Matt Wagg, owner and lead technician at Accelerated Diagnostic and Automotive in Bennington, Nebraska, was named the 2026 AAPEX Technician of the Year on Tuesday, Nov. 3. The award recognizes technical proficiency, extraordinary diagnostic skills, and strict adherence to safety requirements. Wagg called the honor one of the most prestigious he could receive and said it validates the hard work, effort, and dedication that professional technicians put into the job every day.

A former community college faculty member and technical trainer for Caterpillar, Wagg holds 19 ASE certifications, including Master Automobile Technician. In this Motor Age Q&A, he recounts his path from his curious childhood to third-generation technician to shop owner, and tells why continued learning is the key to fulfillment in a technician's success.

Motor Age: AAPEX Technician of the Year is quite an honor. Walk us through when you first decided to become a technician, and your progression from technician to shop owner.

Matt Wagg: I'm really honored to be selected as Technician of the Year. It started for me as a kid; I was always taking things apart. Even when I was 4 or 5 years old, I was playing with cars in the dirt—Hot Wheels, that kind of stuff—taking things apart in the garage using my dad's tools. I'm a third-generation technician and automotive professional, so I grew up around it. It's kind of cliché to say, but it really does feel like it's in your bloodline. My dad bought me my first tool set when I was 9 years old, and from there it was just taking things apart. I even got big into radio-controlled cars as a kid—I'd rip them all the way down until there was nothing left to take apart just to see how they worked, and then put them back together. My dad always had classic cars and motorcycles around, so I was just in love with the automotive world—racing, nice cars, classic cars.

When I got old enough to drive in high school, I got into car audio systems. I wanted to put a stereo in my car, and I didn't know anything about it. My mom had a coworker who installed stereos for Best Buy and was a certified installer through a program called NECP. He took me under his wing at 16 and taught me car audio installation at his house, and gave me their certification book—it had to be 200 pages. I read it front to back and learned as much as I could about electrical systems. That was really my entry point into automotive.

In high school, I started working part-time with my dad in the transmission shop where he worked, listening to and looking up to a lot of the older guys in their 40s and 50s. They took a lot of pride in their careers and told me, if you want to do this, go into the diesel world. My dad was actually adamant that I not go into the automotive industry—he wanted me to work on computers instead. It's funny now, because that's exactly what I ended up specializing in early in my career: electronics training. So he got what he wanted, and I got what I wanted, and we're both happy.

On the shop-owner side, I knew from a young age—fifth grade, even—that I wanted to own a business of some kind. I had that entrepreneurial drive. After trade school, I worked for a dealership for about six and a half years, and I kept thinking, one day I'm going to own a shop. I didn't know how it was going to happen. I didn't know anyone who owned a business, and we grew up with no money in my family. After the dealership, I went into education for about eight years, including four years as an instructor in the diesel program at a community college in Omaha. While I was there, I started taking business classes, since faculty got free tuition, just to figure out how you actually open a business—financing, the steps, all of it. It took about five years from when I started those classes to when I actually opened our shop. The biggest reason I wanted to do it is that I felt I had a skill set as a technician that wasn't being put to full use. I'm driven by purpose and by helping people, and as an instructor, I could only help so many. I thought if I opened a shop, I could impact thousands of people instead of dozens.

Motor Age: What were some of the big lessons that came out of running the shop—the ones that elevated you from a startup shop owner to where you are now?

Wagg: It's fun to look back on because when we opened, you're naive to a lot of things. It was just me doing almost everything, and my wife working about four hours a day helping with service. We slowly grew, and as a technician, the hard thing is that as your business grows, you have to manage it—and you can do all of it, but you can't do everything great. You can be good at a bunch of things, but you can't be great at any one thing while you're wearing all the hats. So I had to figure out where I was best suited. Between being a technician and having been an instructor, I realized I could give that coaching and development to the people working for me. So I shifted my mindset into more of a coaching and development role.

Today I'm really the operator of the shop. We've got four technicians, two service advisors, and a general manager. But I still spend a lot of time as a lead technician, coaching them through the more complex and difficult issues—that's where most technicians struggle, with the critical-thinking and analytical side. That's something I feel I'm genuinely strong at. It was hard at first, because when you're out there working all day, it's very difficult to also coach and guide others—and that's what they need most: someone who believes in them and is going to help them grow and advance. It took a while for me to recognize that and shift my responsibility from working on cars all day to figuring out how I could still use that skill set while also helping them recognize it in themselves.

Motor Age: You're still working in the bay yourself. What's that like for you, and what's it like for your team?

Wagg: I had to get strategic with this. I'm a problem solver by nature, and I think that's what makes a good technician. About two years ago, I realized I really enjoy working on cars, and as a business owner, I think a lot of us get too stuck in our own ways about what the role is supposed to look like. Some people will tell you a business owner shouldn't be in the bay at all—they should be working on the business. My approach was that as an entrepreneur, I should be able to do whatever I want. The risk is on me, the reward is on me. I don't work for a company that dictates my role anymore, so I wasn't going to let somebody tell me I couldn't work on cars.

" Some people will tell you a business owner shouldn't be in the bay at all—they should be working on the business. My approach was that as an entrepreneur, I should be able to do whatever I want. The risk is on me, the reward is on me." — Matt Wagg, 2026 AAPEX Technician of the Year

I decided there were management and administrative tasks I didn't necessarily enjoy, but that were part of the job, and that's where I brought in a store manager as my right hand, and a general manager to run day-to-day operations. That freed me up to work in the areas I enjoy and I'm strong in. We also serve a bit of a niche market—classic vehicles and high-end late-model vehicles—and when those come in, they come to me. It's a little bit of a perk that I get to work on the cool stuff, but I crafted my role to make that possible. That's the fun part of this journey. There's no playbook that says everybody has to do it the same way. You can get creative and figure out how to build the role you actually want.

Motor Age: What was it like when you found out you'd won AAPEX Technician of the Year?

Wagg: Holy moly. I was just blown away. I found out about two months ago. I got an email from AAPEX saying I'd been nominated and was in the running for Technician of the Year. At first, I didn't feel like I was deserving of it. I try to stay pretty reserved about myself—I don't feel like I have any gifts above anybody else. I go to work every day, I do the best I can, and to me, that's just normal; that's what I should be doing every day. So it was hard at first to see it as anything extraordinary. But my wife and a couple of coworkers, once I told them about the nomination, talked me into following through with the process. They said, “ You deserve that, and somebody took time out of their day to nominate you.” I still don't know who that person is, and I wish I could thank them.

I sat on it for a day or two and then filled out the nomination survey myself. There were five or six questions about training, education, your values in the industry, community involvement, and what you're doing to better the industry. That's where I really reflected and realized I do quite a bit, and I feel good about what I'm doing. I thought back to my grandfather, who passed away about seven years ago. He always told me, if somebody's paying you to do a good job, give them a good job no matter what. Do the right thing no matter what. It felt like a full-circle moment, realizing he'd be proud of me. A few weeks later, I got the email saying I'd won, and I just didn't believe it at first. I had to do a double take.

Motor Age: What's your advice for young technicians looking up to you now?

Wagg: What I try to remember, and what I tell everybody, is that if you want to be successful in any career, you have to be open to learning, have a learning mindset, and not be afraid to fail. My advice for young technicians is to get as much education and training as you can, and realize that it never stops. If you're not growing, you're dying. With how complex and advanced vehicles are right now, the typical technician already struggles to fix a car that's 10 years old, and as the average vehicle on the road gets newer, the technology is only going to get harder to work on. The biggest challenge I see is technicians not keeping up with current technology — just saying, I'll learn it on the job. Unfortunately, in any career field, including automotive, you sometimes have to invest in yourself outside of work to become an expert. You have to put in the effort if you want to get there.

The thing about learning is that it's the one thing nobody can ever take away from you. You can lose all your material possessions, but nobody can take away what you know. So my biggest piece of advice is to learn as much as you can, strive to become proficient in electronics, critical thinking, and problem-solving, and don't be afraid to jump in and fail a little bit along the way.