One of the sport’s most recognized Monster Jam^® figures, Chad Fortune is most often recognized years behind the wheel of the Superman™ truck. He is, perhaps, the sport’s most imposing physical competitor. Fortune has been called Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam^®’s “Six-foot-six Man of Steel”. The former football player and former wrestler found a home as a big man in a big truck and has become a mainstay at the top level of Monster Jam for more than a decade.   

Fortune debuted in the sport not as a competitor but as a “spokesman” for the nWo truck in 1999. Shortly after that, in 2000, a truck called the Nitro Machine was built large enough to fit his tall frame. Before he moved into the Superman ride in 2005, Fortune had been tabbed to drive Karl Malone’s Power Forward truck. But Fortune was a perfect fit for the super hero-themed truck, Superman.   

He is without question one of Monster Jam’s purest athletes. During his football career, Fortune wore number 81 as the starting tight end for University of Louisville Cardinal football team, under legendary coach Howard Schnellenberger, for four seasons from 1986 through 1989. He then played in the National Football League with Indianapolis and Miami in 1990, Philadelphia in 1992, then Washington and Chicago. Fortune also played in Europe in the World League between NFL seasons. Following his football days, Fortune stayed in the world of physical careers with a stint in World Championship Wrestling. Then he found his true calling when he got the opportunity to compete in Advance Auto Parts Monster Jam.  

Q&A with Chad Fortune                                                    

MonsterJam.com: How did you get started competing on the Monster Jam circuit?  
Chad Fortune: When I was wrestling, I was also doing some promotions with WCW and doing the PR stuff for their pay-per-views as a character. For instance, for the Road Wild show I’d ride a Harley through the streets of Atlanta. Or if it was Bash at the Beach, I’d be out there on a surfboard or something like that. It was a fun gig promoting the pay-per-view shows as well as doing some wrestling. Then after my stint with wrestling was over, one of the executives from WCW came to work with Pace Motor Sports. He asked me if I wanted to get involved with Monster Jam to develop a little more of a personality with the crowds. They gave me a shot. I went down to North Carolina for a driving test. I got in one of the old Grave Diggers® and Dennis Anderson built a track out in a bean field and he really stacked the jumps up. I think that he was trying to get rid of me. I went out there and it just beat me up for three days. This was in February, there on the ocean, and I would be out there driving the trucks all day. I had a neck collar that was about an inch thick. I’d be so sore when I was done that I would just walk out into the ocean just to have the waves hit my back. I’d come back the next day and do it all over again. It was such an adrenaline rush that the real pain didn’t hit me until after I stopped. It was great. So they said they would build a truck for me because nothing they had would fit me. So we started right after that, first in the Nitro Machine monster truck, then I got the ride in Power Forward. Then, I moved on to Superman in 2005. 

MonsterJam.com: What do you enjoy doing while on the road with Monster Jam?  
Chad Fortune: We go to a lot of interesting places. I enjoy all of the cities in Florida, over to the West Coast, north, and south—seeing all the places that I used to play football in or where I had wrestled in. I also enjoy hanging out with friends that I’ve made in this business and wowing the crowd. And of course, seeing old friends again is something I enjoy. 

MonsterJam.com: What do you do with your free time?  
Chad Fortune:  When I’m home, then I’m home. I just try to keep the TV off and relax and hang out with my son. We’ll go to the beach. I’m fortunate enough to be close to the beach off of Lake Michigan, in Indiana, and it is real quiet out there. It’s just great to hang out with him and forget about work for a while.  

MonsterJam.com: What is your greatest memory as a monster truck driver?  
Chad Fortune: Probably, all the traveling. We’re very fortunate that this sport has grown the way that it has, including its international presence. I was fortunate enough to have played football in Europe and, of course, I had traveled while wrestling; now I’m driving a monster truck. I mean, it’s ten feet tall, 10,000 pounds, and they are shipping this thing on a boat to Europe and to Central America and to places where people may have no idea what we really do. It’s great to see those faces when they see the truck for the first time. You can see that they are hooked. It’s great to look into their eyes when they finally see a show. Even when it’s over they don’t want to leave.  

MonsterJam.com: Do you have any pre-show rituals that you run though?  
Chad Fortune:  There are some things. I mean, some of these days are just so busy. They may start at 6:00 in the morning, especially on the televised shows, and you may not leave until 2:00 the next morning. Sometimes getting something to eat is a challenge; so I always keep some crackers in the pockets of my fire suit—peanut butter crackers to be specific. I do this because you’ll be sitting in the truck and it’s time to go and you haven’t eaten anything all day. I’ll just reach down and grab some crackers. 

MonsterJam.com: If you were not competing on the Monster Jam tour, what career path would you follow?   
Chad Fortune:  That’s really hard to say. I don’t know. I feel very fortunate for what I’ve been able to do. I don’t see myself sitting at a desk. It would have to be something extreme, doing something that is out of the ordinary. Being a one-of-a-kind type of person is my forte. Maybe I’d be climbing up telephone poles and stringing lines or maybe I’d be window washing on skyscrapers. I know it would have to be something unique that I would love to do every day. 

MonsterJam.com: What’s your favorite food?  
Chad Fortune:  Sushi 

MonsterJam.com: What’s your favorite movie?  
Chad Fortune:  Cool Hand Luke 

 MonsterJam.com: What’s your favorite television show?
 Chad Fortune:  The Office and HGTV (I love being creative and working on houses, my garden in the back, landscaping, even putting up a wall in my house) 

MonsterJam.com: What’s your favorite color?  
Chad Fortune:  Gotta be Superman colors, of course. Blue. And black. Because that’s the way my body looks all the time, half of it is black and blue! And of course, on the track all you see is red! 

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