We go from 20-11 to 10-1. This may be a controversial take, but there have been a bevy of great Monster Truck drivers over the last 40-plus years; crucify me if you must, but it's true. Now, I don't believe there should be any real surprises at spots one or two. However, our panel members did not have a single other driver placed unanimously inside the top five, and seven total drivers received top three votes. So, let's do a refresher on the panel, voting system, and some other housekeeping items and get right into this top 10.
"Friends of the Program" Panel
Alex Bardin (Current Stone Crusher Monster Truck Driver for Steve Sims), Devin Winfield (Current Team Throttle Monster Driver), Gideon Bernard (Head of Overdrive Monster Truck Tour), Landon Lujan (Tech Official), Dalton Hastings (Former Event Photographer and Event Staff), Mason Thompson ("Friend of the Program" and Overdrive MT Tour Staff for three weekends [his words, not mine]), and Noah Tibbetts (Former Crew Member for Bottom Feeder Motorsports)
How Much a Vote Was Worth :
When referencing the total number of "World Championships" a driver has in their bios, we're going off of my opinion of what is one (subjective, of course, but I believe this is fair):
My Ballot for disclosure (Ballots were top 15):
No. 15) Jim Koehler, No. 14) Tyler Menninga, No. 13) Todd LeDuc, No. 12) Damon Bradshaw, No. 11) Jimmy Creten, No. 10) Pablo Huffaker, No. 9) Fred Shafer, No. 8) Ryan Anderson, No. 7) Charlie Pauken, No. 6) Gary Porter, No. 5) Adam Anderson, No. 4) Andy Brass, No. 3) Dan Runte, No. 2) Dennis Anderson, No. 1) Tom Meents
The Top 20 Monster Truck Drivers of All Time (10-1 Edition)
No. 10) Neil Elliott
World Championships: 0, Years Active: 2000-2020, Key Truck: Maximum Destruction
Highest Ranking: 7th, Vote Points: 31
Key Accomplishments: 2002 Monster Jam Rookie of the Year Award Winner, Three-Time Monster Jam Stadium Freestyle of the Year Award Winner, Three-Time Monster Jam Stadium Points Series Champion (2015, 2018, 2020), 2007 Wildwood King of the Beach
A once-in-a-lifetime freestyle move that will quite literally never happen (organically) again is the singular reason why Neil Elliott retired without a World Title. One of Monster Jam's best over his three separate stints as a full-time driver, the Team Meents stalworth was perhaps at his best in his third and final stint from 2010-2020, racking up three Stadium Points titles and then also three Stadium Freestyle of the Year winners, most notably his Orlando 2012 winner. Having watched that for the first time in a while recently, I'm happy to say one of, if not the single best, non-World Final ever still holds up over a decade later.
No. 9) Damon Bradshaw
World Championships: 1, Years Active: 2006-2017, Key Trucks: Monster Energy/U.S. Air Force Afterburner
Highest Ranking: 6th, Vote Points: 43
Key Accomplishments: 2009 Monster Jam World Freestyle Champion, 2017 Monster Jam World Finals Fastest Qualifier, 2007 Monster Jam Rookie of the Year Award Winner
Before Jeremy McGrath became The King of Supercross, Damon Bradshaw, MC's favorite rider growing up, was the cool kid in town tabbed as the next big thing on two wheels. Although things didn't exactly go as planned once he hit the 250 two-stroke class, fate would have it that the Beast From the East would get a test pass driving a Monster Truck at Virginia Beach in 2005, and the rest would be history.
After winning Rookie of the Year in '07, Bradshaw would only need another 24 months to secure his first and subsequently only World Championship at Monster Jam World Finals 10, which secured his status as one of the truly elite guys in the Feld fleet. Although he came up with no dice at Vegas from there on out (he probably should've won World Finals 17 Freestyle, if we're being honest), his driving style was as smooth and fluid as anyone ever and would fit like a glove today. I also always respected that he never relied on backflips when they became the be-all-end-all around 2014-ish (still the case today), and he made it a point to prioritize momentum and course coverage above all else in Freestyle. It was just a decade-long career in totality, but Bradshaw being in the top 10 feels more than appropriate; a guy who took to this discipline of racing as well as any outsider ever has.
No. 8) Gary Porter
World Championships: 1, Years Active: 1985-2017, Key Trucks: Carolina Crusher/Grave Digger
Highest Ranking: 5th, Vote Points: 44
Key Accomplishments: 1991 Penda Points Series Champion, 2017 Monster Jam Arena Point Series Champion, Eight-Time Wildwood King of the Beach (one retroactive; most All-Time) Intl. and Monster Jam Hall of Famer
Being a top gun for over three decades is a tall task, but it's exactly what Gary Porter did from '85-'17. A title contender on both the USHRA and PENDA circuits, a champion in the latter's 1991 season, Porter would close out the 90s winning at Wildwood in 1998 over Tom Meents in that year's final race, then nearly winning what is now considered the first Monster Jam World Racing title a year later; losing out to Bobby Womack in Bearfoot in St. Louis.
The turn of the millennium marked when Porter became part of the Grave Digger team, ditching the red and yellow colors until his final years as a full-time driver. He not only dominated the arena scene for the better part of the next 15 years, driving the 1950 Chevy Panel Van but, more impressively, the beaches of Wildwood. Between 2001 and 2011, Porter won seven out of a possible eleven King of the Beach crowns, including a three-peat to close out his dominant run, not just for himself but for the famed Grave Digger 12 chassis well.
By the time he switched to the '50 Panel Van, Porter wasn't much of a stadium driver; even around the time he won a televised Indianapolis event in 2004 over Tom Meents, Porter would make his mark as the defining arena driver of the 2000s and early 2010s. He even won an arena series in the "pod era" in his final year, holding off Alex Blackwell by one (1) point despite the latter's points surge that final weekend. Rightfully a Hall of Famer for both Monster Jam and the IMTM, it was also nice to see Porter get a proper farewell that summer in Hagerstown, a stark contrast to Dennis Anderson's retirement promo package just a few months later. In any case, Porter has about everything you're looking for in this conversation and might be a bit underrated in the final tally.
No. 7) Tyler Menninga
World Championships: 1, Years Active: 2016-Present, Key Truck: Grave Digger
Highest Ranking: 3rd, Vote Points: 48
Key Accomplishments: Reigning Monster Jam World Freestyle Champion, Four-Time Monster Jam Arena Points Series Champion, Two-Time Monster Jam Stadium Points Series Champion, Swept the 2023 "Superstar Challenge" competing for "Team Nitro," Two-Time Monster Jam World Finals Fastest Qualifier
You can claim recency bias from our panel all you want, but Menninga's resume in just eight years is phenomenal, and the scary thing is he's left some hardware up for grabs. Essentially becoming the benchmark for what's considered great in current-day Monster Jam Arena Skills and Freestyle competitions in the back half of the 2010s, the Iowa native has taken much of that arena craft to his stadium driving, and with a World Freestyle title now in hand, is well on his way to becoming the defining driver of the 2020s at just 27 years old. I don't have much else to say here; if you've seen him, you know how good he is.
No. 6) Charlie Pauken
World Championships: 1, Years Active: 1987-Present, Key Trucks: Excalibur/Grave Digger/Monster Mutt
Highest Ranking: 1st (One First Place Vote), Vote Points: 63
Key Accomplishments: 2010 Monster Jam World Freestyle Champion, Three-Time Thunder Nationals Champion, Three-Time Monster Jam Stadium Series Points Champion, Intl. Monster Truck Hall of Famer
Even on International tour duty, Chuckie Pauken is still going strong in 2024, and that's an absolute delight. His three true Thunder National titles and an untelevised win over Andy Brass in the Silverdome were massive early achievements, but his best years were still years out.
By the time he settled into being a full-time Grave Digger driver in the mid-2000s and began sporting the Monster Mutt body at World Finals, Pauken had entered the best stretch of his career, which lasted roughly 15 years. After some impressive World Finals outings to close out the 2000s, Pauken went on to win a coveted World Freestyle title and, later on, three Stadium Points Series Championships (finishing tied for third and then solo third in his other two tries), all from March of 2010 to March of 2020.
Even just a few years ago, Pauken, at 55 years old, nearly won a second World Freestyle title in Orlando, if not for some late-event heroics by Tom Ments, of course. But if for nothing else, the reaction from the boys after he won the World Title tells the whole story of how respected Pauken was and still is in this industry.
No. 5) Ryan Anderson
World Championships: 2, Years Active: 2010-Present, Key Truck: Son Uva Digger
Highest Ranking: 4th, Vote Points: 75
Key Accomplishments: 2017 Monster Jam World Racing Champion, 2018 Monster Jam World Freestyle Champion, 2019 All-Star Event Winner, Three-Time Monster Jam Stadium Points Series Champion, 2010 Monster Jam Rookie of the Year Award Winner
Although Ryan debuted a year prior, driving the Spider-Man and Monster Mutt across several different domestic and international summer shows, his debut "encore" performance in Son Uva Digger to close World Finals 12 set the tone for what was to come from him.
Not scored, of course, but having to manage with the corpses of three separate Maximum Destruction trucks lying on that track and ending up with a run that certainly would've won if it counted for scores was as impressive as anything done that evening prior. Expectations for Ryan became wins in short order, and there was a ton of hype surrounding him in his first few World Finals appearances. Although he didn't leave Vegas with Championship gold in his first four tries, he had three final eight berths in racing, including a World Title loss to Todd LeDuc in 2015 and a pair of top five Freestyle finishes to boot. By no means bad, just not up to the lofty expectations thrust upon him early on in his career.
Despite the lack of World Title success up until 2017 and 2018, Anderson was still winning, and at a pretty high clip at that, once we got into 2012. Given his ranking here, this has also been the case for the last dozen years. Never mind that he seamlessly adapted to the evolving nature of Freestyle and, subsequently, two-wheel skills once they became commonplace in stadium shows, the second eldest Anderson sibling has as good a top-five case as anyone.
No. 4) Dan Runte
World Championships: 2, Years Active: 1982-2017, Key Truck: Bigfoot
Highest Ranking: 3rd, Vote Points: 80
Key Accomplishments: Two-Time PENDA Points Series Champion (1995, 1996), 2001 ProMT Points Champion, Five-Time Toughest Monster Truck Tour Champion, Three-Time CFP Winter Nats Champion, 2002 CFP Summer Nats Champion, 2003 Wildwood King of the Beach, 2011 4-Wheel Jamboree Series Champion, First Driver to have Two Recorded Jumps of over 200 Feet, Intl. Monster Truck Hall of Famer
The man most synonymous with the Bigfoot brand, Runte was as vital a part of the PENDA and ProMT scene as he was throughout his five-peat run with Toughest Monster Truck Tour (arguably the best Independent promotion in the country over the last decade) in the late 2010s. Of course, the whopping majority of his success comes outside of Monster Jam, but the three titles between PENDA and ProMT aren't exactly anything to scoff at, nor are the one of wins at Wildwood and in the 4WJ Championship. Never mind that Runte also has some competition wins at the Charlotte Back to School Bash.
People will also justifiably point to the 1999 plane jump with Runte, which to this day might be the coolest thing ever done in a Monster Truck. There are about a million things that could've gone wrong during that ordeal, especially on a ramp that narrow, and Runte didn't even come close to touching the 727, landing 202 feet downrange with the most over-the-top fireball pyrotechnics you've ever seen in the background. They don't do it like this anymore, man (#RestoreTheFeeling). Then, on a side note, Runte would pull off a 174-foot jump over the Bigfoot hauler two months later, coming at the expense of the truck, of course, but a spectacular visual all the same on both occasions.
With Runte, there'll always be the what-ifs about whether he was in modern-day Monster Jam against Dennis and Tom, but the factors that made this case are clearly and certainly not his fault. Even taking the bevy of independent-level success Mark Hall enjoyed throughout the 2000s and into the 2010s, I have a tough time saying anyone other than Runte is, by head and shoulders, the best driver to never step foot in post-1998 Monster Jam. You could argue that he should've won an extra PENDA title or two, but Runte has been in my top three for close to all of my life; but the man our panel ranked just ahead of him will pass him, it's simply a matter of when.
No. 3) Adam Anderson
World Championships: 5, Years Active: 2005-Present, Key Trucks: Grave Digger the Legend/Taz/Grave Digger
Highest Ranking: 2nd, Vote Points: 90
Key Accomplishments: Five-Time Monster Jam World Champion, One of Three Drivers to Ever Win Back-to-Back Monster Jam Racing Championships, Three-Time Monster Jam Stadium Points Series Champion
Nearly 20 years ago, 19-year-old Adam Anderson would make his first ever Monster Jam start in Long Island, New York in Vette King, and then drive in Providence, Rhode Island a week later. The only reason I distinctly remember that is because yours truly was at one of those Providence shows. I would've guessed Adam would end up doing good for himself, considering who his dad is, but he was as good as anyone he was going up against by the time he settled into filling in for Dennis in 2007. Several stadium freestyle wins, and then notably a double down in Phoenix in a field featuring Jimmy Creten, Linsey Weenk, and David Smith. To keep this in mind, Adam was only 21 at this point. His best days were still a while out, even taking 2008 into account.
Speaking of which, 2008 marked Adam's first World Freestyle Championships, piloting the Taz truck. After a multi-year Vegas slump, he rattled off back-to-back World Racing Championships and a 10-race win streak from World Finals 14 to 16 before losing to Linsey Weenk in a second-round bout. Of course, that, for now, is the last instance of someone going back to back, and with the rotating venues and seemingly racing layouts now the norm for World Finals, I think ol' AA doesn't have to worry about adding anyone to that club for a while.
With the five World Titles, overall Monster Jam resume, and longevity in mind, I genuinely believe Adam could be the second-best driver ever by the time he hangs it up. He's been one of the sports standard bearers for nearly two straight decades, and with his Father, Runte, and Tom Meents all retired, he's unequivocally the most decorated active driver today. For now, our panel has him third.
No. 2) Dennis Anderson
World Championships: 5, Years Active: 1982-2017, Key Truck: Grave Digger
Highest Ranking: 1st (One First Place Vote), Vote Points: 133
Key Accomplishments: 1999 Motor Madness Points Champion, Three-Time Monster Jam World Racing Champion (2004, 2006, 2010), 2000 Monster Jam World Freestyle Champion, Three-Time Monster Jam World Finals Fastest Qualifier, Monster Jam and Intl. Monster Truck Hall of Famer
By far the single most impactful monster truck driver to ever get behind the wheel, Dennis Anderson is also a Mount Rushmore driver by any metric you want to use. Even before the '99 Motor Madness title, it's not like the "One Run Anderson" moniker was literal, and he was incapable of being competitive, quite the opposite. That 1988 win in St. Paul over the Dane brothers and Rich Hooser was massive, but I'd call Dennis finishing top five in either the TNT or USHRA points in five out of six years from '88-'93, at a notable equipment disadvantage in those earlier years, nevermind the notable injuries in '91 and '92, significantly more impressive.
By the time Dennis got to Digger 12, that's about when he really got dialed in. He picked up some big non-point series wins that first year (1997) in the Silverdome for the USHRA and even what was, in essence, the final ever PENDA event in the RCA Dome that November, with some strong outings in Wildwood and at Truck Fest in Charlotte as well. Of course, he was still two years out from his first World Title, which he won in the building where he debuted Grave Digger 12, the now-former TWA Dome in St. Louis.
That kicked off a dozen-year run for Dennis, which included five World Championships, countless stadium wins, televised and untelevised, and a stretch run during which he was a coinflip away from winning four straight Racing Titles from 2004-2007, and would have probably won an extra freestyle title had his front steering not been destroyed after his now iconic World Finals 3 save.
I don't think it's hard to argue that Dennis probably could've and perhaps should've won more once he got Digger 20, but five World Titles is still a lot, no matter how you slice it. The industry is not even remotely close to where it is right now without his overall contributions, and his peak run was as good as anyone's. But again, the most important and impactful Monster Truck driver doesn't mean the best ever; that title is reserved for one man.
No. 1) Tom Meents
World Championships: 12, Years Active: 1993-2024, Key Trucks: Maximum Destruction/Team Meents/Goldberg/Bulldozer/Monster Patrol
Highest Ranking: 1st (Six First Place Votes), Vote Points: 154
Key Accomplishments: Six Time Monster Jam World Racing Champion, Six Time Monster Jam World Freestyle Champion, Only Three-Peat World Racing Champion in World Finals Era, 1997 Monsters on the Beach Winner (Pre-KOTB), Swept the Final Ever Monster Truck Show in the Astrodome, Two-Time Monster Jam Stadium Points Series Champion (2019, 2022), Six Time Monster Jam World Finals Fastest Qualifier, etc.
I mean, what do you want me to say here that hasn't already been said? No one has ever been better for longer. No one even comes close to being better when the chips are down; no one has adapted to the changes in the sport of Monster Trucks from the mid-90s to know better, and no one has pushed these trucks harder than Tom Meents.
At Sam Boyd Stadium, where Meents typically did the most damage, if he put you in the left lane at any point, your night was over, plain and simple. Across 18 World Finals appearances in 19 years in Vegas, Meents was a whopping THIRTY-THREE AND SIX when he was in the right lane (Toyota Tower side), with just five drivers handing him those losses: Dennis Anderson (twice), Charlie Pauken, Adam Anderson, Ryan Anderson, and Bari Musawwir. You had no answer for him off the line, nor in the straight line speed department with how good those Paxton/Willman chassis were, and even if you did, it still didn't matter. Just ask Damon Bradshaw after he lost at World Finals 11.
We can get into the stunts, any several dozen all-time freestyles across a nearly 25-year stretch, or the simple fact he takes being shut off by tech officials like a personal attack, which is tremendous, but the bottom line is this: Meents is the GOAT, and he'll probably always be the GOAT barring an unprecedented run from someone like Tyler Menninga, Zach Garner, or Weston Anderson. It's devastating that things ended how they did earlier this year, but Meents gave everything to the sport of Monster Truck racing for three decades, and the industry is far better off for it. Not that I have any sway, but the folks over at the Intl. Monster Truck Museum would be wise to get him into their Hall of Fame ASAP.
Main Image via AllMonster.com/Robert Haught
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