PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Over the past several years, Day 1 of the National Truck Driving and National Step Van Driving Championships (NTDC) has followed a well-established order of events.
On Tuesday, August 11, as the event officially began at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, the script for NTDC 2026 stayed true to recent traditions established by the American Trucking Associations (ATA), which hosts the annual event that has nearly 90 years of history.
At the conclusion of the registration/check-in period, the 429 state champions — representing nine vehicle divisions across the 49 states participating in this year’s NTDC program — gathered in a meeting space that took up five conference rooms at the convention center.
When you consider that the state champions in the NTDC Driver’s Meeting have collectively amassed some 775 million safe driving miles over their careers, it’s truly a gathering of trucking industry all-stars. Each of those all-stars will quickly tell you that staying safe is part of the job.
This year’s guest speaker at the NTDC Driver Meeting was none other than Derek Barrs, the administrator for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Administrator Barrs, who praised those seated before him for their dedication to safety, plans to be onsite Thursday for the second group of semifinal runs for the vehicle divisions.
The 429 State Champions also heard from two NTDC Grand Champions. The first was reigning Grand Champion David Comings, representing FedEx Freight and the state of North Dakota this year in the 4-Axle Division. The group also heard from 1990 National Grand Champion Bob Dolan, who delivered a welcome message to the state champions from the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association.
Driving course unveiled to the competitors
With no disrespect to any of the speakers on the program, the person commanding the most intense level of attention at the NTDC Driver’s Meeting is always the chairman who oversees the committee responsible for designing the driving course that will be used during the semifinal round of the competition.
This year, the chairman of the driving course committee is Wes Herek, director of safety and driver training for Old Dominion. For his group’s portion of the meeting, Herek commanded the meeting room from the podium as he reviewed the driving course rules and the six scoring stations the competitors will navigate.
One of the highlights of Herek’s presentation yesterday was a video demonstration that shows a truck navigating each station on the course. Shared on the big screen, the videos show what’s possible with flawless execution at each of the six driving stations that are worth 50 points apiece.
While scoring a 300 on the driving course at the NTDCs is possible, the course design that goes through a discussion and review process over a series of months is guaranteed to present challenges for all those seeking the title of National Champion in the nine vehicle divisions. With that in mind, these demonstrations that hit perfectly on the mark can draw a variety of reactions (sometimes in disbelief) from the competitors as they begin to think of their own strategies.
Leo Can Take The Flack
When ATA began adding video examples to the presentations, Leo Flack became the man behind the wheel navigating each scoring station. Twice a National Champion at NTDC while driving for A. Duie Pyle, Flack retired last year from his position as part of the safety team at the same company where he excelled as a professional driver.
Part of a legendary group of champion drivers from Pennsylvania, Flack, who was seated next to Herek at the podium, simply smiled as the state champions reacted to what they were watching on the video screen Tuesday.
“It’s very important that we do run every piece of equipment, every truck, every class of truck through the course just to make sure that every problem can be done,” Flack told PodWheels in an interview on Tuesday.
Considering that he’s a past National Champion and has been the first to drive the semifinal and championship courses the past couple of years, PodWheels asked if Flack feels any pressure knowing that his drive through a scoring station is being recorded to share with the competitors.
“It’s nothing like the pressure of actually competing. I don’t have that kind of pressure on me here,” noted Flack. “For me, it’s an obligation to the competitors to make sure that we get the problems right, so that it’s doable by everybody. We want to make sure that everybody has a fair shot at competing and getting the highest score that they can in any given class.”
What’s possible on the NTDC Preliminary Course?
Is a 300 score possible on an NTDC driving course? Technically, yes — but it would be extremely difficult.
Last year, competing in the 3-Axle Class just months before his retirement after a long career behind the wheel at FedEx Freight, Dan Shamrell posted a 290 out of a possible 300. Shamrell, an 11-time Oregon State Grand Champion, followed up that sterling run by registering a 260 on the championship course. Those performances delivered the 2025 3-Axle National Championship.
During Tuesday’s interview with PodWheels, Herek discussed his first year as the NTDC Driving Course Committee chairman. Herek said his team wants to create opportunities for drivers to be able to make choices on the course and score.
Herek, in recalling Shamrell’s scores from last year and looking ahead to this year’s course, told PodWheels: “Kudos to Dan for driving like that last year. That’s one heck of a way to go out.
“I hope everybody scores a 290 on the course this year. That would be awesome,” Herek continued. “We love points. We love green flags. We love drivers who nail these problems. That’s what they’re there for. It’s definitely there for the taking.”
Listen To Old Dominion’s Wes Herek Discuss His First Year As The NTDC Driving Course Chairman.
Following the walkthrough of the course each classification (a timed session gives competitors a close-up look at the course), one of the returning champions told PodWheels Tuesday that, “There are plenty of opportunities for points within the course design, and I expect to see some big scores.”
What does the only person who has actually driven the course think can happen as the semifinal runs take place on Wednesday and Thursday?
Flack told PodWheels, “I personally feel that there are going to be some big scores out there this week. I hope that there are, because I like to see everybody go home proud of what they did here, and what they’ve accomplished. So, hopefully we’ll see that.”
Next year, there will be someone else behind the wheel for the scoring station demonstrations at NTDC 2027 in Columbus, Ohio, as Flack will be retiring from the NTDC National Committee.
“It’s been a great run, and I made a lot of good friends here,” said Flack, reflecting on his years serving on the NTDC Committee. “It’s almost like coming to a class reunion every year with all the people you get to know over the years. So yeah, it’s been a great ride.”
When asked by PodWheels about his score as the demo driver on the NTDC 2026 semifinal course, the two-time National Champion said, “Those were all 50s weren’t they?” When asked a follow-up question about the number of takes needed in the making of video, Flack, thinking back to traditional ribbing he received during this year’s Driver Meeting as well as in past years when the demo is shown, smiled before replying, “Now, I can’t give away all my secrets.”
NTDC’s ‘Senator’ tours the driving course with FMCSA’s administrator
Rick Cates, a lifetime member of the NTDC Organizing Committee who has over 50 years of experience working with the National Championships, announced earlier this year that he will be retiring from his hands-on role with the Championships while still serving in advisory capacity.
Part of the second group of drivers that ATA selected to serve as an America’s Road Team Captain back in the mid-1980s and a competitor who earned a second-place finish during his trip to the National Champions, Cates has become the “E.F. Hutton” of the NTDC: When Cates speaks at NTDC meetings, everyone listens. His counsel has become so valued that Cates has earned the honorary title of “The Senator” of NTDC.
When NTDC organizers learned that FMCSA Administrator Barrs would be able to join the NTDC 2026 Driver Meeting and address the state champions, “The “Senator” was the obvious choice to provide Barrs with a VIP tour of all things NTDC. In addition, Cates took Barrs to the section of the convention center in Pittsburgh where the CVSA’s North America Inspectors Challenge will be taking place this week.
When asked about Barrs’ personal tour, Cates said, “It was really great. He had a lot of great questions, and he’s no stranger as he worked with motor carriers in Florida.
“He was very impressed with how it was laid out and the problems that we had. And we explained that these are problems that the truck driver may encounter every day,” continued Cates, who was quick to credit the approach Barrs is taking in his leadership of the FMCSA. “As he said to us today, it’s a partnership between his organization now and the trucking industry, and it’s all about safety.”
Greg Thompson is an award-winning writer and producer who has worked in the trucking industry in a variety of roles since 1998. With more than a decade’s worth of experience as a journalist prior entering trucking, Greg is the founder and executive producer of PodWheels.com, a podcast network dedicated to spotlighting the trucking industry.
Since 2019, PodWheels has provided specialized coverage of the National Truck Driving and National Step Van Driving Championships.
In 2025, PodWheels’ NTDC Series earned the honor of being named the official podcast of the National Championships by the American Trucking Associations, which hosts the annual nationwide competition.
During 2025 alone, PodWheels produced some 100 episodes and provided over 50 hours of podcast content highlighting the competitors, organizers and volunteers involved with the Truck Driving Championships at both the state and national levels. PodWheels’ coverage of the NTDC, including state competitions and other features, is available through RoadToNTDC.com.
