Craftsman sent us a news alert, announcing their return as a NASCAR Truck Series sponsor.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will return at Daytona International Speedway on February 17, 2023.
Craftsman was the series’ title sponsor from its inception in 1995 thru 2008.
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In addition to sponsoring the Truck Series, Stanley Black & Decker – Craftsman’s parent company – announced that they and NASCAR entered into a multi-year partnership as the “Official Tools Partner of NASCAR” and “Official Tools” of all NASCAR-owned and operated tracks.
The release goes onto say that Stanley Black & Decker brands such as Craftsman, Dewalt, and Mac Tools will be put to work across all NASCAR locations.
The company’s tools will be highly utilized from the pit crews during the big race, to the teams responsible for constructing new racing facilities across the country, generating unrivaled enthusiasm on and off the track.
This means that Stanley Black & Decker tool brands will be widely used, from inside pit crews during races, to the construction of new racing facilities.
Craftsman’s Truck Series sponsorship will also:
serve as a platform to support the launch of new products, amplify seasonal promotions, and highlight the many ways CRAFTSMAN is building pride.
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Craftsman’s release says that this will generate “unrivaled enthusiasm on and off the track.”
Phil
As a nascar fan, I’m happy to see Craftsman (SBD) support! Should be a win win
Aaron SD
This should sell a few more tools…
Joe E.
For anyone who’s been on a MAC truck lately, the downhill quality of their tools is quite depressing. On par now with SB&D/Craftsman.
Pliers are certainly not a strong point of any Stanley Black & Decker brand. The 5 piece MAC plier set I recently purchased is made in China and about the equivalent of Quinn pliers from Harbor Fright. For what I paid, I expected more. That was enough to keep me from stepping foot on the MAC truck for awhile.
Franck B.
I think that may have been going on for a while across several tool trucks. Matco used to have really nice/strong German-made u-shaped clip lifters but they were replaced with cheaper, inadequately performing tools. I know it’s one example but a lot happened across the line as Apex closed nearly all the US factories. Mac suffered as you’ve noted, and although Proto seems to have held the line, their lack of innovation is probably OK for industrial users but not so much for technicians (automotive, aviation).
SamR
Craftsman tools already have the reach!
Maybe spending the partnership’s money on making USA-made tools would be valuable!
It seems Craftsman will never go back to its glory days, and it will become a mediocre ad stunt. It is just a matter of time before the average consumer notices the other better options.
TheThinMan
I hate to say it, SamR, but I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s pretty obvious to me that Craftsman (whoever owns the name now) will always be just one more mid priced tool collection, some okay, most not okay.
Robert
What happened in 2008 that Craftsman stopped being the series sponsor? Was that when the wave of Sears store closings hit?
Brando
2008 was a very rough time
Franck B.
I’ve noticed in the pits that even teams that have tool companies as major sponsors will still have appropriate tools from other brands, sometimes even out of the corporate umbrella. Gearwrench seems to be one that is used by a lot of teams (like the DeWalt sponsored one). I see a lot of Mac too.
I know a lot of people like GW especially for home use, but if I was shopping outside of my sponsor’s line, I’d be looking at something other than GW (although sometimes their S-, C-/moon and indexing ratcheting wrenches are more difficult to source elsewhere).
Bob
I would assume this is fairly common? Not tools but similar sponsorship issue. A friend at the local track had a race car. I can’t remember what oil company sponsored him but they only gave them about 5 gallons of oil a year. It was hard to source locally. He felt bad about someone seeing him using another brands oil so we used to pour the Mobil 1 oil into his sponsors oil cans.
This was a gentleman racer kind of deal and even he used to complain about the amount of work involved in sponsorships. I can only imagine what the pros have to do. Although they probably get paid way more and get more free oil.
Franck B.
Yeah, I think you’re right about the “product for placement” deals where you get gas or other products to use in exchange for a small location on the car (except for top echelon NASCAR where the series sponsor, Sunoco, provides fuel to all teams).
But I saw it with even primary sponsors. I’ve been a guest of several teams at different times and got to look into things that most people don’t see from the grandstands. For instance a few years ago, Matt Kenseth raced full time and had the DeWalt sponsorship. But… there was a lot of non-DeWalt toolage in that huge DeWalt rolling cart. I guess that team was really SBD though because the brand would change over the seasons, even during the season. And Jimmie Johnson went from Lowe’s to Kobalt, but for obvious reasons there weren’t a lot of Kobalt tools in their tool chests.
Cherie Laursen
I have used Craftsman Tool’s for many many years here lately I have been trying to get a broken Tool replaced for the last 3 months without any luck I have sent a half a dozen emails or more but still no luck. I have been to Lowe’s and Ace Hardware and the other dealers they tell me they don’t stock that item on they do not special order parts for warranty.
Stuart
What kind of tool is this?
If Craftsman doesn’t currently offer it, you might have better luck requesting a similar replacement.
I was hoping to look up a phone number to offer you, but it seems Craftsman’s support is exclusively provided via chat bot or email request form.
Chris
For Craftsman “HAND TOOLS & MECHANIC TOOLS” you can contact Customer Care at (888) 331-4569 or using the form at https://support.craftsman.com/hc/en-us/requests/new for details
It’s still listed on the craftsman site in some places but is definitely not listed front and center under the contact us.
Nathan
Sorry rant mode engaged.
complete and total waste of materials and fuel. more racing in an oval or circle with limited or no tech advancement in the cars. Let me not pull any punches I hate NASCAR in general. The last tech that made it to the public that came out of NASCAR was most US car makers started using Disc Brakes.
Fuel Injection – nope.
Aero dynamics – slightly
Handling dynamics – nope.
Yeah most of the real advancement comes out of Indy, WRC, and F1. Hell at least WRC uses a car chassis that is off the lot – sure it has a cage in it but the main chassis has to be something you can buy. hence the Mitsu Evo, the subie WRC and the ford focus RS etc.
Are these trucks going to be homologated – they weren’t before.
oh and since it’s tools. Where’s my USA made craftsman tools that were hinted at more than 3 times? (directed at SBD not this website).
Franck B.
The rules for all racing changes all the time, so it’s hard to support blanket claims like you’ve made. WRC didn’t require homologation for nearly 20 years from the 90s until the Super2000 rules were incorporated. And the the merger of WTC, BTC and WRC was primarily to drive costs down. NASCAR Cup series used to be homologated. Now they, like most other spec series, are nearly silhouette, which reduces costs but also reduces innovation. Pretty much the Formula series and Prototypes are what’s left that’s not silhouette. The point is to allow drivers to have some bearing on who wins, instead of just which team throws the most money into technology to win. Fuel injection? NASCAR Cup Series has used fuel injection on all cars for over 10 years, all teams must use the system developed by McLaren. But it increases costs not only for the equipment, also for an additional race engineer to monitor the system. So, carbs are still used on trucks and the lower series, as it is much cheaper. Fuel injection for aviation, expensive passenger cars and racing from the 1930s to 1950s only became mainstream in the 1990s because of emissions requirements. It wasn’t promoted to passenger cars because of racing, but was the technology there because of racing? Probably not, it was mostly developed for wartime aviation prior to turbines.
Regardless, sometimes sports are just fun and entertainment. They all don’t have to be for the greater good. Let me know when FIFA stops wasting materials and improves my life more than giving me more expensive shoes. Or when MLB starts allowing a different rubbing mud.
Most of the teams have embraced the fully electric cordless world. At NASCAR races you can see a lot Milwaukee and Dewalt cordless tools, even unusual ones like the large cutoff tools. The new center nut wheels use impact guns similar to F1 though, but maybe not quite as expensive.
Nathan
way off topic but origins of nascar was modified and in some cases bone stock (you know stock car races) cars that had to be off the show room floor. Hasn’t been that way in a long long time. and if they would go back to that I think the whole thing would be better. start making race mpg requirements and things like that.
Regardless – where are my USA made Craftsman tools. and while I’m partly ok with the rebranded FACOM stuff. Still not that same.
Matt
Stu, do you know where Craftsman is going to be sold now? It looks like Lowe’s is getting rid of them or vice versa. Our Lowe’s is getting rid of most everything Craftsman. Power tools on clearance, shelving/garage items cleared out, shop vac’s cleared out for actual shop vac brand vac’s. I even tried to buy a V20 self propelled lawnmower that they had online for $429 and they won’t sell one to me in the store even though they have 4 sitting on the floor. They have them way overmarked for over $700 and listed as 6ah mowers in store though clearly on the box they say 5ah. Sitting right next to them are stacks of Ego mowers listed at $549. All other Craftsman V20 yard tools have pretty much been cleared out and in their place are Ego yard tools. The hand tools that are left are dwindling and haven’t been replaced.
Stuart
I haven’t heard of any partial or brand-wide departure.
My guess is that your store is simply doing a seasonal reset.
Halloween is coming up shortly, and then the holiday season quickly after that.
Franck B.
Speaking of new Craftsman, I see the TradeStack 15-compartment organizer has dropped. And it uses the same bins as most other SBD stuff (Tstak, Toughsystem 1.0 DS150, Tradestack, Versastack). It comes with 12 of those bins and two areas on the sides, but I don’t know where the last position is… maybe under the bins? I was trying to figure out where I got one set of black bins with lids and I’ve no idea which box they came from. Anyhow, no idea when the new organizer will actually be for sale, and it’s listed at $40 which will probably go up by the time it is available. But I’m glad at least something else is still coming out.
SBD doesn’t seem to have a fully functioning marketing department, with regular announcements, updates, etc. At least not apparently to me.
Franck B.
Note to self, the black bins come with the Dewalt or Stanley single-drawer Tstak/ProStack units.