I’ve been covering Frontstretch’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series beat for a while now, and if there’s anything to expect when it comes to silly season, it’s that ThorSport Racing will not announce its plans until well into the offseason.
So imagine the surprise felt when it was announced in August that not only would Matt Crafton be retiring from full-time Truck Series competition, but also that current reigning series champion Ty Majeski would take over the famed No. 88?
While the decision for Crafton to retire wasn’t all too surprising, the decision to put Majeski in the No. 88 was.
Majeski has been carving his own legacy in the No. 98 — that’s the number he won the championship with in 2024 and has run the number full-time since 2023. Not to mention, it feels like the No. 88 is synonymous with Crafton, so it almost feels sacrilegious to put someone else in the truck now.
Though he did run his first full season with ThorSport in the No. 66 in 2022, notching his first two career wins.
Since Majeski moved to the No. 98, the No. 66 became a part-time all-star truck for the team, seeing the likes of Joey Logano, Cam Waters, Chris Buescher, Johnny Sauter, Conner Jones, Jake Drew and Luke Baldwin take turns behind the wheel.
Of all those drivers, Logano has been the only one to grab a win, doing so on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2023.
In 2025, the driver who has been behind the wheel of the No. 66 the most is Luke Fenhaus, making 11 starts so far. Fenhaus ran a couple of races with the team last season, but he has received the bulk of the team’s starts in 2025.
While the results haven’t exactly been there for Fenhaus, more than likely, that’s the product of running five full-time trucks. It seems ThorSport has realized that, too, as the No. 66 has been surprisingly left off the entry list of the last three races at Darlington Raceway, Bristol Motor Speedway, and New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
However, when Fenhaus has raced the truck, it’s always been with a sponsor — Soda Sense. Soda Sense has backed the Wisconsinite for all of his starts in 2024 and 2025.
You know who else Soda Sense also backs pretty religiously? The No. 98 of Majeski.
With Crafton’s departure and Majeski filling his place, that leaves a spot open at ThorSport in 2025 that could have Fenhaus’ name written all over it.
He’s the most deserving of all the drivers who have made starts in the No. 66 — Jones is no longer with the team, Drew doesn’t have the funding and Baldwin is still finding his footing, while all the other drivers race in different series or are mostly retired like Sauter.
In Baldwin’s case, Fenhaus taking over a full-time ride in the No. 98 could help him.
A Fenhaus promotion could allow Baldwin to get more starts in the No. 66 in 2026, should he decide to take the Ryan Preece route and move from the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour to NASCAR stock car/truck racing. Similar to how Fenhaus got more starts this year with Jones out of the running, Baldwin could get more starts next season if Fenhaus gets moved to full-time status.
Fenhaus already clearly has a great relationship with Soda Sense, making sponsorship less of a worry compared to other drivers who scramble to find whatever they can just for a part-time season.
He feels the most Truck-ready of all possible candidates for the seat. While his results leave a little to be desired this season, having a full-time seat and consistent presence in the series would help the 21-year-old develop more.
He’d have at least one veteran teammate in Majeski to guide him. It’d be surprising if Ben Rhodes doesn’t return next season as well, if not both Rhodes and Jake Garcia. So in reality, Fenhaus could have upwards of three teammates, two of them champions, with knowledge and experience to dispel.
Besides, why would ThorSport try to fill an open seat with an outsider when it has several candidates inside the house, namely the two Lukes, Baldwin and Fenhaus? It just makes too much sense.
The No. 66 truck, which appeared to originally be a full-time truck, not being at the track for the third straight race, causes a little concern. Maybe it’s for the best in an effort to start preparing for 2026. After all, as mentioned earlier, five trucks are a lot to handle without money and manpower (unless you’re factory-backed like Kaulig Racing will be next season). So with no shot at the owner’s title, maybe the team decided to focus toward 2026.
And quite frankly, it’d be foolish not to have Fenhaus as part of the plan for 2026. He showed a lot of promise in the ARCA Menards Series, and hasn’t done awful in his limited Truck Series starts. Combine that with a great relationship with a sponsor of a truck that will be vacated in 2026, and the stars look like they align for Fenhaus.
Of course, we may not hear anything until deep into the offseason as per the usual ThorSport way — but that’s okay. The 2026 season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway isn’t until Feb. 13 — the team has plenty of time to figure things out.
Follow @AnthonyDamcott on X.
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.