The team was founded in 1996 under the name SealMaster Racing before being rebranded as ThorSport Racing. From modest beginnings with a single truck piloted by Terry Cook at Milwaukee, the organization grew steadily through the late 1990s and early 2000s, adding trucks, expanding its roster of development drivers, and securing major sponsorships. The team operates out of Sandusky, Ohio — one of the few major NASCAR organizations not based in the traditional North Carolina hub — and has long partnered with Ford as its manufacturer of choice.
ThorSport's early signature driver was Matt Crafton, who joined the No. 88 truck full-time in the early 2000s. After years of strong but winless campaigns, Crafton earned his first Truck Series victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2008. He then delivered back-to-back championships in 2013 and 2014, becoming the first driver in Truck Series history to accomplish that feat. In 2013, Crafton was particularly dominant, finishing in the top ten in the first sixteen races and becoming the first driver to complete every lap of an entire season. A third championship followed for Crafton in 2019.
During these years, ThorSport also ran multiple satellite entries. Johnny Sauter drove several different trucks for the organization beginning in 2009, earning his first win at Las Vegas that season and contributing to a historic 1-2 finish where his teammate finished directly behind him. Sauter won at Martinsville and Homestead in 2011 and scored victories in 2013 including a sweep of the Truck Series' restrictor-plate events that year at Daytona and Talladega.
Ben Rhodes joined the team in 2016 and developed steadily over several seasons. After a breakthrough win at Kentucky Speedway in 2018 and consistent performances in the No. 99 truck, Rhodes won the Truck Series championship in 2021. He successfully defended the title in 2023, giving ThorSport five championships across the careers of Crafton and Rhodes.
Ty Majeski emerged as another championship threat for the team. He joined as a part-timer in 2021, ran full-time in the No. 66 in 2022 (winning at Bristol and Homestead to reach the Championship 4), and moved to the No. 98 in 2023. In 2024, Majeski won at Indianapolis and Richmond during the regular season and clinched the Truck Series championship at Phoenix, becoming ThorSport's sixth title winner.
At its peak, ThorSport has fielded four full-time Truck Series entries simultaneously — a rare achievement at this level of competition. The team has served as a development platform for numerous drivers who advanced to higher levels of NASCAR, including Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Tyler Reddick, Austin Cindric, and Christian Eckes. ThorSport's four-truck infrastructure also produced the first 1-2-3 finish in NASCAR Truck Series history in September 2020, when Grant Enfinger, Ben Rhodes, and Matt Crafton swept the top three positions at Richmond Raceway.
One of the organization's most significant milestones came in 2000 when Matt Crafton made his debut with the team, replacing Terry Cook for the final race of the season. Crafton went on to drive for ThorSport for over two decades, making him one of the longest-tenured driver-team partnerships in Truck Series history. His 2013 season — completing every lap of an entire NASCAR Truck Series season — remains a record.
The team also navigated controversy, including a 2019 suspension of Sauter after an intentional-contact incident at Iowa and repeated penalty points assessed for technical violations. Despite these episodes, ThorSport maintained its position as the series' most consistent championship-contending team across multiple decades.
ThorSport Racing stands as the institutional backbone of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. No other team has maintained continuous presence in the series for as long, and no other team has produced six different championships over its history within the series' lifespan. The Sandusky, Ohio base — far from the NASCAR manufacturing corridor in North Carolina — is a point of regional distinction, and Duke Thorson's long-term stewardship has kept the organization independent and competitive through changing eras of NASCAR ownership and sponsorship.