Sears, Roebuck & Co held naming rights from 1995 through 2008 via its Craftsman tool brand. The series was called the NASCAR SuperTruck Series in its inaugural 1995 season, then the Craftsman Truck Series thereafter. Camping World held the title sponsorship from 2009 through 2022 (with Gander Outdoors branding in 2019 and Gander RV & Outdoors in 2020). Stanley Black & Decker — which acquired the Craftsman brand from Sears in 2017 — took over in 2023, reviving the Craftsman branding.
The idea for the series dates to 1991, when a group of SCORE off-road racers — Dick Landfield, Jimmy Smith, Jim Venable and Frank "Scoop" Vessels — had concerns about desert racing's future and decided to create a pavement truck racing series. They visited NASCAR Western Operations Vice President Ken Clapp, who consulted Bill France Jr., but the plans initially fell apart. Clapp told the four to build a truck before NASCAR would consider it. Bakersfield fabricator Gary Collins built a prototype truck, which was first shown during Speedweeks for the 1994 Daytona 500 and tested by truck owner Jim Smith around Daytona International Speedway.
Four demonstration races were held at Mesa Marin Raceway, Portland Speedway, Saugus Speedway and Tucson Raceway Park; Tucson held four events that winter, nationally televised during the Winter Heat Series coverage. NASCAR arranged a meeting in a Burbank, California hotel on April 11, 1994, which led to the creation of the "SuperTruck Series." Craftsman signed on as series sponsor on a three-year deal, and the series was renamed the Craftsman Truck Series in 1996.
The inaugural race, the Skoal Bandit Copper World Classic at Phoenix International Raceway, was held on February 5, 1995, before an event-record crowd of 38,000 spectators; eventual series champion Mike Skinner held off Cup veteran Terry Labonte to win. The series' $580,000 purse was larger than that of the Busch Grand National Series. Prominent Cup team owners Richard Childress, Rick Hendrick, and Jack Roush owned truck teams, and drivers such as Dale Earnhardt and Ernie Irvan fielded SuperTrucks. The series also attracted sprint car star Sammy Swindell, off-road veteran Walker Evans, and Atlanta Falcons head coach Jerry Glanville. Only one team from the inaugural season, FDNY Racing, was still racing in the series as of the time the corpus was written.
At the end of the 2008 season, Craftsman ended its sponsorship. Camping World signed a seven-year contract to rebrand the series as the Camping World Truck Series from 2009. Camping World signed a seven-year extension in 2014 to remain sponsor until at least 2022. In May 2018, NASCAR and Camping World announced the title sponsorship would switch to Camping World subsidiary Gander Outdoors for 2019, creating the Gander Outdoors Truck Series. The series was slightly renamed the Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series in 2020, then returned to Camping World Truck Series branding in 2021 and 2022. On August 26, 2022, NASCAR announced a multi-year deal with Stanley Black & Decker to restore the Craftsman branding starting in 2023; Stanley Black & Decker also became NASCAR's official tool brand.
Most of the first drivers in the series were veteran short track drivers who had not thrived in other NASCAR national series. Rick Carelli, the 1991 Featherlite Southwest Tour champion, had failed to qualify twelve times for Cup races from 1991 to 1994 with only nine career Cup starts, yet finished sixth in the inaugural Truck Series championship. Professional football coach Jerry Glanville was among the series' early drivers. Inaugural champion Mike Skinner later joined Richard Childress Racing's Cup team in 1997, competing full-time through 2003.
As the series matured, younger drivers used it as a springboard; NASCAR stars Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick, Jamie McMurray, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, and Kyle Busch each started in the series. Later, the series became a destination for Cup veterans without rides, including Ricky Craven, Jimmy Spencer, Dennis Setzer, Brendan Gaughan, Todd Bodine, Bobby Hamilton Jr. and former series champions Johnny Benson, Mike Skinner, Ron Hornaday, Ted Musgrave and Jack Sprague.
A 2001 Truck Series race held as a support race for CART's Marlboro 500 resulted in a significant rule change. Because the event was staged by CART and not NASCAR, the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement applied, requiring all participants to be at least 18. Kyle Busch, then 16, was disqualified despite having qualified. This produced a 2002 NASCAR rule mandating that any driver in a national touring series race must be at least 18 to comply with the Agreement. After NASCAR phased out tobacco sponsorships, the minimum age for regional touring series was lowered to 16, with the Truck Series maintaining 16 for ovals two kilometres or shorter and road courses, and 18 for ovals 1.33 miles or longer.
With decreasing prize money and increasing costs, the series struggled financially through the 2010s. Richard Childress Racing shut down its Truck operations after the 2013 season, having accumulated 31 Truck wins. After the 2014 season, Brad Keselowski stated his Brad Keselowski Racing team had lost $1 million despite recording a win that year, and told the Sporting News: "The truck series, you have to be able to lose money on a constant basis. That's just how the system works." BKR closed after the 2017 season. To cut costs, NASCAR required teams to use sealed engines limited to three races, reduced pit crew members allowed over the wall from seven to five, and in 2009 required teams to take only fuel or tires on a single stop — a requirement abandoned for 2010.
Initially, most races were no longer than 125 miles, with many being 150-lap events on short tracks. Because some tracks lacked a safe pit road, NASCAR adopted a five-minute "halftime" break in place of pit stops from the series' second race at Tucson, allowing teams to make any changes to the truck. This rule proved popular with television and fans. Starting in 1998, NASCAR introduced competition cautions and abolished the halftime break; in 1999, full pit stops were added, though teams were limited to changing no more than two tires per stop.
Starting in 2011, NASCAR implemented a rule allowing drivers to compete for the championship in only one of the three national touring series in a given season. In January 2016, NASCAR announced a playoff format for the Truck Series: eight drivers across three rounds, with two drivers eliminated after each round. Starting in 2020, the playoff expanded to ten drivers.
A popular overtime rule effective through mid-2004 required all races to end under green-flag conditions with a minimum of two consecutive green-flag laps — the "green-white-checkered" format. This sometimes extended races significantly; a 1998 CBS-televised race at Pikes Peak scheduled for 186 laps ran 198 laps, and the last such race at Gateway International Raceway in 2004 lasted 14 additional laps. A July 24, 2004 rule change limited NASCAR's three national series to one green-white-checkered attempt, with races permitted to end under yellow in specific circumstances.
In 2014, NASCAR banned tandem drafting from the Truck Series. In the 2016 season, the series experimented with a competition caution rule limiting green-flag racing to 20 minutes before a mandatory stop, with no competition caution in the final 20 laps. In 2017 this was replaced by the stage system adopted across all NASCAR national series.
Initially the series competed primarily on short tracks and tracks in the western United States; its inaugural schedule included venues in Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, with only five races in the southeastern United States. The longest tracks on the schedule, Phoenix International Raceway and Milwaukee Mile, were one mile long. By 1998, most short tracks were phased out in favour of speedways of one to two miles, and more races were held concurrently at tracks hosting Cup and Busch events. Road courses were phased out by 2001, the last race being at Watkins Glen International in 2000, but returned in 2013 with a race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Also in 2013, the Truck Series began racing at Eldora Speedway, the first time NASCAR had raced on dirt since the 1970 NASCAR Grand National Series season.
The 1995 season was nationally televised on ESPN, TNN, ABC and CBS, with TNN airing ten races, ESPN seven, CBS two, and ABC one at Mesa Marin Speedway. In 2001, NASCAR moved the series exclusively to cable with ESPN, switching to Speed in 2003. Network television returned from 2007 to 2010 with two races per season airing on Fox, discontinued in 2009. When Speed converted to Fox Sports 1 in August 2013, Truck Series broadcasts continued on FS1. As of the 2025 season, the NASCAR Racing Network has exclusive radio broadcasting rights to the series, with distribution handled by MRN.
Chassis are steel tube frames with safety roll cages built to NASCAR standards. The engine is either a 358 cubic inch (5.86 L) built or 376 cubic inch (6.2 L) Chevrolet LSX NT1 crate pushrod V8, producing 650–700 hp unrestricted or approximately 450 hp restricted. Transmission is a 4-speed manual. Minimum weight is 3,200 lb without driver and fuel and 3,400 lb with. Wheelbase is 112 in (2,845 mm); length 206.5 in (5,245 mm); height 60 in (1,524 mm); width 80 in (2,032 mm). Fuel is Sunoco 93 MON / 98 AKI 85% unleaded gasoline blended with 15% Sunoco Green Ethanol E15, with a capacity of 18 US gallons. Tyres are Goodyear Eagle slicks, with rain tyres available for shorter flat ovals and all road courses.
The series was notable for the return of Chrysler Corporation factory-supported vehicles to NASCAR. Chrysler had withdrawn factory support for Dodge and Plymouth after the 1972 season, though teams continued to campaign those vehicles until 1985. Chrysler funded a small R&D effort and returned the Dodge Ram pickup to NASCAR in the Craftsman Truck Series in 1997; by 2001 Dodge made a full-time factory-backed return. After the Fiat Group took control of Chrysler, the Ram Trucks division raced in place of Dodge from 2010; Ram pulled out after 2012. In June 2025, Ram announced a return to the Craftsman Truck Series in 2026, ahead of a possible Cup return in 2027 or 2028.
Toyota joined the series in 2004 with the Toyota Tundra, becoming the first foreign nameplate to race in NASCAR during the sport's modern era. Toyota later joined the Cup and Xfinity series in 2007. Ford has fielded the F-150 since 1995; Chevrolet ran the C/K from 1995 to 1997 and has fielded the Silverado from 1998.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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