Seven of the country's best Food Trucks start the cross country journey in Southern California. They think they are starting in LA, but quickly learn that the first city they must conquer over 100 miles away in San Diego.

The remaining six trucks arrive in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they are greeted by a snow storm. Will the weather affect sales or will some trucks be able to succeed despite the low temperatures?

The five remaining teams roll into Fort Worth, Texas, the beef capital of the world, and assemble in front of the courthouse. After the weekend's competition gets underway, Tyler calls the teams with their Truck Stop challenge: butcher a side of beef and incorporate into a special dish. Unaware of the challenge's steep odds and secret judge King of Fort Worth Tim Love (Lonesome Dove), the challenge winner earns $1,000 towards its final tally, an amount equivalent to immunity.

The final four trucks arrive in New Orleans and meet Tyler at the Louisiana Superdome. The competitors run into shockingly unpredictable weather; one minute it's clear, and the next it's a major downpour. Putting even more pressure on the teams, Tyler calls them with the Truck Stop challenge: the teams must close down their trucks for the night and meet him near the Mississippi River at day break to prepare a classic catfish dish for a local legend, Chef Jacques Leonardi (Jaques-Imo and Crabby Jack's). The winning team earns $500 and the opportunity to immediately open their truck for business, while the three losing teams endure filleting 700 pounds of catfish before returning to their trucks.

The remaining three teams pull into Jonesborough, Tenn., population 5,000. Nervous about how this small town will react to them, the teams meet Tyler on Main Street and realize that this leg of the race will hinge on their sales acumen and food quality. The trucks battle over the crowd assembled for a music festival but keeping their attention proves difficult. In the Truck Stop challenge, Tyler tells the team's to meet him at Old Man Johnson's farm to cook an authentic five-course prairie meal over an open fire to be judged by two cowboy historians from the American Chuck Wagon Association. As a reward, the winning team moves their truck to a greater populated town where they have the chance to beat out the competition.

The final two teams roll into New York City. The teams race off into the Bronx, needing to travel to all five boroughs of New York and reach a sales threshold in each one.