This is also the first episode that Blaze joins Pickle for the whole adventure. He spends the majority of the episode with Blaze.
This episode marks the debut of Rudy.
This is the first episode where a race takes up the bulk of the episode.
The travel song is instrumental in this episode. This is the only time this happens.
This is the second episode where the STEM song comes first instead of the travel song after Epic Sail.
Blaze encounters a bighorn again for the second time. Bighorns were previously seen in Stuntmania!.
This is the first time a character sings the STEM song with Blaze and AJ, in this case Pickle.
This episode marks the only time Crusher had an attempt to stop Pickle with a cheat, and also the only where he actually despised Pickle.
This is the second episode to get a near-death experience with Crusher's invention (the first being The Driving Force); had Blaze not squished the cheese balls, he and Pickle would've been crushed themselves.
It's strange that Crusher's invention almost killed Pickle since he's his best friend.
This is the only time to date Pickle's trunk is shown open.
This is the final episode aired in 2014.
This is the first time Crusher blocks a tunnel with rocks. The second would be Race to the Golden Gift.
But unlike this episode, Blaze actually realizes Crusher blocked it.
Coincidentally, Blaze was with someone when this happens in both episodes (Pickle in this episode and Watts in Race to the Golden Gift).
Throughout the whole episode, Blaze and Pickle never found out the obstacles they encountered were all Crusher's fault.
Blaze and Pickle high tire over 7 times in this episode, making this the most high tires given.
The Team Truck Challenge is held again one year until Defeat the Cheat.
This is the first time Pickle competes in a race.
This is the first episode where there's a photo finish; in this case it's Blaze and Pickle together.
Running Gags[]
Blaze and/or Pickle's line “Teammates always help each other.”
Rudy intimidating and grossing out Crusher with his rolling coal habits.
Blaze saying “Let’s Blaze!”, followed by Pickle saying “And Pickle!”
Allusions[]
While Pickle is attempting to swing down and knock down the rocks the first time, he hollers Tarzan's iconic yell.
Goofs[]
A strange reason: When Rudy rolls coal right in front of Crusher, he doesn't turn black.
When Pickle comes upon Crusher preparing for the race, he doesn't have his blue team flag on, but in the next shot, it mysteriously appears out of nowhere.
AJ puts Blaze's orange team flag on his right side, but after Pickle cheers for being on Blaze's team and in the rest of the episode, the flag is on Blaze's left side.
While Blaze is going up the hill, he's halfway up when he sees the first cheese ball, but when he squishes it, he seems to be near the bottom again.
AJ pours ten bricks into Pickle's trunk to give him mass so he can knock down the rocks, but when he discards them all ten drop out. Therefore, he shouldn't have the extra brick later on which shooed away the bighorns.
There are five bricks on the ground near the ones in the wheelbarrow, but when Pickle knocks the rocks down, the bricks have disappeared.
Based on the direction of the fence falling down when Crusher knocked them over, the rocks should've fallen straight forward instead of to the side.
The same trucks on the yellow team were later also shown as part of the red team at the same time. Same goes for the green team appearing as part of the white team.
When the race is beginning, the red and white teams weren’t shown lining up.
The hill that Blaze and Pickle ascend seems to be unusually bigger than normal during the "squishing cheese balls" scenario.
The sky becomes somewhat slightly darker before Blaze squishes the first cheese ball.
Irony: If Crusher blocked the mine entrance and Blaze and Pickle come to knock the rocks down, then they shouldn’t have encountered the other teams when they come out the other side; they should’ve been in front of Crusher by the time he blocks the mine.
When the blue team is nearing the finish and is far ahead from the orange team, Crusher is on the left while Rudy is on the right, but in the rest of the scenes when they speed up to the finish, they have switched places.
Blaze tells the viewer to activate Blazing Speed only once. For the rest of the episode, they just say it immediately.
