Greg Micek – April 14, 2026
In a sprawling FedEx parking lot in West Sacramento, dozens of truck drivers guided big rigs through a course marked by cones and tape on Saturday, April 11. It was the 78th annual Northern California Truck Driving Championships hosted by the California Trucking Association.
The goal wasn’t speed — it was precision. Drivers had to land tires inches from marker lines, navigate turns without clipping any cones and avoid crushing the rubber duckies used as markers.
Twenty-three-year-old David Kastiro was one of them. He drives a sleeper truck for Walmart, and five years ago he didn’t know where his family would sleep.
Kastiro graduated from Patterson High School in 2020, right as the pandemic hit. His family lost their income, then they lost their home.
“COVID basically caused my family to break up because we got evicted,” he said. “A lot of people lost their jobs.”
