UPS’ Gragg Wilson Celebrated at MCE 2023 for NTDC Win
AUSTIN, Texas — Gragg Wilson, grand champion at this summer’s National Truck Driving Championships, touted the tournament’s focus on safety during American Trucking Associations’ 2023 Management Conference & Exhibition.
Honored by ATA for his blue-ribbon performance at the “Super Bowl of Safety” summer classic, Wilson surpassed a field of more than 400 elite competitors in mid-August. The Nevada-based professional driver with UPS pointed to NTDC’s myriad safety benefits, and focused specifically on the championships’ requisite of establishing a yearlong safety record in order to compete at state and national competitions.
“We have to drive safely for a year. And that’s on my mind all the time,” Wilson told Transport Topics on Oct. 17 at the MCE exhibition forum. “From the first time you get to compete, you have to go safe for the whole year.”
Gragg Wilson is the 2023 NTDC grand champion. (John Sommers II for Transport Topics)
Wilson, who was honored throughout MCE for his NTDC grand champion award, took time to reflect on the moment. As he put it, “It’s nice to be able to talk with people about basically what I’ve done my whole career. It’s not like I’m doing anything different.”
He continued, “It’s just now that I’m recognized as somebody who has done that for my whole career and I need to, you know, pass that info on to others.”
On Aug. 19, Wilson earned the Bendix Grand Champion trophy while competing in the tank truck class at the 86th annual National Truck Driving Championships and National Step Van Driving Championships. The prestigious event was held in Columbus, Ohio. A professional driver for 37 years, he arrived on the national scene in 2000 in the 5-axle class. In 2018, Wilson helped lead a Nevada team to take home the top state category at NTDC.
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