2026 NASCAR Draft Kit: CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Driver Rankings

Below are RotoWire's driver rankings and outlooks for the 2026 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series season.

1. Layne Riggs – No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford – Riggs' second full season in the Craftsman Truck Series would be his most successful to-date. The FRM driver would rack up three victories, four pole positions, 13 Top-5 and 16 Top-10 finishes. He would otherwise be overshadowed in a campaign that was dominated by Corey Heim. However, Riggs would have an incredible season despite not winning the championship. With Heim no longer a part of the championship picture, this division of NASCAR is up for grabs. Riggs will throw his hat in that championship ring and make a good effort at this season's title. He has the capability to win multiple races and stack up the Top-5 finishes. Riggs and crew chief, Dylan Cappello, finished the last season strong with a pair of pole positions and three-straight Top-5 finishes. They'll carry that momentum into the new season.          
2. Ty Majeski – No. 88 ThorSport Racing Ford – The ThorSport Racing veteran didn't collect any wins last season, but a major part of that was Corey Heim's dominance in 2025. However, Majeski displayed some of the best consistency of his truck series career with 10 Top-5 and 18 Top-10 finishes for a career-best average finish of 9.8 for the campaign. Majeski moves into the team's No. 88 Ford with Matt Crafton's retirement at the end of last year. Other than the number change, that's about it. ThorSport has a focus on Majeski's efforts and sees him as this team's best chance to take a championship in this division of NASCAR. He now has over 100 starts in the Craftsman Truck Series with six victories thus far. Majeski is becoming one of the more experienced young drivers in this racing series and is now a year-to-year championship contender.              
3. Kaden Honeycutt – No. 11 TRICON Garage Toyota – Gone is Corey Heim and his dominant 12-win campaign that led to the 2025 Craftsman Truck Series championship. While that's a huge loss for this team, they still played an instrumental part in his success last year. Youngster Honeycutt will have some big shoes to fill in the TRICON No. 11 Toyota. The prospect driver grabbed 14 Top 10's last season spread across a couple different teams, including Niece Motorsports. Honeycutt did great relief driving down the stretch in the No. 52 Toyota and would earn second- and third-place finishes in the last two races of 2025. That raw talent should be on full display in this very capable race team. Honeycutt should pick up his first-career win in the 2026 season and could, in fact, be a multi-race winner in 2026. He may not be the top contender to win the Craftsman Truck Series championship, but he will be a part of that battle by the time November rolls around.
4. Chandler Smith – No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford – Some late-season inconsistency would keep Smith from battling it out in the final round of the championship. However, make no mistake, Smith would have a championship caliber season in the shadow of Corey Heim. His two wins, 17 Top-5 and 22 Top-10 finishes were a huge accomplishment for the No. 38 Ford team. This team, headed by Jon Leonard, will return in the upcoming season to make another run at the championship. With no Heim in the championship picture, it would seem that Smith will have a sluggers chance at that title. Smith is proficient on a variety of tracks, including road circuits. So that skillset is going to be very beneficial to this team in the pursuit of the Craftsman Truck Series championship.  
5. Tyler Ankrum – No. 18 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet – With a win at Rockingham, eight Top-5 and 15 Top-10 finishes, Ankrum showed growth and his potential last season. It was the most successful campaign of his seven seasons in the Craftsman Truck Series. He returns to an intact No. 18 Chevrolet team at MHR again this season. Crew chief, Mark Hillman, and Ankrum showed great chemistry last year and the potential it teases for 2026. At soon-to-be 25-years-old, he's still a young driver, despite his 161 series starts now. That combination of youth and depth of experience is rare in this division of NASCAR. Ankrum will now assert himself as a weekly contender for wins and a prospective championship contender in this division of NASCAR.
6. Daniel Hemric – No. 19 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet – After a six season hiatus from the truck series, Hemric returned last year and planted his flag near the top of the series. The veteran driver would grab his first-career win (Martinsville) and give his MHR team maximum effort with 15 Top-10 finishes. It would all add up to a steady ninth-place finish in the final driver standings for Hermic. He returns to this same race team and crew chief, Kevin Bellicourt, for the 2026 campaign. The duo made a big impression in their first season together and will look to move the bar higher in the upcoming season. Hermic is a steady short track performer but he needs to increase his laps led this season. That would make him a good bet to be a multi-race winner in the new season.  
7. Grant Enfinger – No. 9 CR7 Motorsports Chevrolet – With the retirement of Matt Crafton, Enfinger becomes the new elder statesman of this division of NASCAR. At 41-years-old and with well over 200 series starts to his credit, Enfinger is now the most experienced and seasoned driver in the Craftsman Truck Series. His first season with this CR7 team would be a winless affair, his first winless campaign in the last four years. However, Enfinger would finish runner-up at both Las Vegas and Michigan, so he wasn't far off a couple victories. His 14 Top 10's fell pretty much in line with what he's produced in recent seasons. What Enfinger and the No. 9 Chevrolet team need to work on in the upcoming season is better consistency, better finishes and to flip some of those near-misses into wins. With no full-time Corey Heim around that will be quite possible.
8. Christian Eckes – No. 91 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet – After spending last season racing full-time in the O'Reilly Series, Eckes returns to the trucks in 2026. He'll pilot the No. 91 Chevrolet for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing and take on the full schedule. Eckes was a Top-5 driver in this division of NASCAR in 2023 and 2024, however, that was while he was paired with crew chief, Charles Denike. This time around he'll be matched up with Dave Elenz and look to recapture the form that propelled him to eight victories and 35 Top-10 finishes over those two seasons. It will be tricky to get back all that performance, but we believe Eckes can get some of it back right away in this steady race team. Expecting multiple wins could be a stretch, but we believe he'll get back into the win column at least once this season.     
9. Gio Ruggiero – No. 17 TRICON Garage Toyota – The rookie campaign would go pretty well for Ruggiero. He would capture Rookie of the Year honors in 2025, rack up one win and 11 Top-10 finishes as well as two pole positions. The 21-year-old talent showed a good balance of skill on all size ovals and road circuits as well. That versatility served him well in his ROTY campaign, and it will serve him well moving forward. Ruggiero returns to TRICON and the No. 17 Toyota for another season and he'll look to become a multi-race winner in 2026. The championship is probably out of reach for this young driver and very capable race team. However, Ruggiero is a talent to watch closely going into the new season and he's only going to get better.  
10. Jake Garcia – No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford – The young driver posted the best numbers of his truck series career in 2025. Garcia would rack up three pole positions, lead 62 laps and nab 10 Top-10 finishes last season. He would end up a respectable 10th-place in the final driver point standings. Garcia returns to the No. 98 ThorSport Racing team in the upcoming season. He'll once again team with Jeriod Prince at crew chief and look to build on the solid results they posted last year. Garcia is still looking for his first series win after 75 starts in this division of NASCAR. He'll likely get it in 2026. He was very close in a couple occasions last year and certainly Garcia looks very sharp on short tracks. One of those will yield a win to him in the upcoming campaign.
11. Ben Rhodes – No. 99 ThorSport Racing Ford – Rhodes has fallen off a bit over the past couple years. The veteran driver posted his second-straight winless campaign in 2025. Rhodes would nab just eight Top-10 finishes last season in the team's No. 99 Ford. That would slot him 12th in the final driver point standings and that would be his lowest ranking since his rookie season in 2016. Rhodes will look to rebound with this team in the upcoming season and try to get back some of that lost performance that he's been missing the last two campaigns. It's assumed Doug George will be back at crew chief for this team, although that's yet to be officially announced. With near-250 truck series starts to his credit, Rhodes has plenty of experience, but getting back into victory lane could be a big challenge.
12. Stewart Friesen – No. 52 Halmar Racing Toyota – The veteran driver will return to the seat of the No. 52 Toyota in 2026 after suffering serious injuries last July in a scary crash in a dirt modified. Friesen would have to step out of the truck but not until after racking up one win and six Top 10's before his injury. Kaden Honeycutt would then come on and do stellar fill-in work in this team. He would grab two Top-5s and five Top-10s in the final eight starts of last season with this team. Friesen is still dealing with some nerve damage in his leg but he's walking and on track to be back in the driver's seat by the season-opener in Daytona. This team has race winning potential and veteran Friesen will get back in the groove quickly after nearly suffering a career-ending injury.  
13. Justin Haley – No. 16 Kaulig Racing Dodge – After four-straight seasons of racing at NASCAR's top level, Haley returns to the Craftsman Truck Series in 2026. Kaulig Racing is also making the move to this division of NASCAR and bringing with them the return of Dodge to NASCAR. There's a lot of buzz and excitement around this team due to that return of Dodge and Haley's veteran experience. In 2018 he achieved three wins and 18 Top-10 finishes in the trucks with the former GMS Racing. Haley has won in every division of NASCAR that's he's competed so he brings great experience to this new venture. The biggest unknown is how competitive the Dodge RAM will be in it's return to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. However, there is a good deal of upside with this driver and team.  
14. Tanner Gray – No. 15 TRICON Garage Toyota – The journeyman driver did some reasonably good work in the team's No. 15 Toyota last season. Gray would not be a big lap leader but he would grab six Top-10 finishes for the campaign and seem to get better as the season rolled on. He's back for the upcoming season in an unchanged race team, headed up by Jeff Hensley. The two will continue their quest for Gray's first truck series win, and while that's not likely we could see more Top 10's and improved consistency from this driver and team. Gray seems to be sharpest on short track and intermediate ovals, and that makes up a bulk of the tracks in the 25-event schedule.
15. Connor Mosack/Michael McDowell – No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet – A conglomeration of drivers made some pretty big achievements in this truck last season. Kyle Busch and Carson Hocevar would pick up victories at Atlanta and Kansas and the total driver conglomerate would tally 12 Top-10 finishes. It would lead to a respectable seventh-place finish for the No. 7 team in the owner's points. What we know about this season is that Mosack will pick up roughly half the schedule (12 races) and that McDowell has been signed for the season-opener at Daytona. The remaining 12 events are a question mark as of this writing. Mosack picked up four Top 10's in a full schedule in the No. 81 Chevrolet, but he still has a lot to learn. There's big time potential for this team in 2026 but it's tempered by Mosack's lack of experience and the unknown remaining driver rotation.         
16. Daniel Dye – No. 10 Kaulig Racing Dodge – Dye's O'Reilly Series run would end abruptly as Kaulig would decide to shift from that division and into the trucks in 2026. The young driver will move back into this racing series after a one-season hiatus. In 2024 Dye racked up nine Top-10s and a 10th-place points finish for his former MHR team in the truck series. The young Floridian brings 91-combined starts of experience between the O'Reilly and Craftsman Truck Series to the table and will look for strong results in Kaulig's new venture with Dodge into this division of NASCAR. Mopar has come on board as the primary sponsor for the team, but we don't know who will serve as crew chief at the time of this writing. Dye has a good amount of potential and room for growth is this race team can come together quickly. 
17. Brenden Queen – No. 12 Kaulig Racing Dodge – The 2025 ARCA/Menards Series champion moves to the Craftsman Truck Series in 2026. Queen won a whopping eight races and nabbed 17 Top-5s in ARCA last year. It was a dominant run in that racing series all the way to the championship. Queen now runs for Rookie of the Year honors in Kaulig's launch into this division of NASCAR. Couple that with Dodge's return to NASCAR and we have some unknowns behind this talented young driver's first full season in the trucks. Cummins will be the full-time sponsor on the truck and we don't know who the crew chief will be at this point. Queen is very talented but there's a lot of unknowns surrounding this team before the season starts. However, there is a good bit of upside and the potential to climb the rankings.
18. Unknown Driver – No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet – Corey Lajoie piloted this team to pretty good results in a partial schedule last season. That veteran driver would nab three Top-5 and seven Top-10 finishes in just nine starts in the No. 77 Chevrolet. Andres Perez would start the season in this truck and earn two Top-10 finishes of his own, so there's a good deal of potential here. The driver for 2026 has not been named at the time of this writing. That's the reason for the placement in the pre-season rankings is due to the driver uncertainty. However, the high side for this team is pretty reasonable and if a good driver can be signed the No. 77 Spire team can climb the rankings a good distance. This is a truck situation to watch closely leading up to the start of the season.
19. Landen Lewis/Ross Chastain/Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – No. 45 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet – The Niece No. 45 truck had a good dose of Kaden Honeycutt last year along with Bayley Currey. Connor Zilisch would also make one spot start at Watkins Glen. It would all add up to a pretty decent effort of two Top-5 and 10 Top-10 finishes. Niece brings back the No. 45 Chevrolet in 2026 and it will get a good mix of experienced and young drivers. Stenhouse will run the two superspeedway events at Daytona and Atlanta. Chastain will take on eight events in the calendar. That leaves 15 starts for youngster Lewis. At soon-to-be 20-years-old he has a lot to learn. With just three combined starts of Craftsman Truck Series experience, Lewis is just getting started in this division. On the bright side, he's shown some flashes of ability in his ARCA/Menards racing history.
20. Cole Butcher – No. 13 ThorSport Racing Ford – The Canadian was named to the ThorSport Racing No. 13 Ford in mid-January. Butcher is tabbed for the full-season with this capable race team. At 29-years-old, he's a bit older than your typical Craftsman Truck Series rookie. However, all his experience is in lower racing divisions and Butcher only has two starts of truck series experience to fall back on. He earned a pair of 23rd-place finishes in the No. 62 truck last year at Bristol and Phoenix. We don't have any details on sponsorship or crew chief, so a lot of unknowns surround this situation. It would seem Butcher has a lot of learning and growth on tap and this team will help to smooth out the bumps of learning on the job.
21. Tony Stewart/Unknown Drivers – No. 25 Kaulig Racing Dodge – Former NASCAR champion Stewart is the only driver to be named at this point. He will take the wheel of the team's No. 25 Dodge at Daytona. The team has stated they will make a full-season effort and rotate a series of free agent drivers each week. That could bring a number of young, inexperienced drivers to the seat. By the same token, it could also bring a number of experienced Cup Series veterans to the truck. No details are known about sponsorship or crew chief, so there are a great deal of unknowns around this race team. That makes it difficult to forecast in season-long fantasy leagues, but it does tease of some upside and potential due to Stewart and any other seasoned drivers who pilot the team's truck.
22. Andres Perez – No. 44 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet – This team featured a driver rotation in 2025. Perez and a handful of other pilots would round out the full 25-race schedule. They would collect eight Top-10 finishes in a reasonably good campaign. Perez would account for just one of those although he'd grab three total Top-10s last season when combined with his time at Spire Motorsports. He is expected to have most if not all of the starts this season with this race team. That gives them some decent potential. Perez has just 27 series starts of experience so he still has a good bit to learn. Niece brings good trucks and support to the table, so he'll have that going for him. Crew chief Wally Rogers brings a good bit of experience to the table as well.
23. Jimmie Johnson/Unknown Drivers – No. 1 TRICON Garage Toyota – At the beginning of January, Johnson was named to this team for the road racing start at Coronado Island. The team is committed to the full truck series schedule, but we know nothing at this point about the driver lineup outside of that one race. It's a situation similar to what we're also seeing in the Kaulig Racing No. 25. The makeup of drivers could be a mix of young, inexperienced drivers and some starts by Cup Series veterans. The performance will fluctuate from one extreme to the other based on who is the driver the No. 1 Toyota each week. TRICON puts good equipment on the track and Jake Hampton is penciled in at crew chief, so we know that much at the point of this writing.
24. Travis Pastrana/Tyler Reif – No. 42 Niece Motorsports Chevrolet – Veteran Pastrana was named to the team for the season-opener at Daytona. He brings Top-15 potential to the seat of the No. 42 Chevrolet for that race. Youngster Reif will pick up the remainder and bulk of the schedule. He made one start for Niece last season and earned an impressive Top 10 in the season finale at Phoenix. The young talent has made numerous starts in the various different ARCA/Menards Series and impressed with race wins and strong challenges for series championships. Reif's ability could translate well to the truck series and he could make a serious run at Rookie of the Year. There is a good amount of upside with this driver and team.    
25. Kris Wright – No. 81 McAnally-Hilgemann Racing Chevrolet – Wright moves from part-time O'Reilly Series competition to full-time Craftsman Truck Series competition in 2026. The journeyman driver has never competed in a full schedule before but he has 83-starts of combined experience between these two divisions of NASCAR. Wright has yet to accomplish much in his past six seasons of racing, but this will be the best team and equipment situation he's ever had. Darren Fraley will be calling the shots from atop the team's war wagon and there is good corporate sponsorship in place. Wright has a lot to prove in this opportunity, we'll soon see if he's up to the task.
26. Dawson Sutton – No. 26 Rackley W.A.R. Chevrolet – Sutton is expected to return to the No. 26 Chevrolet that he piloted last season. The young driver nabbed two Top-10 finishes and would finish 19th in the championship driver standings at season's end. It was a reasonably competitive effort in Sutton's first full season in the trucks. Veteran crew chief, Chad Kendrick, is expected to return to this team and will continue building on the chemistry and momentum this team established last year. Although Sutton is a promising young talent, this is one of the more underfunded and less-equipped teams in the Craftsman Truck Series which puts a lower ceiling on their potential performance.  
27. Unknown Driver – No. 5 TRICON Garage Toyota – With the announcement of Toni Breidinger's signing with Rackley WAR, this race team is without a pilot in mid-January. Dean Thompson drove this truck in 2024 and grabbed six Top 10's in that effort, so there is some potential here. Breidinger had more struggles in the truck than Thompson, so the upcoming 2026 campaign is really an unknown for this race team. TRICON is a strong organization and they have good support and equipment, so the potential to climb these rankings will mostly weigh on the driver or drivers. This is a team to watch closely as the season approaches and their driver announcement will dictate the direction this team largely takes.   
28. Spencer Boyd/Nathan Nicholson – No. 76 Freedom Racing Enterprises Chevrolet – Boyd returns to the seat of the No. 76 Chevrolet that he finished 21st in the points with last season. However, this campaign he'll share the seat of the FRE truck with youngster Nicholson. He has made his fame with karting championships of various kinds and he currently competes for the title in the Mazda MX-5 Cup. Nicholson will tackle the handful of road racing events with this team while Boyd takes on all the ovals. Boyd earned just three Top-15 finishes with this team in 2025, so the hopes are they'll be improved in the upcoming season. Nicholson should give them a boost in the three road racing events, but a lot of the burden will fall on Boyd to help this team improve.   
29. Frankie Muniz – No. 33 Reaume Brothers Racing Ford – In 21 starts last season, Muniz showed some improvement by season's end. He struggled through six DNF's in the first 12 events of last season, but by November Muniz would pick up his first-career Top 10 (Daytona) and grab a couple Top-20 finishes in the last three events of last season. Muniz would end up 26th-place in the driver standings of his first full season but show some promise. The No. 33 Ford team welcomes him back for another full slate in 2026. Pedro Lopez will continue with the crew chief duties and he along with Muniz will look for performance gains. Big ovals seemed to be his best tracks although Muniz also made gains on short tracks late last year.    
30. Josh Reaume – No. 2 Reaume Brothers Racing Ford – Reaume and a handful of other drivers handled the driving duties for this truck in 2025. It wouldn't add up to much success with only three Top-20 finishes (one by Reaume) in the last campaign. More often than not the team was a start-and-park effort that would not go the full distance most races. Reaume will be back in the seat but just how much is unknown at the time of this writing. It's very likely that he'll share this seat once again with multiple drivers. As for performance, they could be looking at a similar situation this season where they don't race competitively for the most part. Funding, sponsorship and who drives are the key drivers to this race team's potential.
31. Unknown Drivers – No. 14 Kaulig Racing Dodge – At the time of this writing, very little is known about this race team. This is one of five entries that Kaulig plans to field in the 2026 Craftsman Truck Series schedule. What we do know is the team has disclosed that the driver's seat will be made up of multiple pilots. It's pretty difficult to say who will be in the truck this season. It could really be a mix of younger, lesser experienced drivers. That development would put this team further down the rankings than the other Kaulig entries. We'll have to watch closely as the season approaches to see who the team names to this truck and that will largely dictate their prospects for the upcoming campaign.  
32. Unknown Drivers – No. 02 Young's Motorsports Chevrolet – Young's has traditionally used driver rotations to fill out this entry and that's exactly what they did in 2025. The driving conglomerate was spread between Nathan Byrd, Jayson Alexander, Stefan Parsons, Ben Maier, Kaden Honeycutt, Nick Leitz, Treyten Lapcevich and Logan Bearden. That's a big head count to be sure. They only accounted for three Top-15 finishes all season, and all of those were captured by Byrd. Mixed in with that success was eight DNF's, so consistency and finishing races were an issue at times. We see a similar situation developing for the No. 02 Chevrolet team in the new season.