National Truck Driving Championships
Podcast
Earning the name “the Super Bowl of Safety,” National Truck Driving and National Step Van Driving Championships features a collection of the best and most accomplished professional drivers in the country from nine different classifications. To qualify to be a part of the championship, each of the competitors had to win their respective state championship within one of those categories. Plus, they had to also stay accident-free for the past 12 months.
Hosted by the American Trucking Associations and the organization’s Safety Management Council, the home for NTDC 2024 will be Indianapolis. In addition to the competition, the NTDC always features great personal and inspirational stories. PodWheels Powered By RadioNemo is proud to share those stories throughout the state competitions, and we’re thrilled to be onsite for the Nationals in August.
Latest Episodes
Dan Van Alstine Looks Back On His Term As ATA Chairman
As the second day of the driving competition began rolling, ATA Chairman Dan Van Alstine sat down with Jimmy Mac. Dan, who is the President and Chief Operating Officer at Ruan Transportation Management Systems, will be concluding his one-year term as ATA Chairman in...
Rick Cates Looks Back at His 51 Years Of NTDC Work
For more than 50 years now, Rick Cates has been involved in working on the National Truck Driving & National Step Van Driving Championships. Known as the "Senator," because of this long tenure with the NTDCs, Rick takes some time with Jimmy Mac to look back at his...
Bob and Byron Bramwell Continue Family Tradition at NTDCs
Byron and Bob Bramwell are one of the greatest father-and-son acts in the trucking industry. Not only did Bob follow in his father's footsteps as a multiple state champion to join Byron as a competitor at the NTDCs over the years, but Bob also joined his dad as an...
Connecticut Grand Champion Tony Spero Looks Back At His Long Run At The NTDCs
Considered by his fellow competitors as one of the greats in the history of NTDCs, Tony Spero talks with Jimmy Mac about his upcoming retirement from truck driving and the emotional ride he has experienced on his road back to the NTDCs. While looking back at his time...
Transport Topics Reporter Eugene Mulero Takes Us Inside The Preliminary Rounds of NTDC 2023
Eugene Mulero, who co-authored a book on the history of the National Truck Driving & National Step Van Driving Championships, took a few minutes to step away from his reporter’s position in a safe area within the driving course to give Jimmy Mac and our listeners...
NTDC Rookie Tim Blair Taking The Time To Savor His First Trip To The Nationals
As he looked out over the road course one day before he would be driving on it, Tim Blair, a State Champion from Tennessee, was all smiles. Tim, who first competed at the state level in 2019, tells Greg Thompson from PodWheels about his journey to reach the NTDCs....
Ina Daly Looks Back At Her 40-Plus Years In Trucking With Jimmy Mac
A trailblazer who became the first woman to claim a National Title at the NTDCs with her trophy run in 2013, Ina Daly talks with Jimmy Mac about her trucking career that now spans more than 40 years. As you’ll hear, Ina shares the important role her father played to...
Defending NTDC Grand Champ Roland Bolduc Talks About This Year’s Road Course
On the day before he would get behind wheel at NTDC 2023, defending Grand Champion Roland Bolduc talks with Jimmy Mac on what he observed during the competition’s walkthrough of this year’s road course. Roland and Jimmy also touch on other topics related to the week...
Meet Richard Gillespie & How He Earned The Title of G-O-A-T at the NTDCs
Richard Gillespie is considered by most who know the history of the NTDCs as the G-O-A-T, the Greatest of All Time. From his first NTDC trip in 1965 through 1991, Richard claimed two Grand Championships and he won National Championships in seven different divisions...
The NTDCs Have Become A Family Tradition For ATA President & CEO Chris Spear
While ATA President & CEO Chris Spear joins Jimmy Mac in the celebration of safety and driving excellence that are seen through the annual NTDC event, Chris also shares how the national championships have become a yearly trip that he has taken with his son,...
Eddie Pennington Capping 47-Year Trucking Career With 12th Trip To NTDCs
Some 22 years after Eddie Pennington began his trucking career in 1976, he won his first of 12 State Championships in Florida. The 2023 edition of the NTDCs will be his last run at the nationals as Eddie plans to retire at some point in the next year. Tim Taylor, a...
ATA Vice President of Safety Policy Dan Horvath Continues To Draw Inspiration From The NTDCs
Dan Horvath, Vice President of Safety Policy at ATA, discusses the deep roots that he has established through the years serving as a volunteer at the NTDCs. Dan tells Jimmy Mac how he got involved with the NTDC event, and he also shares how the excellence displayed by...
2004 Grand Champion Wayne Crowder Shares His Perspective On The NTDCs
Wayne Crowder, who won the 2004 NTDC Grand Championship in his first-ever trip to the nationals, looks back with Jimmy Mac on how he was encouraged to enter the Kentucky State Championships in 19 years ago, which was also his first entry at the state level. Wayne and...
Highlighting The Jobs That ‘Den Mothers ‘ Do At The National Championships
On the first day of NTDC 2023, we spent some time with Charity Marsh, who serves as the Den Mother for the Step Van Division at the National Championships. A trucking industry veteran who has worked at previous NTDC events, Charity provides insights on not only what a...
Meet Alex Ayala: A Safety Professional Who Carries The Banner In Support of His Drivers
Alex Ayala started making the trip the National Championships in 1965. On the first day of NTDC 2023, Alex was the first in the line of folks who had lined up to hang banners inside the arena in support of their drivers. While Alex has been retired from as a safety...
NTDC Defending Grand Champion Roland Bolduc Reflects On His Career & Dedication To Excellence
Jimmy Mac catches up with the 2022 Grand Champion Roland Bolduc as he prepares to return to NTDC 2023 to seek his third career Grand Championship. Roland reflects back on his personal history with the event and how sharpening his skills for the competition made...
Robert Fosky Shares Perspective Of Former NTDC Competitor & Current Event Committee Member
Jimmy Mac spends some time with Robert Foskey, who began his career behind the wheel and today serves as the Global Health and Safety Manager from UPS. As you’ll hear, Robert is the Second Vice Chairman of the organizing committee for NTDC 2023 and he is also a past...
RadioNemo Returns With PodWheels To Cover National Truck Driving Championships With New PodWheels.com Website
OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. – (Aug. 9, 2023) – A favorite of trucking radio is headed back to the “Super Bowl of Safety” in Columbus, Ohio, and it is bringing with it more expansive programming. On Aug. 16-19th, RadioNemo of North America, a trusted source of news,...
Eugene Mulero From Transport Topics Shares Why The NTDC Has Become A Must-See Event
Jimmy Mac chats with Transport Topics Report Eugene Mulero about the National Truck Driving Championships and how Eugene has develop a deep admiration for the event since he first began covering the NTDCs in 2017.
NTDC Chairman Rodney Myers Discusses Importance of National Truck Driving Championships
As we get set to bring you the stories and take you behind the scenes with podcasts detailing the 2023 Championships, we wanted to take some time to set the stage for the event. In this first episode of our 2023 series, Jimmy Mac talks with Rodney Myers from...
Celebrating Roland Bolduc’s Grand Championship Victory
To mark the six-month anniversary since we launched the PodWheels Powered By RadioNemo platform, we are taking an exit ramp that will roll us back to mid-August when we were onsite at the National Truck Driving & National Step Van Driving Championships. Roland...
ATA’s Elisabeth Barna Reflects On Memorable NTDC 2022
In our first post-event episode for this podcast series covering the National Truck Driving & National Step Van Driving Championships, Elisabeth Barna from the American Trucking Associations takes some time with us to look back at a very memorable NTDC 2022....
Special Feature: Taking You Inside The NTDC Road Course
On the first day of the competition, PodWheels Executive Producer Greg Thompson had the opportunity to spend some time at NTDC 2022 with four captains from America’s Road Team. While Captain Rhonda Hartman provided Greg with a view of the road course problems the...
Ruan’s Dan Van Alstine Preparing For His Term As ATA Chairman
Dan Van Alstine, the current Vice Chairman of the American Trucking Associations, talked with Greg Thompson on the day of his eight-year-anniversary as President of Ruan. Dan, who will become the Chairman of ATA in October, shares his thoughts on just why this year’s...
Antoine Sadler Shines As A Rookie At NTDC 2022
In this episode, you’ll meet Antoine Sadler who never really expected to be at NTDC 2022 when he responded to a request from his team at Wal-Mart to enter the North Carolina State Championship. Antoine took a no-pressure approach when he went to state, and he claimed...
Jimmy Mac Reflects On Trip To NTDC 2022
Shortly after finishing up two days of onsite broadcasting the Dave Nemo Show from NTDC 2022 in Indianapolis, Jimmy Mac, the host of Dave Nemo Weekends, sat down with Greg Thompson of PodWheels to get Jimmy’s immediate impressions of his first-ever trip to the...
Trucking Is A Family Tradition For Dion Saiz
Dion Saiz from FedEx Express joins Jimmy Mac to discuss what it’s like to represent FedEx as a Road Team Captain for the ATA. Dion got his start 26 years ago following in his father’s footsteps. His now-retired dad was a Road Captain, as well. The two were the first...
Catching Up With Retired Road Team Captain Greg Nauertz
What does a truck driver do upon retiring? If you are Greg Nauertz, an America’s Road Team Captain, you hop in an RV with wife Caroljane and you zip around the country visiting family, attending class reunions and simply enjoy life on the road. Jimmy Mac gets the 411...
IMTA’s Gary Langston Talks Indiana, Trucking & The NTDC
Gary Langston, President and CEO of the Indiana Motor Truck Association, tells Jimmy Mac about how important trucking and the interstate system is to the state of Indiana. Indiana specializes in moving stuff on wheels, but, as Gary shares with Jimmy, the trucking...
ATA President & CEO Chris Spear On Return Of The NTDC
ATA President and CEO Chris Spear joins Jimmy Mac to take a look at why Indianapolis, with the numerous highways that criss-cross through it, but also the plethora of activities going each day, was an ideal choice to host the NTDC event. Chris takes this opportunity...