Johnny Benson is the TRUCK Series Champion

Johnny Benson just took the Truck Series Championship by finishing 7th, 1 spot in front of Ron Hornaday Jr, who finished in 8th.
WOW! What a race. The whole night was a tight competition where at one point, Ron had 27 points on Johnny.

The last 40 laps were about these two drivers as they battled with each other throughout the end game.

A late race caution had Johnny stay out and Ron pitted, taking 4 tires and set himself back too far in the field. Another caution came out and it was a green / white / checkered and on the restart Ron was held up by a slow start by Scott Speed and he had just too much distance to make up to pass Johnny.

JOHNNY BENSON, the 2008 CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES CHAMPION.
The LAST Craftsman Sponsored Champion as Craftsman heads out to pasture and Benson's first Truck Championship.

CONGRATS TO JOHNNY BENSON!!!!!

Oh, yea... Todd Bodine won the race... almost forgot!! Rounding out the top five were Brian Scott, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Dennis Setzer.

Johnny Benson (23) and Ron Hornaday Jr. race side-by-side during the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Benson finished seventh and Hornaday finished eighth, giving Benson his first series title.
(Photo Credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Truck Results | Points

Johnny Benson photo cr: Marc Serota/Getty Images for NASCAR

Kyle Busch Wins.. again; Donny Lia Gets His First Win

The Nationwide Series at Lowe's
Whenever Kyle Busch is entered in a race, we might as well call it the KyBu Series and see who races for 2nd. He's that hot this year.

Kyle Busch won the Carquest Auto Parts 300 followed by Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr and Brian Vickers.

Under the closing laps Keselowski and Hamlin got into the fender rubbing form of saying hi to each other under the last caution.

It's interesting to see that under the last caution, Keselowski bumped Hamlin then Hamlin came back and hit him harder. As Jr was quote to saying:

"Brad bumped him just a little bit under caution, and Denny knocked the fender off his car."

Hamlin had complained about Brad not giving him any racing room, but his main statement about the last altercation seemed more Kyle Busch-eske than anything else when he's quoted to saying:

"You throw a rock, I'm going to throw a concrete block back."

Oh brother... So Denny is going to auto escalate any event that's tossed his way.. I never expected that from him, but it is what it is.

In the end, the altercation oozed on over into pit road where the two teams came out for their WWE style altercation - well OK, a shoving match that required NASCAR officials to step in and break it up.. (SceneDaily)

Source: NASCAR

Results (Unofficial at the time of this post)

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The Truck Series Race at Mansfield
Donny Lia got his first Truck Series victory at Mansfield Motorsports Park in the Ohio 250 NASCAR Craftsman Truck race but it is going to be 'not without commentary'.

Admittedly, I only saw the last lap of the race, but apparently the best lap? I tuned in to see three wide racing between 1st, 2nd and 3rd place drivers Lia, David Starr and Todd Bodine.

Lia winning gave himself his rookie win and his team, TRG Motorsports, who's in their first year, their first win but to win, Lia over drove his truck into the turns and set Starr sideways which got Lia the edge of using 8 instead of 4 tires going through the turn and Bodine was on the inside but did not have the momentum in the low line to give battle to Lia.

The 2nd place finisher, David Starr took the high road in a very mature post race interview saying that's truck racing and once Lia got him sideways and broke his front wheel traction, it diminished his chances to compete for the win. Meanwhile, Bodine was quick to point out the err of Lia's ways saying Lia drove into the turn to turn Starr and title it ridiculus but near the end of his interview seemed to take the "post critique" road and noted it was a good finish in the end.

See more over at NASCAR

Results (Unofficial)

Randy Moss to start a Truck Team?

Yep, first he was football, and all that and then something from when I used to watch and he was on the Minnesota Vikings.

But now word on the street is he's headed for team ownership in the Truck series.

When I first heard about this, I said 'peshaw'! But that was an ignorant point of view without even having read any article.

Over on Do You NASCAR?, Tim writes that
Randy Moss, star WR for the New England Patriots, announced this past Tuesday the official formation of Moss Motorsports, LLC and his intent for the team to race a partial schedule in the Craftsman Truck Series as early as in the second half of this year, with a full-time schedule on his radar for 2009.",

"Something that many of you may not know already, is that this is not the first venture in the racing world for Moss. He has been involved with sponsorship for local dirt track racing, and has also served as an ambassador for the Urban Youth Racing School."

For more on the issue, go check out Tim's post for the whole article: Do You NASCAR?

For the Brendan Gaughan Fan

Brendan Gaughan has found himself a ride in the truck series in the No. 10 Ford in the 2008 Craftsman Truck Series, joining Rick Crawford at Circle Bar Racing.

http://www.thatsracin.com/242/story/9944.html

Schedules and Such

It sure is quiet around here. Thought I'd dig up some info for our edification.

Below are links to the different series schedules, as put out by NASCAR.com:

2008 Schedules:
Sprint Cup
Nationwide
Craftsman Truck

And their own tracking of drivers and where they're at:
Silly Season

Then, if you want to see some testing schedules, check out Fox Sports

Truck Series Sponsorship Wanted!

Winston is gone and NEXTEL is changing it's name. The Busch series is becoming the Nationwide series.

Now the Truck Series is going to be looking for a new sponsor for the 2009 series as Craftsman is departing it's long association with the trucks.

The truck series is some of the best racing there is, as the season championship has been determined in the final race of the year in 12 of 13 seasons — including 2007. That's without having to muck with their points system to make it close!

Craftsman has been the sponsor of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series since its inception in 1995.

See details at FoxSports

Rookies from the Different Series

Montoya finishes as 2007's top Nextel Cup rookie
Ragan crowned Busch Series rookie of the year
Willie Allen named truck series rookie of the year

These are all links to Scene Daily

Franchitti makes NASCAR debut

IndyCar Series champion Dario Franchitti is making his NASCAR debut in the Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway. (What an introductory race to be a part of!!)

Franchitti, who also won the Indianapolis 500 this season, is moving to NASCAR next season. He made his stock-car debut in the ARCA race at Talladega Superspeedway last weekend and finished 17th.

Franchitti signed a multi-year deal last week to drive the No. 40 Dodge for Ganassi next season.

foxsports

Another Hornaday Truck Victory at NH

Ron Hornaday Jr. didn't have the truck to beat. His truck was in a class all of it's own as he dominated the Harvick owned # 33 right across the finish line at the New Hampshire 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Hornaday led 174 of the 200 laps, winning, followed by Eric Darnell, Mike Skinner, Todd Bodine and Mike Bliss, rounding out the top 5.

You can see the unofficial results at nascar.com

What today did for the points standings was give Hornaday Jr a 29 point lead over Mike Skinner. Travis Kvapil is 3rd in points and Todd Bodine is 4th.

See the points HERE at NASCAR.com

Benson wins Truck Race

by Bruce Simmons

After a late race spin by the race leaders, Kyle Busch and Travis Kvapil, Johnny Benson's late race pit stop paid off, the fresher tires helping him to hold off newlywed Brendan Gaughan to win the NASCAR Craftsman Trucks Series' O'Reilly 200 on Wednesday night.

Mark Martin finished third, followed by Mike Skinner and Rick Crawford.

nascar.com

Normally, I don't have anything bad to say about Speed TV's coverage, but it felt like they had ESPN staff on loan!

At one point, for quite some time, all we saw were the 4 front running trucks spread out, but no other trucks.. I thought it was a 4 truck race!! Then at one point, we see a truck starting to spin out of a corner, but they pan away to the front of the pack before we see him lose it!! Ack!! Quit teasing me!!

Ok, that's really all I got, it wasn't that bad, but there was an aweful lot of focus on the leaders and not a lot of focus on the pack of trucks racing each other.

Kvapil to Truck Pole

Travis Kvapil has the pole for tonights O'Reilly 200 at Bristol.

Lineup: foxsports.com

Trucks at Bristol, Brendan Married

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck series is at Bristol and this will be Brendan Gaughan's first race as a married man. And from the pic that I absconded with at NASCAR.com, it seems the garage is having their fun with it! (pic via nascar.com, from southpointracing.com)

Look out Brendan, that's probably an unapproved aero adjustment!

The O'Reilly 200 truck race is Aug 22 (tonight) at 7:30 ET.

Truck Results from Indy

Power Stroke Diesel 200 saw Ron Hornaday get himself another win, followed by Johnny Benson, Travis Kvapil, Rick Crwaford and Kenny Schrader!

http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/7068600
http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/truck/results

David Green to Drive the Red Horse Truck

Red Horse Racing announced today that Kentucky’s own David Green will be behind the wheel of the No. 1 RFMS/Red Horse Racing Toyota Tundra for the Built Ford Tough 225 presented by the Greater Cincinnati Ford Dealers on Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway.... redhorseracing

Red Horse Racing statement regarding Aaron Fike arrest
redhorseracing

Aaron Fike Arrested

It's been reported that Aaron Fike has been arrested in Cincinnati, Ohio, charged with possession of heroin and drug abuse instruments.

Fike drives the No 1 truck, the Toyota Red Horse Racing truck.

Of course, pending a NASCAR investigation, he may be suspended, or what ever action is deemed necessary, Ramsey Poston, of NASCAR, stated on July 8th.

If true, if this pans out to what it seems, what a shame. See the article at scenedaily
or here, at wcpo. There are some down right gritty pics of Aaron and his associate.

Trucks from Memphis

From Memphis Motorsports Track, in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series:

Brad Keselowski in the 9 truck was spun by Kvapil in turns 3 & 4 while he was holding off Travis going into the last 8 laps of the race. Keselowski slowed down while Kvapil poured into the corner. It was a racing thing, and Keselowski, did his team proud.

Kvapil won, followed by Sprague, Hornady, Skinner, Fike rounding out the top 5.

I'm tooling around, waiting for the nascar site to update, but I aint't got all night!! Man!! They need someone "Up On The Wheel" at their site to get things up and posted as fast as my efforts!!
You can check www.nascar.com for when they do update the info!!

By the way, keep your eye out for Brad Keselowski. he's going to be someone we will be hearing from down the road, BUT man, his name is a touch one to type when you're typing fast!!!!

Musgrave suspended

Ted Musgrave has been suspended for one race for retaliating against another driver during the Truck Series race at the Milwaukee Mile.

Musgrave wrecked with rookie Kelly Bires on Friday night in Milwaukee. He restarted his truck, chased down Bires and forced him into the wall. NASCAR immediately parked him for the rest of the race. Foxsports

What is confusing fans is why Musgrave is getting the suspension for an on-track incident when there was only the trucks around, and Kurt Busch, while his actions threatened the well being of pit road crew members, was not given such a suspension.

Come on NASCAR.. give us some consistency!

Craftsman Truck Race in Milwaukee

Johnny Benson won the Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200 last night, followed by Ron Hornaday, Todd Bodine, Mike Skinner & Rick Crawford.

Here are the unnoficial results:
http://www.nascar.com/races/truck/2007/11/data/results_unofficial.html

This has Skinner in the lead of the Points standings, Followed by Hornaday in 2nd, Bodine in 3rd, Kvapil in 4th and Crawford in 5th. .... Wow, the points standings almost sounded like the race results.

See the unnoficial points standings at:
http://www.nascar.com/races/truck/2007/data/standings_unofficial.html

Courtesy of Bruce Simmons, the Fan Reporter

NASCAR Point Standings

Here's a quick recap of the points standings in

CUP:
1 Jeff Gordon 2392 Leader
2 Denny Hamlin 2128 -264
3 Jimmie Johnson 2055 -337
4 Matt Kenseth 2044 -348
5 Jeff Burton 1919 -473
6 Carl Edwards 1905 -487
7 Tony Stewart 1903 -489
8 Kevin Harvick 1794 -598
9 Clint Bowyer 1774 -618
10 Martin Truex Jr. 1772 -620
More

BUSCH:
1 Carl Edwards 2534 Leader
2 Dave Blaney 1833 -701
3 Kevin Harvick 1798 -736
4 David Reutimann 1764 -770
5 Regan Smith 1744 -790
6 David Ragan* 1713 -821
7 Greg Biffle 1647 -887
8 Marcos Ambrose* 1638 -896
9 Bobby Hamilton Jr. 1629 -905
10 Jason Leffler 1603 -931
More


TRUCK
1 Mike Skinner 1708 Leader
2 Ron Hornaday 1595 -113
3 Todd Bodine 1508 -200
4 Travis Kvapil 1443 -265
5 Rick Crawford 1424 -284
6 Ted Musgrave 1420 -288
7 Johnny Benson 1264 -444
8 Aaron Fike* 1232 -476
9 Jack Sprague 1205 -503
10 Matt Crafton 1184 -524
More

Truck and Busch Notes

Craftsman Truck Update:

Travis Kvapil wins the Michigan 200.
Followed by Kyle Busch, Gaughan, Skinner & Musgrave.
See all other details at NASCAR.com


Busch Series Update:
Stephen Leicht won his first NBS race in the Meijer 300 at Kansas.
He was followed by Coleman, Wimmer, Stremme & Huffman.
See all the other details at NASCAR.com