Meet Bari Musawwir, an Ohio native who went from racing radio-controlled cars to racing in monster trucks as part of Monster Jam 2026.
Musawwir is one of the few who is fulfilling a childhood dream as the driver of the Zombie monster truck. He has been a professional driver with the show for 15 years.
The Monster Jam will have shows at 5 p.m. Saturday, March 14 and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 15 at the Sun Bowl Stadium. Tickets ranging from $59.30 to $148 plus fees are still available at Ticketmaster.com.
“It is a dream come true,” Musawwir said, standing in front of his apocalyptic monster truck.
“I knew when my mom took me to my first event at six years old, this is what I wanted to do. So, I didn’t know how I was gonna get there. But thankfully I got introduced to radio controlled trucks and cars and got noticed at a big radio-controlled event actually at the home of Gravedigger. One of the Monster Jam officials just happened to be there and he said, ‘man, if you could drive an RC car that good, you could probably drive the real deal. So, they gave me a shot in the test field,” he said.
That was in 2006 when he was 26 years old and it took him four years to become a professional driver.
Musawwir said this will be his third time in El Paso, and he is excited about the El Paso crowd, which always cheers well.
The driver said they don’t drive the trucks between shows and only have a day or so before each show to check out the course and get familiar with it.
And after all these years, the jitters before the shows are always there.
“There’s still the butterflies, it still happens. The adrenaline rush is still there. If you don’t get that driving these things then something is wrong. You probably don’t need to be doing it,” he said.
“But you try to go into every event with confidence. I’m confident in my equipment. The truck always performs really well. My crew does a good job of it so it’s up to me to drive it at a high level,” he said.
Musiwwir said the competition is tough. He has earned some accolades, including Monster Jam Fan Favorite 2025 and Entertainer of the Year 2024.
“There’s a lot of tough competitors on our tour, so they make it tough to maintain that, but you have to be consistent every weekend,” he said.
Of course, fans get more than a little excited when a truck rolls over, but it’s not the goal.
“It’s not the goal, but when you drive these trucks on the ragged edge, anything’s capable of happening and there’s gonna be somebody upside down at the end of the weekend probably more than just one of us. So that’s just part of it,” he said.
The good thing is Musawwir always feels safe in his truck with seats tailored to his body.
“You get comfortable in there and you feel invincible, driving this 12,000-pound truck with 15,000 horsepower underneath your right foot,” he said. “They are capable of a lot so we have fun with it.”
María Cortés González may be reached at 915-546-6150; mcortes@elpasotimes.com; @eptmaria.bsky.social on Bluesky, and @eptmariacg on TikTok.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Monster Jam driver Bari Musawwir brings ‘Zombie’ to El Paso
Reporting by Maria Cortes Gonzalez, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
