The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is gearing up for the ninth race of the 2025 season, heading to Kansas Speedway for the Heart of Health Care 200.
There are 31 drivers hoping to take home the trophy and — wait a minute. Is that right? The entry list only features 31 trucks?
Yeah, if you haven’t noticed, the entry lists for the Truck Series have been a little bit … scarce this season. As a reminder, a full Truck Series field can consist of 36 trucks before we start talking about DNQs.
After nine races in 2025, only one entry list has gone above 35 trucks, still one short of a full field. Only one race — the season opener at Daytona International Speedway — has seen a full field of trucks take the green flag. That race at 38 entrants, making Justin Carroll and Bryan Dauzat the only two trucks to fail to qualify for a race this season.
So why are there fewer teams this season?
Well, think about the teams that used to be in the series that aren’t anymore.
GMS Racing, Kyle Busch Motorsports, Hattori Racing Enterprises (likely) and Rev Racing have all shut down Truck Series operations (or altogether). AM Racing moved up to NASCAR Xfinity Series competition only.
Floridian Motorsports’ operations are all but shut down, while some teams like FDNY Racing, GK Racing, Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing, Norm Benning Racing and TC Motorsports are part-time or superspeedway-only teams.
Every team I just mentioned has made Truck Series starts since the turn of the decade and are no longer in the Truck Series. Yeah, that’ll make the entry list go down quick.
However, there is no shortage of drivers. There are already 60 total drivers to make a start in the Truck Series this season and it wouldn’t be surprising if we reach 75 drivers by season’s end. There’s just a noticeable lack of teams, full or part time.
That’s concerning.
Lesser field counts in any series are concerning, but this is the third-tier series of NASCAR, where there theoretically should be full fields every week. The fact that the Truck Series has averaged 33.8 trucks per race (let’s round up to 34) when full fields can be capped at 36 is alarming.
And unfortunately, it likely has to do with cost.
The cost difference between the ARCA Menards Series, Truck and Xfinity Series isn’t much, if any. That’s what allowed AM to move up to Xfinity altogether. Other teams such as Young’s Motorsports are easily able to field a Truck Series and Xfinity Series team.
As such, because of the minimal difference in payouts between each series, some teams and drivers likely find it easier to run a smaller schedule (in the case of ARCA) or in a more competitive series (for those who choose to go to the Xfinity Series).
I’m certainly not gonna sit here and pretend to know of any possible solutions. But it’s crucial to point out the problem that field sizes seem to be trending downward — hopefully, someone smarter than me can find the solution.
Obviously there will be some races that will see bigger fields.
The inaugural trip to Lime Rock Park might get a bigger turnout, as might NASCAR’s home race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. If nothing else, Talladega Superspeedway will likely see a full field, as well as DNQs.
But here’s hoping we see consistently bigger fields going forward — 31 trucks is the smallest field we’ve seen in a while, so hopefully we don’t go lower than that for the rest of the season.
The Heart of Health Care 200 at Kansas begins at 7:30 p.m. ET, Saturday (May 3) on FOX Sports 1 (or NASCAR Racing Network for the radio heads).
Truckin’ Tidbits
- Sunday’s (May 4) NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway saw a run-in between two old friends in Ryan Preece and Carson Hocevar. Preece was not too happy being wrecked by the second-year Cup driver. Remember, those two have history: In 2022, Hocevar and Preece were battling for the win at Charlotte when Hocevar got loose under Preece and took both of them out of a chance at victory. And Preece, again, was not too happy with the young Michiganian.
- Jayson Alexander has signed with Young’s Motorsports and will make three starts for the team at North Wilkesboro Speedway, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Alexander will drive the No. 02, which has been driven by Nathan Byrd in every race so far this season and still has seven starts to go in the truck. Alexander made his Truck Series debut last season at The Milwaukee Mile with Floridian Motorsports.
- Brandon Jones has landed a two-race sponsorship deal with Sprecher Breweries, which will adorn Jones’ No. 1 truck for Kansas and Charlotte. It’s the first time Jones will have a sponsor in more than one race this season, which is surprising given he’s only making seven starts this season.
- Homestead-Miami Speedway is back as the season finale in 2026! As a reminder, the last time the Truck Series raced at Homestead as the finale, Matt Crafton won the championship despite not winning a single race, in a system specifically designed to reward winning. Homestead is a great site for the finale, especially for the Truck Series, so let’s hope it puts on a banger next season.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.