One of the oldest guards of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will not be on the grid in 2026.
On Monday (Aug. 18), ThorSport Racing announced that Matt Crafton would be retiring from full-time competition following the 2026 season. The iconic, bright yellow Menards No. 88 will remain, with Crafton’s teammate Ty Majeski taking the reins and giving up his No. 98 going forward.
With Crafton’s retirement comes mixed feelings. On the one hand, Crafton has an impressive streak of consecutive starts going that will no doubt remain untouched for many years to come. How impressive is it? Well, Crafton has not missed a single race in the Truck Series since the 2000 season finale at Auto Club Speedway.
That’s right. The Truck Series has held 585 races since the penultimate race of the 2000 season, and Crafton has been a part of all of them.
That is absolutely unheard of nowadays.
Crafton’s longevity will extend 592 by season’s end (which could be 593 if ThorSport decides to put him in an extra truck at Daytona International Speedway), marking the longest streak of starts in Truck Series history.
What’s crazy to think about is that there were only 145 previous Truck Series races before Crafton made his first start, which means that by season’s end, Crafton will have competed in over 80% of all Truck Series races in history.
That alone is why Crafton’s retirement is a huge deal. We’ll be lucky to see that kind of streak in the NASCAR Cup Series again, let alone the Truck Series. There are very few Truck Series lifers anymore like Crafton and those before him, such as Johnny Sauter, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Jack Sprague. The closest ones we have are Grant Enfinger, Stewart Friesen, and Crafton’s two teammates Majeski and Ben Rhodes.
Enfinger and Friesen have already eclipsed 40, and both have had their start streaks end due to sponsorship (Enfinger in 2020) and injury (Friesen this year). Rhodes and Majeski could have theoretical chances to eclipse that mark, but they would have to be like Crafton and race nearly into their 50s to accomplish that feat.
And that’s without thinking about the possibility of either driver having higher aspirations at some point. Both drivers could theoretically move up the ladder if it weren’t for Ford’s incredibly small and limited development pipeline. But it seems like both Rhodes and Majeski have found a home with ThorSport and the Truck Series, so they will likely be the only two drivers who could challenge that consecutive start mark.
Not only that, but Crafton is the Truck Series’ only back-to-back champion, having done so in 2013 and 2014, and then tagged on another one in 2019, joining Hornaday and Sprague as the only Truck Series champions with three or more crowns. Given that Crafton’s first full season was 2001, to win three titles within seven seasons in the back half of his career is another impressive feat that may not be beaten again.
Lastly, Crafton’s partnership with ThorSport, Menards and the No. 88 has been one that has lasted almost his entire career. Crafton spent one season at Kevin Harvick Incorporated in 2004 but has spent the rest of his 25-year career with ThorSport, while Menards has been with the team for 23 of those years — the longest driver/primary sponsor partnerships in NASCAR history. As for the No. 88, Crafton has driven it at ThorSport for all but one race — the 2003 finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the final race before moving to KHI next season.
People can’t watch the Truck Series and see the No. 88 Menards ThorSport Racing Ford without thinking of Crafton — it’s why Majeski has big shoes to fill despite paving his own legacy in the No. 98, winning multiple races and a championship. He’s a proven driver to be sure, but it’s a whole different adventure when you’re filling a seat as iconic as Crafton’s.
All this and more is what makes Crafton’s retirement one that is well-deserved. However, recent years have made it seem like Monday’s announcement is a little bit overdue.
At no point has Crafton been the most winningest driver — in his 585 starts to date, the 49-year-old has just 15 wins to his name, only 2.5% of his starts (which is why it’s so impressive that he was able to win three titles, though his 2019 one came with the caveat of a winless season). His last win was back at Kansas Speedway in 2020, and that win snapped a three-year winless drought back to Eldora Speedway in 2017.
While Crafton has been able to hold onto playoff spots in the years following, 2024 was the first time since 2006 that he’s finished outside the top 10 in points. Now, he’s guaranteed to do it again in 2025 after missing the 10-driver playoffs for the second consecutive season.
And while Crafton has always been a fiery driver, his radio outbursts have only gotten worse, blowing up on his team over some of the smallest inconveniences.
And of course, there was his beef with Nick Sanchez in 2023 at Talladega Superspeedway, after a bad bump caused Crafton to crash late, and he retaliated by allegedly sucker-punching the then-rookie in the garage area after the race. That incident turned a lot of the NASCAR faithful against him.
It seemed pretty clear that Crafton was growing more and more unhappy as time passed since that Kansas win, and in the process, made a few enemies in the fan base along the way, especially this past weekend at Richmond Raceway when he slipped in oil and spun himself and teammate Majeski, who was in the lead at the time.
Despite all this, it doesn’t make Crafton any less of a Hall of Famer. People may argue that his win column isn’t the strongest, but there are several other inductees without the most victories.
But what Crafton did have that these guys also had? Longevity. He also has three championships. Hornaday is in the Hall of Fame with four Truck Series titles. Sprague will eventually get in with his three titles, as he should. Crafton will be there in due time as well.
He also cemented his legacy as one of the greatest Truck Series drivers of all-time because he didn’t make a ton of NASCAR Cup or Xfinity Series starts – but he easily could have and probably done well.
Love him or hate him, Crafton’s retirement, while long overdue, is well-deserved. It got a little ugly toward the end, but that doesn’t make him any less deserving of immortalization in downtown Charlotte at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He may not be first-ballot, but his legacy and the Truck Series’ history are interwoven — you cannot have one without the other.
He’s had a long career and seen more success than most drivers even dream of. He’s earned this retirement, and no matter your thoughts on him, the Truck Series grid will not be the same beginning in 2026.
Enjoy retirement, Matt.
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.