The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. It is the only series in all of NASCAR to race modified production pickup trucks and is one of the three national divisions of NASCAR, together with the Nationwide Series and the top level Sprint Cup. On December 3rd, 2007, it was announced that at the conclusion of the 2008 season, Craftsman would no longer sponsor the series. Craftsman has been the title sponsor since 1995, the year NASCAR founded the series.

History

The idea for the Truck Series dates back to 1993. A group of SCORE off-road racers (Dick Landfield, Jimmy Smith, Jim Venable, and Frank "Scoop" Vessels) wanted a bigger audience for truck racing. They made a prototype for a NASCAR-style pickup truck. These were first shown off during the 1994 Daytona 500, and four demonstration races were held during the season. The first event at Mesa Marin Raceway had six trucks. The other three events were held at Portland Speedway, Saugus Speedway, and Tucson Raceway Park. Tucson Raceway Park held four events that winter, which were nationally televised during the Winter Heat Series coverage. These trucks proved to be extremely popular, and it led to NASCAR creating the series, originally known as the "SuperTruck Series", in 1995.

While a new series, it garnered immediate support from many prominent Sprint 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. The series became known as the Craftsman Truck Series in 1996.

Initially, the series used a number of rules that differed from both Sprint Cup and Nationwide 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, AZ, NASCAR adopted a ten-minute "halftime" break, in place of pit stops, where teams could make any changes they'd 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.