National Truck Driving Championships

To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Super Bowl and to get into the championship spirit, our podcast is doing a bit of a rewind with this episode. Greg Thompson and Eugene Mulero will be taking listeners back to the day of the Championship Runoff at NTDC 2025. We will be sharing a collection of the interviews that Eugene did just as the “Top Guns” of 2025 were exiting their trucks on the flo...

We are honored to welcome back America’s Road Team Captain and TA Citizen Driver Herschel Evans to the podcast. The driving force behind the annual Safety Drive For A Cure, Herschel takes us inside what it takes to bring together a premiere “preseason” TDC-level event that has now raised over $400,000 to support the work of the Pediatric Brain Cancer Foundation . As the calendar turned to February...

In his work on the second edition of the From Roadeo To TDC history book on NTDC last year, Transport Topics Senior Reporter Eugene Mulero had the opportunity to conduct an extended interview with Mike Alpine, the 2004 National Champion in the Auto Hauler Vehicle Class. Now, as you’ll hear beginning at the 19-minute mark of this episode, Mike holds the distinction of being the final Auto Hauler Na...

As part of our 2025 National Champions Series, Ed Hill from FedEx Freight joins the podcast to look back at winning his first career National Championship last August in Minneapolis. The pride of Delaware, Ed first entered his state TDC in 2022 and he came away with the Rookie of the Year, a state title and a trip to the Nationals. As you will hear, Ed returned to be a part of the elite NTDC field...

Greg Thompson and Eugene Mulero are back on the show together for the first time in a few weeks, and their first topic of 2026 is the upcoming Safety Drive For A Cure. For those who may not know, Safety Drive is the annual charity event led by America’s Road Team Captain Herschel Evans. This event brings together NTDC hopefuls from across the country in an annual campaign that raises money for Ped...

For this National Champions’ edition of the podcast, we look back at NTDC 2025 and Jeff Langenhahn’s run to the title in the Tanker Class. All things considered, it was clear Jeff was poised to have a great week last August. After all, Minneapolis was relatively close to his home in Wisconsin and that meant it was easy for members of Jeff’s family to make the trip. While Jeff, the 2014 NTDC Grand...

To open our fifth season of the NTDC Podcast Series, we have pulled an unreleased interview from our vault that two-time National Grand Champion Roland Bolduc did last year with John Greene. As you will hear, the conversation takes us back to 2023 when Roland and John made the trip to Columbus as fellow members of Team Connecticut. John brought home the National Championship in the 5-Axle Van Divi...

To say that 2025 was an unforgettable year for FedEx Freight’s David Comings would be one of the grandest understatements of the past 12 months. At NTDC 2025 in Minneapolis, David earned his first vehicle class National Championship before hearing his name called as the 2025 National Grand Champion. To make these first-in-his-life experiences even more memorable, David’s six children – ranging fro...

As we prepare for the calendar to turn to a new year on the podcast, we wanted to share this Rollin’ With Roland edition of the series that we recorded a few weeks after the close of NTDC 2025. At that time, we caught up with two-time National Grand Champion Roland Bolduc, who has graciously contributed a collection of competitor-to-competitor interviews to this podcast throughout 2025. Following...

As we approach Christmas Day, our podcast wanted to find a way to celebrate this season of giving and the gifts that are found by serving those in your community. We decided to reach out to Emily Crane, the Vice President of Safety and Engagement for the Georgia Trucking Association , to give her an opportunity to look back at what has been a memorable year. In 2025, Emily was part of the NTDC Org...

Mark Carver from FedEx Freight made the most of his second consecutive year at the Nationals, taking what he learned in Indianapolis in 2024 and turning it into NTDC gold in Minneapolis this past August. Returning as the Straight Truck Champion from Missouri, Mark put it all together to navigate the course, the written test and the pre-trip to ultimately hear his name called on Championship Saturd...

To say that Miguel Sanchez of UPS savored and valued every moment of the journey that brought him to the reality of winning the Twins Division National title at NTDC 2025 would be one of the understatements of the year. PodWheels caught up with Miguel a few weeks after he had brought the top trophy in Twins for his first National Championship back to his home terminal in the Jacksonville area. As...

For the next installment in our 2025 National Champions’ Series, we place Mississippi’s Stephen Johnson in the spotlight. Recorded in mid-October, Stephen reflects on the experience of winning the NTDC 2025 title in the 4-Axle Class. A veteran driver with FedEx Freight, Stephen called upon his initial experience at the Nationals in 2023 to help prepare him for success in Minneapolis this past summ...

Would you like to hear how the fire hydrant became part of the semifinal driving course at NTDC 2025? Would you like to go inside some of the processes involved when it comes to deciding the challenges that are included for the driving courses at the Nationals? Frank Ems, who oversees the work of the NTDC committee responsible for the driving course layout, joins PodWheels Executive Producer Greg...

We are thrilled to launch our NTDC 2025 Champions Series by welcoming Dan Shamrell, who met the challenge of winning a National Championship in his final appearance at an NTDC. Prior to arriving in Minneapolis for NTDC 2025, Dan had shared his plans to retire before the end of 2025 after 38 years on the road with FedEx Freight. Dan, an 11-time State Grand Champion from Oregon, had reached the Nati...

David Crocker, the Tanker State Champion from Maine, had just finished his first-ever run on the driving course when our podcast caught up with him in Minneapolis during the second day of NTDC Week. David’s interview is part of the collection of chats that we recorded onsite at NTDC 2025, and it’s one we decided to save to close out our Rewind Series that is part of our ongoing post-event coverage...

Almost one month to the day that the NTDC 2025 Organizing Committee began its onsite work to prepare for the Opening Day of this year’s Championships, PodWheels caught up with NTDC 2025 Chairman Robert Foskey. In this episode of the podcast, PodWheels Executive Producer Greg Thompson asks Bob to reflect on what took place in Minneapolis during the third week of August. As you will hear, Bob shares...

The NTDC 2025 Podcast dedicates this episode to spotlighting the importance of National Truck Driver Appreciation Week by looking back at the achievements at NTDC 2025 and on the highways by the 425 state champions who gathered in Minneapolis for this year’s edition of the National Championships. PodWheels Executive Producer Greg Thompson and Transport Topics Senior Reporter Eugene Mulero also dis...

As we continue to celebrate National Truck Driver Appreciation Week on the NTDC 2025 Podcast, we are thrilled to bring you a Champions Appreciation edition with a special Rollin’ With Roland episode of the series. About one month prior to the NTDC 2025 competition in Minneapolis, two-time National Grand Champion Roland Bolduc had an opportunity to sit down with Dan Shamrell, a highly accomplished...

As this year’s celebration of National Truck Driver Appreciation Week begins, the NTDC 2025 Podcast dedicates our 80th episode release of the year to take an initial look back at a number of the top performances across the nine vehicle divisions in the competition that brought together 425 state champions from across the country. Recorded on September 3, PodWheels Executive Producer Greg Tho...

As we continue our NTDC 2025 Rewind Series from our time onsite in Minneapolis, PodWheels is rolling it back to Wednesday of NTDC Week when we caught up with a friend we met in Columbus two years ago. In 2023, PodWheels Executive Producer was introduced to Alex Ayala, who serves as a Safety Consultant for H-E-B Grocery. As you will hear in this edition of the podcast, Alex works with the H-E-B dri...

Not long after the finalists had been announced and the vehicle parade ended on Championship Saturday in Minneapolis, PodWheels witnessed a moment that we will be featuring with this rewind episode which truly embodies the full spectrum of competition and respect that takes place each year at the NTDCs. Wilbert Vano, a six-time State Grand Champion and true legend from New Jersey with XPO, had str...

Recorded four days after the closing night of NTDC 2025, PodWheels Executive Producer Greg Thompson and Transport Topics Senior Reporter Eugene Mulero sit down for an extended look at what took place in Minneapolis during NTDC Week for 2025. As you will hear, Greg is actually still onsite in the Twin Cities at the time of the recording. This episode touches on many topics and a number of award win...

One of the many highlights of PodWheels’ onsite coverage of NTDC 2025 in Minneapolis was the time that we spent with the Lewis family. As part of our NTDC 2025 Rewind Series, PodWheels Executive Producer Greg Thompson takes us back to Friday of NTDC week when he talked with Warren, Nate and Andrew Lewis, representing three of the four generations of their family who have won Maine State TDC State...

On Friday of NTDC Week, we caught up with FedEx Step Van driver Lindy Jackson, who will forever own a piece of Minnesota TDC history with her 2024 first-place finish in the Step Van Division. Lindy’s victory last year made her the first woman to ever win a state championship at the Minnesota TDC. As you’ll hear in this episode of the podcast, when Lindy successfully defended her step van state tit...