As the summer sun came blazing down in February, we weren’t sure if we were seeing a desert mirage or just hallucinating in the heat! With record high temps for February at the “Diesels in the Desert” show in Chandler, AZ on February 27-28, 2026, our brains were baking. Hosted once again by the National Hot Rod Diesel Association (NHRDA) and Pickett Custom Trucks at Firebird Motorsports Park, the show seemed to grow again with more diesel pickups drag racing and doing burnouts, more big rigs, more vendors, and more spectators – this was no mirage!
Last year the show was held in mid-March and much of it was rained out. Also, being just a couple weeks prior to the big trucking convention in Louisville, KY, the show promoters decided to move the date forward a few weeks to the end of February. I’m sure they thought the weather might be nicer, too, and it was, but nobody expected temperatures in the upper-90s that early in the year. It caught a lot of folks off guard, as many were heard repeating the mantra, “It’s too soon!” But that didn’t stop people from coming out to show off their rides or just to enjoy some time with their “truck show family” for the first time in a while.
We arrived in Phoenix after a short flight from central California on Friday in the late morning, and by the time we got our rental car, drove to Chandler, hit a supermarket for supplies, checked into our room and then met up with friends, we all ended up getting to the show together at about 4:00 PM. The drag racing began late Friday afternoon and continued into the evening. With Randy and Stacy Cole retiring and handing over the reins of the NHRDA after last season ended, there was a new crew running that part of the show and, from our standpoint, we didn’t see any issues and things seemed to run smoothly.
Figuring we would have enough time to casually catch up with some friends on Friday afternoon before the light show began at dusk, that all changed – at least for me – when my camera slipped out of its tripod mount and fell to the pavement from about my shoulder height. In almost 30 years of doing photography work at truck shows and other places, I have NEVER dropped my equipment, and to see my workhorse system, including a big external flash, hit the ground was not how I envisioned my night going. I spent the next hour or so looking my gear over and taking test shots. Things seemed okay, so we went ahead and took all our night shots, along with talking to many friends.
The next morning, in the hotel room, I decided to download the images and look at them on my laptop, just to make sure things were kosher, and at that point, I realized I had an issue. Many of the shots looked good and seemed okay, but others were not properly or evenly focused. Switching lenses solved the issue, so for the rest of the weekend, I used other ones, including a new one I had, and it worked flawlessly. After returning from Arizona, I sent the lens that fell back to Canon to be completely rebuilt – better to be safe than sorry! I got it back a few weeks later and all is right with the universe again!!
Saturday morning, after scoping out some photo locations for a shoot we were scheduled to do the next morning, we arrived at the show around noon and were surprised to see how many more trucks had come in that morning. The count was around 200 big rigs, which were mostly parked in one long aisle, with trucks on each side, for the length of the dragstrip. When that space ran out, they started another row up above the main lot, which filled up quickly, as well. Some of the trucks were parked so close together, it was hard to get good pictures of them. Thankfully, the replacement lens that I had switched to was my new ultrawide zoom lens I had just acquired, which allowed me to have a lot more options and get the shots I needed.
Walking around in the heat and constantly seeking shade spots for some temporary relief, there were so many cool trucks and fleets. Some of these included Dandee Dairy, that had at least 10 of their amazing trucks at the show, including their massive green and purple build for MATS, which wasn’t even completed, but sitting on a trailer for all to see their progress in person. This truck was featured on our April 2025 cover but has since undergone a full rebuild. Jason and his crew smoked meat and cooked food all weekend for anyone who was hungry, but I am sorry to say I never made it over there to try any of their brisket, ribs and such – there was just too much to do and the day, as it always does, was going fast.
Other notable trucks at the show included a few of Crane Harvesting & Trucking’s yellow and white beauties, a handful of Mike Green’s always-amazing antiques, and Jeff Botelho’s latest black and blue 2-axle build. Ryan Hooten of Ryan’s Feed and his sweet red and black Kenworth was looking good with a load of hay, “Truck Show Joe” Eldridge and his violet and purple Pete was catching everyone’s eye, and Cody Lindamood and his bright red Peterbilt heavy hauler and matching trailer were on point, too. A few other standouts included David Viss and his 1953 “Bullnose” Kenworth, Action Materials’ silver and black 4-axle Peterbilt, Rusty Bradeen and his dark green 4-axle Kenworth, several white and blue trucks from PGH Excavating, Bruce Campbell and his black KW and, of course, Rod Pickett with his signature black Peterbilt RV.
Spending most of the weekend walking around with our friends Kris and Angelina Gaare, along with past cover trucker (June 2018) Pierson “Teeny” Gravance, these guys are always fun to be around. We also enjoyed getting to spend some time with Nick Hale, who is currently publishing a book featuring pics from the late Stan Holtzman, who contributed to 10-4 for many years. In addition to talking (lots of talking!) and taking pictures, we were also there to promote our upcoming Truckin’ For Kids (TFK) charity show and drags coming in May, looking to secure more sponsors, vendors and participants. We handed out a lot of fliers!! But that show is a labor of love for all of us, so it never seems like “work” to work on it.
After a long and hot day on the pavement and out on the track watching the drag racing, which culminated with Oscar Valesquez and V-Bros. (our cover feature this month) not only winning the Hot Rod Semi class but also setting a new ET record, it was finally time to hand out the awards. With custom trophies made by the guys at Pickett Custom Trucks in the shape of their home state of Arizona, Steve Mitchell did the announcing, and he is a man of few words, so the ceremony went pretty fast. Shelly and Warren Hartman also came out to the show and awarded the Kameron Wilken Young Entrepreneur Award to a stunned and emotional Sam Dodd. Look for more about Sam in an upcoming installment of our new “The Next Generation” column featuring the winners, past and present, of this prestigious award.
After the awards, the diesel pickups (and a host of other diesel-powered oddities) headed to the burnout box for a hot burnout competition. And when I say “hot” I mean it, as several caught on fire, some blew tires, a few hit the concrete barriers, and all of them created so much smoke your eyes started to burn and you sometimes couldn’t even see them. The box was lined with Jersey Barriers, which were surrounded by spectators on every side. It was a wild way to end the show, and it proved once again that this was no mirage! If you missed it, we hope to see you there next year!! And this year’s winners were…
BOBTAIL: 1st Action Materials; 2nd Rusty Bradeen.
COMBO: 1st Mike Green; 2nd Narcie Soares.
CONSTRUCTION: 1st PGH Excavating; 2nd Cody Lindamood.
ANTIQUE BOBTAIL: 1st Mike Green; 2nd Old Iron Trucking.
ANTIQUE COMBO: 1st Mike Green; 2nd David Viss.
SPECIALTY: 1st WSM; 2nd Joe Eldridge.
BEST FLEET: Stearns, Inc.
BEST INTERIOR: Clayton Heise.
BEST ENGINE: Sam Lee.
PICKETT PICK: Ryan Hooten.
BEST OF SHOW BOBTAIL: Botelho Custom Trucks.
BEST OF SHOW COMBO: Cole Barbieri.