When I think back over year 2025 for trucking, my mind first goes to the big news -- the Trump administration’s focus on immigration, English language proficiency, non-domiciled CDLs and all that's come with those ongoing, ever-shifting stories. Most of our day-to-day deals with such news, anything and everything that impacts truck drivers, owner-operator businesses and the wider industry.
Yet there’s plenty more, too -- trucking culture reporting, you might call it, featuring individual owners and drivers and the spectacular equipment custom-built, maintained and, in most cases, driven daily. Regular readers well know our work from truck shows around the country, telling the stories of owners who take the time to stop for a few days, polish their rigs and show the handiwork. (You'll find all of it over in the Custom Rigs section of the website.) Year 2025 delivered some truly spectacular trucks and owners and operators featured from shows and elsewhere this year. Look no farther for evidence than the astounding number of folks around the world who've seen entries in the Custom Rigs video series.
What better than a competition to further boost their deserving profiles? And have a little fun along the way.
This week, to close out 2025 and get us fully primed for kickoff in the new year, we launched a tournament in the style of the upcoming College Football Playoff (CFP) bracket. The 12 videos competing in Overdrive's Custom Rigs Showdown are the 12 most-viewed videos published this year on our YouTube channel, seeded based on views as of Tuesday, Nov. 25.
The first round is under way, and we’re asking you to choose your favorite truck/video in each of four matchups to determine who will advance. Vote at this link or in the form at the bottom of this story.
Round 1 is open for two weeks, during which you can watch videos featured in each matchup, pick the four winners and come back to do it all again with new matchups in Round 2, open Dec. 17-Jan. 7.
The semi-final round, then, will follow Jan. 7-21, the championship round following through the 30th.
The ultimate winner will be crowned Feb. 4.
The top four videos of the year received a first-round bye, just like the top four football teams in the CFP. The remaining eight face off in four matchups based on seeding:
- No. 5 Troy Bolin v. No. 12 Cline Everhart
- No. 6 Shawn Wright v. No. 11 Tony Justice
- No. 7 Bill Warner v. No. 10 Stuart Geltmaker
- No. 8 Todd Scruggs v. No. 9 Wayne Trent
Winners of those matchups will meet the top four seeded videos in the next round:
- No. 1 Alan Kitzhaber
- No. 2 Luke Rethwisch
- No. 3 Jesse Shirey
- No. 4 Robert Baesel
Catch the videos in each match and cast your votes in round 1 below or at this link through Dec. 17. Stay tuned for an update when round 2 opens for voting.
