Five things about ... Tuna, a NASCAR motorhome driver

Once you've met a NASCAR motorhome driver you've met them all, right? They're all former truck drivers who grew up in the South and love NASCAR.

Well, it may fit a certain percentage but it doesn't apply to Ed Susen, who drives the motorhome of Martin Truex Jr. He originally is from upstate New York and answers only to one name: Tuna.

Although he's also known by something else you can read about in five additional and intriguing items about one of NASCAR's finest:

Criss-crossing the country in a motorhome during the NASCAR season comes with its own set of hazards but what happens if you get picked up by a twister?

Susen knows and explains.

"I was working for team owner Todd Braun at the time and on my way to Gateway Raceway in St. Louis. It's was about 11:30 p.m. on Interstate 24 in southern Illinois. I could see flashes of lightening in the distance but when I turned the radio to check the weather nothing came up. It wasn't raining and then all the sudden it started raining super hard, like someone was throwing buckets of water on the windshield.

"I stopped and the wind was shaking the bus and debris was flying parallel to the ground. Just before I jumped out of my seat and headed to the back away from the windows I saw the tornado. It then picked up the front of the bus and barrel-rolled it if off the interstate. I was knocked out for a while in the middle of the bus but I could hear tires on the wet road. It was the volunteer fire department. I suffered a cracked shoulder but I felt like a cat in a clothes dryer."

People inside the garage were talking about Susen's wild ride for months and still to this day he is not known by his name but as the guy who was thrown off the road by a tornado.

2. Tuna and bass ...

Martin Truex Jr. and Ed Susen show off some fish caught on a recent fishing trip.

Most motorhome drivers obviously go where their respective drivers go and that tends to be some rather nice places that make for enjoyable vacations.

Susen, a fisherman, lucked out when Truex, an avid bass fisherman, hired him in 2006.

"I'm not as good as Martin but he was filming a fishing show with [outdoorsmen] Jimmy Houston on one of Disney World's lakes. Me and another guy from the team were following behind them in a boat with the camera crews. We caught quite a few large-mouth bass."

The Susens: Ed, Ayme and Samuel

While the average motorhome driver is content to stop the long-distance travel after Homestead, Susen embraces more travel. He and his wife, Ayme, a native of South America, jet off to her hometown of Lima, Peru, with their toddler son, Samuel.

"I don't think I'm ever in one place for more than two weeks. But South America is different, no one knows much about NASCAR racing there and it is a nice change of pace and a way to get a real break because I don't get any phone calls. We travel back and forth from the beach to the city and it is wonderful. We also spend some of the offseason with my family in New York."

4. Fill 'er up ...

Autostock

Ed Susen works the pits in the Nationwide Series as a gas man for Steve Wallace.

Like Sprint Cup drivers Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, Susen also moonlights in the Nationwide Series.

"Only I'm a gas man. Martin gives me half of Saturdays off so I can gas the car for Steven Wallace. I'm an over-the-wall crew member because it gives me extra money and it's fun. But when I'm not doing that, I'm cleaning the motorhome, shopping for food, picking up laundry and making sure Martin is taken to where he needs to be. I'm basically there to make his life easier so that the only thing he has to worry about is driving the race car."

Tuna is a character from the Johnny Depp movie Blow. Tuna is Johnny Depp's best friend in the movie and drives him in a motorhome across the country. I've been doing this for several years so it was a name given to me a long time ago and it stuck. The thing is, some people don't know my real name."