NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series - Closing the Door at Homestead

First, let me bid Craftsman farewell and a hearty thank you for being a supporter of the NASCAR Truck Series. THANK YOU Craftsman! It's been a good run but next year, we're going to go camping with the Truck Series.

---

The NASCAR Truck Series is Looking at the Closest Finale in Truck Series History and in my opinion, may very well be the more exciting race of the weekend, at least if the drivers stay within 10 to 15 points of each other through the race. Not sure my nerves can take that one!

CONTENDERS
With 3 points between Johnny Benson (Points leader) and Ron Hornaday Jr., this is the closest championship battle in series history, and without the benefit of the Chase for the Cup set up! This is also the 2nd closest points battle for the title in a NASCAR national series since 1975.

In less than a few days, the Ford 200 at Homestead-Miami Speedway will see just how close, or not, barring on-track issues, this series will finish out.

If Benson wins, it will be his first Truck title. For Hornaday, it will be his fourth.

They've both won races at Homestead and I think, the more tension filled race to follow of the three at Homestead in the season closing weekend.

The only other closest points pressure cooker was in 1979 when Darrell Waltrip led Richard Petty by two going into the finale (Petty won the championship).


ROOKIES
Going into Homestead, Colin Braun has a 26-point advantage over Brian Scott. If Braun wins the Raybestos Rookie of the Year award, it will be the 6th ROY win for Roush Fenway Racing. It seems more than likely, but hey, as we're learning, anything can happen!


OWNERS POINTS:
Yea, let's not forget the Owners points race that's got a three way race going to Homestead.
Gail Davis (Benson) holds a three-point lead over DeLana Harvick (Hornaday) and while Billy Ballew may still be in contention mathematically it just isn't likely.

See ya'll at the "track"!
source: NASCAR Press Release

Kevin Harvick Captures Lucas Oil 150

And Kevin Harvick wins in his own Truck! Good Job Kevin! And believe it or not, the Truck series point standings get tighter. All without the advent of a "Chase" format.

Kevin Harvick held off Kyle Busch to win Friday night's Lucas Oil 150 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Phoenix International Raceway, as title contenders Ron Hornaday and Johnny Benson struggled to wreck-plagued finishes that left them three points apart with one race left.

Benson takes a three-point lead to the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the smallest margin with one race left in series history. The previous low margin was Hornaday's 13-point advantage over Jack Sprague in 1998; when Hornaday went on to win the title.

Harvick, who owns the No. 33 Chevrolet that Hornaday drives, finished .941 seconds ahead of Busch, who had stopped for tires on Lap 130 and charged through the field to the second position. Todd Bodine was third, followed by rookie Brian Scott and Mike Skinner.

A succession of troubles dropped Hornaday to 25th and Benson to 26th at the finish and allowed Hornaday to trim three points from Benson's lead entering the race.

From Hornaday's perspective, the championship battle took a turn for the worse on the first lap. Starting from the pole, Hornaday raced side-by-side with Busch into Turn 3, and as the trucks rolled through the corner, the rear of Hornaday's Chevrolet slid out, starting a spin that would see the defending series champion slam nose-first into the outside wall.

Hornaday's truck slid down across the track, only to be broadsided by J.R. Fitzpatrick's Chevy. Benson's Toyota sustained damage on the right side as it clipped Hornaday's crippled truck on the way past.

"I was a little bit frustrated on that first lap, seeing that 33 turned around, but it worked out for us," said Harvick, who picked up the third truck series win of his career and his first since 2003. "In one sense, you think you've lost the championship, but it's never over till it's over."

After hasty repairs in the garage, Hornaday returned to the track 29 laps down and worked his way back to 29th before an accident involving Benson and T.J. Bell sent the points leader to the garage on Lap 87 for extensive repairs.

By the time Benson returned to the track, Hornaday had passed him for the 25th position, and neither could improve the rest of the way.

"I don't know what to really think," Benson said." It seemed like everyone was gunning for me and Ron. It was a bad night for both of us."

See NASCAR fort the Truck Results | Points

Report provided By Reid Spencer Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

First Time Winners and Race Ending Squabbles

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

What happens when you put a good driver in good equipment? You get a first time winner, that's what you get. In the past I've noted how the Penske shop seems to never quite get the No.12 car in a consistent performance mode. In the long run, we see the driver, the face of the team as the icon of the performance. I've been a tolerant and patient fan of Ryan Newman since his 2nd year scene on Cup and it's nice to see that when he gets put into decent equipment, he takes advantage of it.

Today (Saturday, Oct 25) in Ryan Newmans first start in the Craftsman Truck Series, he took the win in the E-Z-GO 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Newman took the race lead with 8 laps to but Ron Hornaday Jr still had something to say about it as they swapped the lead one more time. Newman stayed in the high line and thus, had the momentum in the corners.

Behind it all, Denny Hamlin came in third, Todd Bodine fourth and the spirited Scott Speed rounded out the top 5.

This win puts the count for Ryan Newman at 21 victories in the top three series in NASCAR.

• 13 wins in Sprint Cup.
• 7 wins in the Nationwide Series.
• And now,
• 1 in the Truck Series.

Being a first time starter / winner makes him the fourth driver to win his Truck Series debut. The other drivers are Mike Skinner, Robert Pressley and Kasey Kahne.

Does this bode well for Ryan? Getting this win is his first in a Chevy. He's moving to a Chevy in the Cup Series driving for Stewart-Haas Racing next year. (2009)

NASCAR.com:
Truck Results | Points

(Photo Credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Related Links
The 12 Car Gets Yet A New Driver
Rumors: Stremme to the No. 12

-----------------------------------

NASCAR Nationwide Series

At a time when he needs it most, Carl Edwards won the Kroger 250 at Memphis Motorsports Park. The race ending was pretty exciting and was an exemplary demonstration of good clean racing.

With a green / white / checkers restart, David Reutimann was on Edwards bumper but never tried moving him with his bumper... good clean racing. In a post race interview, it seemed that Reutimann was regretting not moving Edwards for the win but reconciled himself that he races clean.

Edwards and Reutimann were two of the seven cars left on the lead lap as they were followed by Kenny Wallace in third, Austin Dillon finished fourth and Joey Logano was fifth.

Even though the finish up front was exciting, the action was back in 13th when Bobby Hamilton Jr. spun off the bumper of Landon Cassill, relegating Hamilton to 21st. After the checkers, Bobby cut Cassill off on pit road, got out and had a chat with Cassill in his window. It looked like Bobby reached in the window but I'm not sure what came of that. According to Cassill, Bobby's head was in his window and bobbed up and down and left and right, but since Bobby never lifted his face plate, he didn't know what he said. LOL.

We'll see what comes of this later on, early next week.

Don't forget:
Tomorrow (Sunday, Oct 26th) the Cup Series race is at Atlanta, on ABC at 1 p.m. ET.

NASCAR.com:
N'wide Results | Points

(Photo Credit: Dak Dillon for NASCAR)
-----

Kroger 200 Truck Race at Martinsville

With just a few caution periods the Kroger 200 truck race had a few ill timed petrol shortages at the worst possible time by the Kevin Harvick Inc teams.

First, after leading for 154 laps, Ron Hornaday with 3 to go, and then Kevin Harvick himself with 2 to go ran out of gas.

Effectively giving Johnny Benson the win.

With Benson winning, the points race swapped up some spots in the Truck Series giving him a 65 point lead over Ron Hornaday.

Truck Series Results
Truck Series Standings

Photo Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images
-----

Hornaday WIns The NASCAR Truck Melee

While Ron Hornaday Jr. overcame the adversity of the week regarding his health situations, he went on the win the Camping World 200 at Loudon.

He led Johnny Benson, Travis Kvapil, Erik Darnell and Rick Crawform across the start / finish line.

The fight for the win was the small event as the bigger event was the fight that erupted in the pits between David Starr and Todd Bodine's crew.

Results

David Starr was the star of 3 different yellow flags, all for the same reason: Getting in on the low line and having his truck push up into the outside line, spinning the other truck. At least he's consistent.

The last driver this happened to was Todd Bodine with 7 laps to go. Bodine's crew came out to "chat" with Starr, and according to SPEED, they said Bodine's crew pulled Starr out of his truck, though I can't actually imagine that happening, and the replay included shows what looks like Starr getting out himself...

Todd Bodine stepped away from it all watched. He eventually got together with David Starr and they chatted. Bodine said he likes Starr, and he's a great guy, but when he gets a good truck, he doesn't know when to not push it. We saw that in the 3 cautions he caused. Todd Bodine conducted himself incredibly well. Kudos.

In the end, Starr was summoned to the principals office, or the NASCAR hauler.

Additional info over at NASCAR.com

Check out the NASCAR Videos below (Opens in new window)

Todd Bodine Interview

Pit Crew "Chat"

Is The Truck Series Tight in Turn 2?

No, not tight! Way loose apparently!!

I've been hearing this, that and the other thing about the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series so I thought I'd not only toss out my opinion, but ask Charlie Turner over on On Pit Row his take. I'm glad I did because we've got some interesting material here! Chime in if you're inclined. No sign ups required.

What is Up With the Truck Series? Is it's existence at the televised national level in jeopardy?
Bruce: Craftsman is headed out of there after being the series sponsor since 1995. No one is lined up to slide into their spot. Rumors abound about the possibility of Dodge pulling out of the Truck series, and after all is said and done, will it just be called the Truck series next year? Will it be around after next year? At least at the national exposure it's been accustomed to getting? I just don't know. From a business stand point, though this just may be some of the funnest racing NASCAR has, is it still worth it to the marketers? I hate to say it, but I'm thinking no.

Charlie: I spoke with someone on Tuesday night who I believe knows what's going on. He thinks the truck series is a goner. Not only is Sears-Craftsman gone, but a near deal with Lowes-Kobalt brand for the title sponsorship was mis-handled and they backed away. Now it looks as if Ford and Chevy will pull out as well. NASCAR may move to consolidate the strongest of the truck and Nationwide teams into the Nationwide Series, to better be able to weather the increased investments that will be needed with the new NNS version of the CoT. The loss of the trucks opens dates for NASCAR's new baby, the Grand Am Series too.

Wow ... awesome insight Charlie.. thanks.

~~~

Of course Charlie didn't let me slide and tossed out a pretty good question my way:

Did Jack Roush sell out Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray, by raiding their teams of talent, in order to help entice Biffle and Edwards to re-sign?

You can check out our conversation over at On Pit Row.

As always, thanks for coming by everyone!

A Saturday Morning Perspective about the Truck Series

Retrospect by Bruce Simmons

First, let me start with what I want to quantify as a rumor:

On Friday (11/16/07) on SIRIUS Satellite Radio channel 128, around 11:30-ish Pacific time, they were talking about the Truck Series going to restrictor plates for all races to minimize engine costs.

OK, you read it here first! My first big scoop. .. Maybe. I say rumor because I can't find any reference to it anywhere on the web. so this is probably a bogus premise.

NOW, on the the real reason for this post:

What does 54, 127, 55, 46, 9, 46, 73, 230, 8, 3, 232, 53 & 126 all have in common?

These are the point spreads between the Champion and 2nd place in the Craftsman Truck Series. In all but 3 of the 13 years of the truck series, the championship has been contended right down to the last race of each year and without the "benefit" of a final 10 race chase format. Imagine that.

Without any tinkering, the Truck series has kept us on the edge of our seats through out the entiretu of most seasons. Obviously, there were a few yawner years, where Bodine and Biffle annihilated the field, but otherwise, each point spread could have been decided in the last race of the season.

How is that possible?

The truck series have limited sets of tires they can use in a race. Cup doesn't.
The truck series doesn't go on for 1/2 a day, ok, 3 to 4 hours. The Cup series is a marathon endurance.
The truck series are not sleek aero guided missiles like the Cup series, but that's going to change in 2008 in the Cup series.

So did NASCAR have it right from the beginning of the Truck series as they let the Cup series evolve itself? As far as points and team equalization goes, it seems that way from here as the Ron Hornaday fans all let out a sigh of relief when they watched Mike Skinner's wheel take it's own path across the track independent of the truck itself.

But then again, my new hero, Lauren (Warren as some have misconstrued) Wallace would just say: "Whatever! I doesn't matter what I'm in. One second I'm there, the next, Hey, where's he go?! " And then he would go back to chewing on his toothpick.

Food for thought, or really, a Saturday morning retrospect while I wait for the rest of the family to wake up today.

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Champion

The Place: Homestead Florida
The Event: the Ford 200
The Series: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Johnny Benson won the race. (I didn't want to keep you in suspense about the race winner)

The early part of the race saw Mike Skinner and Jon Wood having the dominant trucks of the night. I had chalked the championship up to Skinner because initially, it looked like Hornaday was struggling to make 5th. But the hand of fate reached in and Mike Skinner's truck fell apart at the left rear wheel hub, setting him back 10 laps and Ron Hornaday Jr. just had to stay in the running.

No flats, no crash aftermaths, no debris - that's all.. and sure enough, he finished on the lead lap in 7th and got his 3rd truck series championship.

Congratulations Ron, Congratulations Kevin Harvick Inc...

foxsports.com (article)

scenedaily.com (results)

Upcoming Events At Martinsville

This weekend, we'll be watching the paint scraping action at the classic paperclip short track, Martinsville Speedway.

The Nextel Cup action will take place on Sunday at 1pm on ABC.
The Craftsman Truck Series action will be on Saturday 2:30 pm, on SPEED.
ALL TIMES EASTERN.

There are 48 entries for the Cup race, and 40 entries slated for the Truck race.

Kvapil Wins Truck Race

Travis Kvapil won the Smith's Las Vegas 350, beating out Johnny Benson, Jon Wood, Terry Cook and Erik Darnell for the top 5 spots.

nascar.com

There's a write up at sportingnews.com

Johnny Benson Wins Truck Race

Johnny Benson bounced back from a blown pit stop to win the Missouri/Illinois Dodge Dealers Ram Tough 200 Saturday at Gateway International Raceway.

Ron Hornaday Jr. had to be content with second, Ted Musgrave was third, Todd Bodine was fourth and Regan Smith, in a Morgan-Dollar Motorsports Chevrolet, was fifth.

scenedaily.com

Unofficial Results Dodge Ram Tough 200

Trucks - Toyota Tundra 200 at Nashville

Travis Kvapil gets his 3rd win of the year in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

He led 2nd place finisher Ron Hornaday by close to 2 1/2 seconds across the line.
They were followed by Mike Skinner, David Starr & Todd Bodine.

See all the results at NASCAR.com