FAYETTE COUNTY, Tenn — A new travel center at exit 42 on I-40 in Fayette County held its official opening Wednesday morning.

The Pilot Travel Center is just 12 miles away from another popular travel center, Buc-ee’s.

“If you’ve got a video camera, got a camera out, zoom out,” said Director of Operations Jimmy Fleming. “Because this is the biggest Pilot Travel Center we’ve ever built in the history of our company in over 68 years.”

Top brass from Pilot Company, as well as dignitaries from Fayette and Haywood Counties, got a look and taste of the Pilot Travel Center.

“And when you come in our building, you want to fill up, whether that’s filling up your tank or filling up your own personal tank, make sure your stomach’s full and you have everything you need for your travel,” said Fleming.

The new building is 20,000 square feet with an addition of 40 workers compared to the old 6,000 square feet building with 45 employees.

The new location has been named the Flagship location for the entire company, with clean restrooms, more food choices, fuel pumps, and parking.

“I like the quick access of a store like this. I like Buc-ee’s, but if I’m in a hurry, I prefer the access of a store like this because I can go in and get our fairly quickly,” said a resident of Arkansas, Lisa Cates.

While Pilot management says it welcomes competition, big rig drivers say they plan to steer clear of Buc-ee’s.

“Buc-ee’s has a lot more products that are exclusive just to their stores, but because they don’t allow truck drivers in, it kind of puts a bad taste in our mouths. So we’d rather come to something like this,” said professional truck driver Devin Tucker.

Pilot operates 900 stores across 44 states and all of Canada. They showed their commitment to the community by presenting $10,000 each to Fayette County Schools and Haywood County Schools.