The 2026 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season is set to be very competitive. Defending series champion Corey Heim will be running part-time this season, after racing full-time the previous three seasons. We even have a new competitor in the manufacturing industry this season, and boy, do they have a bright future. What do you need to know for the upcoming season of truckin’?

Storylines

• Like the other two series, the Craftsman Truck Series has adopted the Chase format. The top ten drivers in points will have their points reset and will compete for a championship in the final seven races of the season. The contender with the highest points out of the ten drivers in these seven races will win the title.
• NASCAR Cup Series drivers with more than three seasons of experience will now be allowed to run eight Craftsman Truck Series races in the regular season, up from five.
• Stewart Friesen, driver of the #52 Halmar Friesen Racing Toyota, will return to the driver’s seat for the first time since suffering injuries in a dirt racing crash last summer.

Driver/Team Changes

• The #5 TRICON Garage Toyota, formerly occupied by Toni Breidinger, will feature a rotating cast of drivers throughout the season, including Nick Leitz and Adam Andretti. Breidinger will compete in eight races for Rackley WAR and their part-time #27 Chevrolet team.
• The biggest change of them all: RAM will return to the Craftsman Truck Series for the first timesince the early 2010s. Kaulig Racing will field five full-time RAM 1500s, with four of them being driven full-time. Daniel Dye will drive the #10 after previously competing for their defunct Xfinity (O’Reilly) Series team. 2025 ARCA Menards Series champion Brenden “Butterbean” Queen will drive the #12. CARS Tour driver Timothy “Mini” Tyrrell won RAM’s Race For the Seat YouTube show in the offseason and will be in the #14. Former NASCAR Cup Series driver Justin Haley will run the #16. The #25 will feature an all-star cast of drivers, including Tony Stewart, Ty Dillon, and others to be announced
• Kaden Honeycutt will replace defending champ Corey Heim in the #11 TRICON Garage Toyota. The driver out of Willow Park, TX, finished a respectable 3rd in the 2025 standings, despite not winning a race and splitting the season with multiple teams.
• ThorSport Racing’s assets have been moved aorund drastically for 2026. Canadian late model racer Cole Butcher will drive the #13 Ford full-time after racing part-time for Halmar Friesen Racing in the latter portion of 2025. Ty Majeski, the former driver of the #98, will replace the retiring Matt Crafton in the #88 Ford. Jake Garcia, who drove the #13 Ford the previous two seasons, will now pilot the #98 Ford.
• Matt Mills was released from his ride at NIECE Motorsports following 2025 for unknown reasons. A rotating cast of drivers, anchored by Tyler Reif, will replace him in the #42 Chevrolet.
• Halmar Friesen Racing will run a second full-time truck, the #62 Toyota, featuring a rotating cast of drivers, such as John Hunter Nemechek and Wesley Slimp.
• Spencer Boyd will go from full-time to a majority of the schedule in the #76 Freedom Racing Enterprises Chevrolet. Road course specialist Nathan Nicholson will drive in select road course races.
• Spire Motorsports will not have a full-time driver competing for a championship in 2026. Cup Series driver Carson Hocevar will be driving thirteen races in the #77 Chevrolet. A rotating cast, including Kyle Busch (8 races), Michael McDowell, Connor Mosack, and others, will drive the flagship #7 Chevrolet.
• Kris Wright will replace Connor Mosack in the #81 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet. Wright competed in the NASCAR Xfinity (O’Reilly) Series in 2025 until mid-July, when he was released from his ride; the team he drove for shut down the race after. Christian Eckes will replace Jack Wood in the #91 Chevrolet after one season with Kaulig in the Xfinity (O’Reilly) Series. He is expected to contend for a title following his dominant stretch from 2023-24.

Schedule Changes

• Like the Cup and O’Reilly Series, the season finale will move from Phoenix to Homestead-Miami for the first time in seven years.
• The series will not return to Las Vegas for the first time since the inaugural 1995 season.
• Pocono will not be featured on the schedule for the first time since 2009 due to a scheduling conflict.
• Dover returns for the first time in six years.
• Martinsville will hold only one race in the fall, down from two.
• Charlotte will host two oval races rather than one oval and one Roval race.
• The series will be going street racing for the first time at St. Petersburg in February, and Coronado (San Diego) in June. The St. Petersburg date coincides with the Indycar opening weekend.

A lot of questions are left to be answered this Craftsman Truck Series season. Who will stand out in Corey Heim’s absence? How well will Ram do? Will the Chase format be a success? This year is bound to have you on the edge of your seat.