Twenty-nine-year trucking veteran, Miguel Corral, a 4-axle driver out of Crown Point, Indiana, was named Bendix Grand Champion at the American Trucking Associations’ National Truck Driving Championships, beating out 429 of the best professional drivers in the country. This wasn’t Corral’s first rodeo, either. He won the twins division back in 2018 and finished runner-up in the 4-axle class in 2022. This time, nobody touched him.
A Field of 429, Only One Grand Champion
NTDC isn’t a popularity contest. Drivers who make it to Pittsburgh already had to win at the state level, and this year’s field represented 55 motor carriers and 49 states, with a combined total of nearly 775 million accident-free miles among them. That number alone should shut up anybody who still thinks truck driving is unskilled work.
The competition tests drivers on a written exam, a pre-trip vehicle inspection where they have to spot planted defects, and a precision driving course that would make most car owners sweat just watching it.
One bad backing maneuver, one missed defect, and a driver’s shot at the title is gone.
Rookies and Volunteers Get Their Due as Well
Corral wasn’t the only name called. Todd Loreman of Louisiana, a Walmart Transportation driver, picked up Rookie of the Year. Jeff Davis of Kansas, also with Walmart, won the Neil Darmstadter Professional Excellence Award. Illinois took home the team championship, and Melissa Johnson was honored with the Sam Gillette Volunteer of the Year Award. It takes an army of volunteers, judges and sponsors to pull off a competition this size, and American Trucking Associations made sure they were recognized also.
Why This Trophy Matters for Every Professional Driver
It’s easy for the public to picture truckers as an afterthought on the highway, something to get around on the interstate. NTDC exists to highlight the best of the best in American trucking and hopefully change perspectives on the skill and professionalism required to drive across the country day-in and day-out safely. These are men and women who’ve driven a combined three-quarters of a billion miles without a preventable crash between them, and they’re proud enough of that record to compete for bragging rights over it.
That pride runs just as deep here in Alabama.
Nine Champions From Alabama Made the Trip to Pittsburgh
Nine Alabama drivers earned their trip to Pittsburgh by winning their classes at the Alabama Truck Driving Championships back in June in Hoover, each one crowned the best in the state in their division.
Leading that group was Kyle Avery of Publix, who claimed Alabama’s overall Grand Championship and winner in the 5-Axle division. Avery’s win was bittersweet as he announced that he was moving into a non-driving management role with the company following the competition and would not be able to compete at NTDC. John Carter of FedEx Freight, who finished second to Avery in the 5-axle class, took his position in Pittsburgh to compete against the best in the country.
The rest of Alabama’s nine best drivers were: Richard Pratt (Step Van), David Hawk (Straight Truck), Robert Moore (3-Axle), Donald Espy (4-Axle), Thomas Rae (Flatbed), Cory King (Tanker), Ryan Lapoint (Sleeper Berth), and William Brandon (Twins). All but Espy, a Walmart driver, and Lapoint, a Publix driver, ran for FedEx Freight. That’s nine drivers with the kind of clean records that make dispatchers sleep easy at night.
How Alabama’s Champions Stacked Up Nationally
None of Alabama’s nine finished in the top five nationally in their class this year, the cutoff that decides who actually drives in the Pittsburgh finals. That’s not a knock on them. Every one of the 429 drivers in that field had already beaten every other trucker in their home state just to get there. Missing the national top five in a room that stacked still means finishing ahead of the overwhelming majority of professional drivers in the country.
Illinois had itself a week, claiming both the Bendix Grand Champion trophy through Corral and the State Team Award for the highest combined score across all classes. That’s the bar Alabama’s next crop of state champions will be gunning for when competition season rolls back around. Alabama Trucking will be out building that field again soon, and you can bet that Alabama’s best drivers have already started practicing for next year’s competition season.
