NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will be the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series as of next season
By Nick Tylwalk
Camping World won’t be the title sponsor for the trucks next year, but the new name is still a sub-brand of the same company.
Say goodbye to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and hello to the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series.
The name change for the trucks was made official today and will take place starting with the 2019 season. NASCAR announced today that Camping World was handing the naming rights to the series over to Gander Outdoors, which it acquired and rebranded (from Gander Mountain) last year. The deal between Camping World and NASCAR for the Truck Series remains intact and runs through 2022.
The possibility of a name change had been reported earlier this week by SportsBusiness Daily. Both the July Truck Series and Cup Series races at Pocono will also have Gander Outdoors sponsorship, and Camping World Chairman Marcus Lemonis has also hinted that a race team will have Gander Outdoors on the hood sometime this season.
The Truck Series, which sprang to life in 1995 as the NASCAR SuperTruck Series, has had only two different corporate-inspired names to date. Longtime fans knew it as the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series from 1996 through 2008, and it’s been the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series since 2009.
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Perhaps the best part of this news for current fans is that Camping World sounds like it’s quite happy with its partnership with NASCAR and happy for it to be continuing on under its new name.
“Nearly a decade ago we felt strongly our entitlement sponsorship would dramatically increase Camping World’s customer base and it’s delivered,” Lemonis said in a press release. “We expect the passionate fans of NASCAR will embrace Gander Outdoors the same way they supported Camping World and we couldn’t be more excited about the future of the series.”