drivers for $10,000. Each driver competes in a speed challenge, a strength challenge and a handling challenge, and the final two competitors will drive through a three-mile obstacle course called The Green Hell.

“I’ve put so much work into my truck, so for me it’s just a moment of being able to show the truck off and show what it can do,” Siler said. “And also I haven’t seen any trucks like mine on the show. I’ve always been different. I like to be different. That’s why I built it.”

Siler said he believes the reason he was chosen for the show, and part of the reason he applied, is because he was diagnosed with a genetic disorder in January, which he said has made his life a little slower and more difficult.

“Since January, I’ve been kind of restricted, and I’ve kind of had a new outlook on life,” he said. “I wanted to do more. And I applied because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

In addition to competing with other drivers, Siler will have the opportunity to be coached by four expert truck builders and racers.

Siler said that while he has entered his truck in tractor pulls and races before, he has never done anything like “Truck Night in America.”

“It’s a whole new level of competition,” he said. “And you just don’t know what to expect.”

“It’s a pretty cool deal because it’s national TV,” Siler said. “And I consider myself just a redneck from Blackfoot.”