NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

The trucks of Lance Norick (No. 90) and Terry Cook (No. 88) racing in 1998

The idea for the Truck Series dates back to 1991.[2] A group of SCORE off-road racers (Dick Landfield, Jimmy Smith, Jim Venable, and Frank "Scoop" Vessels)[3] 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 to promote the idea, who consulted Bill France Jr. with it, but the plans fell apart. Afterwards, Clapp told the four to build a truck before NASCAR considered it. Bakersfield fabricator Gary Collins built a prototype truck, which were first shown off during Speedweeks for the 1994 Daytona 500[2] and tested by truck owner Jim Smith around Daytona International Speedway.[4] The truck proved to be popular among fans, and NASCAR arranged a meeting in a Burbank, California hotel on April 11, 1994; the meeting ultimately led to the creation of the "SuperTruck Series".[2]

Four demonstration races were held at Mesa Marin Raceway, Portland Speedway, Saugus Speedway and Tucson Raceway Park.[3] Tucson held four events that winter, which were nationally televised during the Winter Heat Series coverage.[3] Tools line Craftsman served as the sponsor of the series on a three-year deal, and the series was renamed to the "Craftsman Truck Series" in 1996. In addition, the series' $580,000 purse is larger than the Busch Grand National Series' fund.[5] While a new series, it garnered immediate support from many prominent Winston Cup Series team owners and drivers. Prominent Cup owners Richard Childress, Rick Hendrick, and Jack Roush owned truck teams, and top drivers such as Dale Earnhardt and Ernie Irvan also fielded SuperTrucks for others.[5] The series also attracted the attention of drivers like sprint car racing star Sammy Swindell, Walker Evans of off-road racing fame, open-wheel veteran Mike Bliss, and Atlanta Falcons head coach Jerry Glanville.[2] The inaugural race, the Skoal Bandit Copper World Classic at Phoenix International Raceway, was held on February 5; the race, featuring an event-record crowd of 38,000 spectators,[2] concluded with eventual series champion Mike Skinner holding off Cup veteran Terry Labonte to win.[6]

The Camping World Truck Series vehicle of three-time series champion Matt Crafton

At the end of the 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule, Craftsman stopped sponsoring the series. Subsequently, Camping World signed a seven-year contract with NASCAR, rebranding the series as the "Camping World Truck Series".[7]

With decreasing money and increasing costs,[8] the series has struggled financially with sponsorship and prize money, the latter often being low,[9] while the former would prompt teams to shut down to reduce in size. Teams like Richard Childress Racing, a Cup team with 31 Truck wins,[10] shut down their Truck operations; in RCR's case, after the 2013 season. After the 2014 season, Brad Keselowski stated his Brad Keselowski Racing team had lost $1 million despite recording a win that year,[11] 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."[12] BKR ended up shutting down after the 2017 season. To cut costs, NASCAR required teams to use sealed engines, with teams not being allowed to run at most three races with a previously-used engine. Additionally, NASCAR reduced the maximum number of pit crew members allowed over the wall for a pit stop from seven to five, and required teams to only take either fuel or tires on a single pit stop in 2009.[13] This requirement was abandoned for the 2010 season.

Starting with the 2011 season, NASCAR implemented a new rule that allows drivers to compete for the drivers' championship in only one of the three national touring series (Cup, Xfinity, or Truck) in a given season.[14] On January 19, 2016, NASCAR announced the introduction of a playoff format similar to the NASCAR Cup Series Chase for the Championship: the format consists of eight drivers across three rounds, with two drivers being eliminated after each round.[15] Starting in 2020 season, the playoff was expanded to 10 drivers, with two being eliminated after the first round and four being eliminated after the second round.[16]

Camping World signed a seven-year extension in 2014 to remain the title sponsor of the Truck Series until at least 2022.[17]

2019 NextEra Energy 250, first race under Gander Outdoors sponsorship

On May 8, 2018, NASCAR and Camping World announced the Truck Series title sponsor would be moved to Camping World subsidiary Gander Outdoors starting in 2019, renaming it the "NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series". The contract through 2022 is scheduled to continue as planned. After the 2019 season, the series was rebranded yet again, this time to the "NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series", starting in 2020.[18][19] The Camping World Truck Series name was restored in 2021.[20]

A Truck Series field currently consists of 32 trucks. Previously, 36 trucks comprised a field, but the number of entrants had been decreasing; in 2014, an average of 33 trucks were entered per race, the smallest field being 27 at Texas and the maximum being reached only eight times.[31]

For most races, a single-truck qualifying format is used. For tracks 1.25 miles and shorter, each truck gets two laps with the fastest lap counting. At tracks longer than 1.25 miles each truck only gets one timed lap. Road course events use a 2 part knockout qualifying format similar to Formula 1 with the top 12 qualifiers from Q1 advancing to Q2. At the event at Eldora, qualifying sets the lineups for a series of heat races which then determines the lineup.

A Truck Series garage at Lowe's Motor Speedway in 2008

Initially, the series used a number of rules that differed from both Winston Cup and Busch Grand National Series racing. Most of the first races were no longer than 125 miles in length, with many being 150-lap races on short tracks. To save teams money by not requiring teams to hire pit specialists and buy extra tires, and because some tracks – Saugus Speedway, Flemington Raceway, Tucson Raceway Park, Evergreen Speedway and Colorado National Speedway most notably—did not have a pit road safe enough for pit stops, or had pits outside the track, starting with the second race of the series in Tucson, NASCAR adopted a five-minute "halftime" break, in place of pit stops, where teams could make any changes they would want to the truck. The only time tire changes were possible were for the interest of safety, such as a tire failure, or a danger to the tire. The rule was popular with television and fans, and was spread for the entire schedule afterwards as pit reporters could interview drivers and crew chiefs for the break in a time without stress. However, starting in 1998, NASCAR introduced competition cautions, with each team being awarded four sets of tires; with this rule change, the halftime break was abolished starting with the race at Pikes Peak International Raceway.[32] In 1999, full pit stops were added, with drivers being allowed to pit during races, but were not allowed to change more than two tires during a stop.[33]

In 1996, some races went to two intermissions for full tire and fuel stops, while longer races were stopped at three times—a limited break near the one-quarter and three-quarter marks for fuel stops, and at the halfway point for fuel and tire stops. If tire wear was a concern, NASCAR also permitted two-tire changes if necessary in the first and third period breaks. These rules were influential in driver development. Drivers had to learn to conserve tire wear for up to a half race, which allowed them to learn conserving the truck. Some drivers used the rules to learn tire conservation for other series. In 1997, NASCAR started phasing pit stops. During the 1997 season, trucks could only legally take fuel and make adjustments during pit stops during the race. Tire changes were still illegal except for emergency causes and at break times.

For a short time in 1995, NASCAR adopted traditional short-track rules by inverting a number of cars at the front of the grid after complaints about some races where drivers led the entire event. That was dropped quickly after some races ended as walkovers for drivers, leading entire races.

Miguel Paludo's team performs a pit stop at Texas Motor Speedway in 2012

A more popular rule that was effective until the middle of the 2004 season was the "overtime" rule. Unless interrupted by weather, Craftsman Truck Series races had to end under green flag conditions, and the rule mandated that all races must end with a minimum of two consecutive laps in green flag condition, often referred to as a "green-white-checkered" finish. Since racing to the yellow flag was prohibited until 1998 (and again in 2003 under the current free pass rule), scoring reverted to the last completed lap, and until racing back to the line was legalized in 1998, if the yellow waved during the first lap of a green-white-checkered finish, the entire situation would be reset. This rule meant some races would be greatly extended. In 1998, a CBS-televised race in Pikes Peak scheduled for 186 laps ran 198 laps (12 extra laps) because of multiple attempts, and the last such race, in Gateway International Raceway in 2004, lasted 14 additional laps (16.25 miles). A July 24, 2004 rule change for NASCAR's three national series meant only one "green-white-checkered" finish can be attempted, and the race can end under yellow in one of four situations—inclement weather, darkness, the yellow flag waving because of an incident during the final lap of a race, or the yellow flag waving after the one attempt at green-white-checkered begins. This was later extended by NASCAR to three attempts. (Although reducing the Truck Series attempts at a green-white-checkered finish to one, the rule change was part of NASCAR's implementation of the rule to the Cup and Busch Series due to complaints regarding NASCAR's policy at the time regarding late race cautions; the policy stated that a red flag would be thrown during a late race caution to attempt to ensure the race would finish under green but if a caution occurred after the window for the red flag, the race would end under caution regardless of where the incident occurred or how severe it was). Ironically, the first Truck Series race under the new rules ended with a yellow flag on the final lap.

In 2014, NASCAR banned tandem drafting, a method of racing in which two vehicles would line up with each other to gain speed, from the Truck Series. Drivers who commit the act are black-flagged.[34]

In the 2016 season, the Truck Series experimented with a "caution clock" rule, under which a caution would be thrown after every 20 minutes of green flag racing. No free pass was awarded for these cautions, and the 20-minute clock was reset upon all restarts. The caution clock was not used during the final 20 laps (10 laps at Pocono or Canadian Tire Motorsports Park) of the race, nor was it used during the Eldora Dirt Derby due to its format.[35] In 2017, it was replaced with the stage system adopted by all other NASCAR national series that season.[36]

^ - Richmond Raceway was added to the 2020 NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series schedule on April 3, 2019