Rackley WAR has spent the past few years building more than your average NASCAR Truck Series team. Alongside its national-level operation, the organization developed a late-model program that took its drivers to short tracks across the country. Just a year ago, that meant 41 events, 74 race entries, and eight drivers competing under the Rackley WAR banner. Sure enough, the results followed. 

The team recorded 12 late-model wins that season, adding to a program that had already secured the 2024 Pro Late Model points championship at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. Since Rackley Roofing and Willie Allen Racing joined forces in 2021, the organization says it has earned nearly 50 late-model victories. That side of the operation is still going. But it was not enough to sustain the other part of the business. 

“After six seasons of competing full-time in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, we have made the difficult decision that tonight’s race at Talladega Superspeedway will mark the end of Rackley WAR’s NASCAR Truck Series program,” the co-owners Curtis Sutton and Willie Allen confirmed via the team’s X account.

The owners also acknowledged the drivers, employees, and partners who contributed to the team’s six-season run. But the announcement leaves one important question unanswered: why is Rackley WAR stepping away now?

The co-owners did not cite a specific reason, whether financial pressures, sponsorship, competitive results, or a change in ownership priorities. Without further explanation from the team, the cause of the closure remains unknown.

The decision comes amid wider concerns about the financial pressures facing Truck Series teams. Reporting by Frontstretch in 2025 highlighted owners’ concerns about low purses, rising operating costs, and the difficulty of keeping entries financially viable. Those challenges provide context for Rackley WAR’s exit, but there is no confirmation that they drove this particular decision.

The closure also comes before the Truck Series season is over. Rackley WAR’s final race is the October 23 event at Talladega Superspeedway, with the series still scheduled to visit Martinsville Speedway on October 30 and Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 6. The team will therefore leave the championship with two rounds remaining.

To understand what is ending, it helps to look at what Rackley WAR built over those six seasons. Since making its Truck Series debut at Daytona International Speedway in 2021, the team has recorded 146 starts with 14 different drivers. Those entries produced 27 top-10 finishes, six top-five results and 37 laps led. Its only playoff appearance came in 2023, with Matt DiBenedetto, who had delivered the team’s first and only Truck Series victory at Talladega in October 2022.

That victory gives the venue added significance as Rackley WAR prepares to leave the series. DiBenedetto’s win was the team’s defining national-level achievement, and his playoff run the following year marked another milestone. The owners have not said that returning to Talladega influenced their decision, but the team will end its Truck Series chapter at the same track where it reached its highest point.

Rackley WAR’s operation also changed over time. The team fielded the No. 25 Chevrolet full-time from 2021 through 2024, while the No. 26 appeared part-time from 2022 to 2024 before becoming a full-time entry. The No. 27, which William Byron drove in a single race at Nashville in 2021, later returned as a part-time truck.

By 2026, the No. 26 had become the team’s main entry, driven primarily by Dawson Sutton, the son of co-owner Curtis Sutton. Sutton made his first two Truck Series starts for Rackley WAR in 2024 before competing full-time in 2025. He finished fourth at Talladega that October, the best result of his career, and ended the season 18th in the standings with two top-10 finishes. In 2026, his only top-10 result was seventh at Bristol Motor Speedway in April.

The No. 27 had a smaller role in the team’s final season. Toni Breidinger and Kasey Kleyn shared its part-time schedule, with the truck’s best result being 18th. Its departure means Rackley WAR will lose both its primary entry and its occasional second truck from the national series.

Dawson Sutton, however, has a confirmed next step.

TRICON Garage has announced that he will drive its No. 5 Toyota Tundra in the 2027 Truck Series season. The move gives Sutton a new team for his next full-time campaign, even as Rackley WAR ends its own involvement in the series.

The two announcements came on the same day, but neither organization has said that Sutton’s move prompted the closure. His future is confirmed; the reasons behind Rackley WAR’s decision are not.

The organization has also worked with experienced NASCAR figures beyond its own driver lineup. In October 2024, Kevin Harvick joined Rackley WAR as a consultant, with his son Keelan also set to compete in the team’s Pro and Super Late Model programs during the 2025 season. The partnership brought a former Cup Series champion’s experience into an organization that has continued to invest in driver development.

That development program is part of Rackley WAR’s operation that the owners have explicitly committed to retaining.

In their statement, they said they remained “hungry for wins” in their national late-model driver development team and had “no plans to slow down racing anytime soon.” They have not yet provided a detailed schedule or driver lineup for the program’s next season though.