Kathy's Pit Stop

Johnny Benson wins the championship

Johnny Benson finished one spot ahead of Ron Hornaday and won the championship.  It was a good race, for the most part pretty clean, hard racing among the leaders too.

I was rooting for Hornaday, mainly because of his owner, but congrats to Benson for winning the title, like him or not he deserved it.  Benson and Hornaday put on a good show this season for the fans, something we can't say about the Cup Series.  Way to go guys!

Your thoughts?

Close points battle going into Homestead for the Truck Series, as usual

The Truck Series has always given us a great points battle going down to Homestead and this season is no different with only 3 points separating Benson and Hornaday.

I honestly thought the battle was lost on lap 1 when Hornaday and Busch got together and caused that big wreck, Hornadays KHI truck was a mess.  Granted, Benson got some damage, but it appeared to just be mostly cosmetic, but I have to give a "great job guys" to KHI and company for getting that #33 patched back together and back out on the track!

Benson had another close call with the #6 truck, but once again, it seemed as if luck was on his side and he didn't get much damage out of that one.  At the rate things were going, I thought for sure, that the championship was won by Benson because of that lap 1 wreck, after all, Hornaday was 29 laps down after getting back out on the track.

Then on lap 87, Benson got the bad end of a wreck with T.J. Bell and had to go behind the wall for repairs.  While he had a bit of damage, I was basically thinking it was still over, but they spent more time behind the wall than I anticipated and now we have a close points battle again going into Homestead.  After all of that, Hornaday actually gained 3 points on Benson when it was all said and done.

Congrats to Harvick for winning the race in his #2 truck, making it three in a row for KHI, not only that, but it set a new record for the Truck Series, three wins in a row by a team with three different drivers.  Way to go Harvick and KHI!

Your thoughts?

Darnell wins in a photo finish - Busch wrecks Hornaday

Erik Darnell edged out Johnny Benson in a photo finish, literally.  NASCAR actually had to look at photos of the finish to call the winner, it was that close.  Congrats to Darnell.

The other big story of the race had to do with the finish also, but a different kind of finish and involved, surprise, surprise, Kyle Busch.  On the last lap, Busch was trying to get by Hornaday, who was in 7th and spun him, leaving Hornaday finishing 23rd, instead of 7th and dropping him from 1st to 3rd in the point standings.  Obviously, Hornaday wasn't thrilled and both him and Harvick went to have words with Busch after the race.

After everything calmed down, they were able to interview Hornaday and he had some pretty strong words to say about Busch...

He just drove into me because he got mad because I took us four wide and passed him cleanly. Halfway through the race, he showed me he was upset because he lifted the back of the truck up. If he is going to race that way, that is pretty chicken. He doesn't deserve to be a racer.

He has a lot of talent, but that is just flat stupid. I don't knock any other driver, but I will tell you what, that kid has just about done wore me out. I don't know if I have to give up this championship to teach him a lesson. I hope I don't hurt him because, if Joe Gibbs lets him do this, I am ashamed for them.

He was definitely upset about the incident and you really can't blame him since it not only dropped where he finished, but made him lose the points lead.  They weren't able to interview Busch after the race because he left right away to get to Kentucky for the Nationwide race, but they were able to talk to him before he got in the car and he just had a short statement and nothing more...

I just got into him. Sorry about that. But remarks from Harvick and Hornaday are what they're going to be, they're big mouths anyway and so we'll take it and get on with it and hopefully beat them out for this championship.

I'm not exactly sure which championship he was talking about, but I highly doubt it was the Truck series one.  But he's one to talk about "big mouths", if I remember right, that's one of the reasons Hendrick got rid of him to get Jr.  Now, I have no problem about a driver speaking his mind and everything, which I admit Harvick does and I think more drivers should do it, but you don't go around calling someone a "big mouth" for something you yourself do too.  I'm sure Busch would have had a completely different view of the situation if the tables were turned.

Your thoughts?

Qualifying changes for 2008

Michael Waltrip complained last season about qualifying, saying that the guys who have to race their way in should qualify at the same time, not sprinkled throughout the whole field.  Well, it seems that NASCAR listened, starting this season, drivers who have to make it in on speed will qualify at the end of the qualifying session, meaning that the top 35 got first and then the other guys that have to make it on time.  This new rule change applies to all three series, not just the Cup series.

I'm not sure how much this will help, but I guess it can't hurt, although I think they need to do away with the top 35 guarantee and make everyone qualify on time, the way qualifying use to be.

Another change going into effect this season is that the fines collected from the drivers will go to the NASCAR Foundation instead of the points fund.  This is something that was complained about a lot in the past because a driver could basically get his money back at the end of the season unless he had a horrible season and/or was fined heavily.  This way the fines should mean more since they won't get it back.  Hopefully NASCAR puts the money to good use and I hope Victory Junction Gang gets a good chunk of it.

Your thoughts?

Craftsman leaving after 2008

Well, another one seems to bite the dust.  Craftsman announced today that they were leaving after the 2008 season, so we'll have yet another name change in NASCAR.  Craftsman has been the sponsor of the Truck Series since it started back in 1995, Sears will remain involved in the sport according to officials. 

Even though they are leaving, NASCAR doesn't seem too worried about finding a new sponsor for the series, in fact they are already in the process of setting up negotiations with interested sponsors, no word on who those sponsors are though.

Next season we will have two new names for the series, Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series and then in 2009 we will have a new name for the Truck Series.  I keep hearing change is good, but with all the sponsor troubles in the Cup Series and now the Nationwide Series with the exclusivity, it makes me worry a bit about what will happen with the Truck Series once a new sponsor comes on board.

I think no matter who sponsors the series, I'll probably still just call it the Truck Series.

Your thoughts?

Hornaday wins Truck Championship - Skinner has bad luck

Ron Hornaday won his third Truck Championship at Homestead in a rather uncharacteristically boring truck race.  Normally, the truck series has the best battles on the track, but long green flag runs and the field being spread out gave the fans a rather boring truck race until the end with the green-white-checkered finish.

Johnny Benson won the race, passing Kyle Busch on the last lap.  Busch tried to give it one last shot by going up high to get some momentum to possibly pass Benson, but it looked like he went too high, got in the loose stuff and brushed the wall.  At least we had a good race to the finish with as boring as the rest of the race was, as I said, very uncharacteristic of the Truck Series.

Mike Skinner went into this race 29 points ahead of Hornaday.  Early in the race he thought he had a tire going down and they changed right side tires under green.  That put him a lap down.  Then green flag pit stops happened and since a few trucks were off sequence, both Skinner and Hornaday found themselves a lap down.  Then the unthinkable happened for Skinner, something didn't feel right and he had a vibration.  While heading down the access road to go to the pits, the left rear hub broke and the tire came off the truck, they had to go behind the wall to fix it and they spent 10 laps behind the wall, which basically put the nail in the coffin for Skinner.

Congrats to Hornaday for winning his third championship.

Your thoughts?

Skinner or Hornaday - who will win it?

It all comes down to tonight, the final race of the season with Mike Skinner 29 points ahead of Ron Hornaday.  Both have be very successful this season and I'm sure it'll go down to the final laps unless one of them runs into some bad luck and gets caught up in a wreck.

Skinner does have a slight advantage, he's 29 points ahead and he has the tendency to get the pole, so that could add up to more bonus points for him right away, but as we know, this is the truck series and anything can happen.

It'll also be interesting to see if teammates play any role in the title, Skinner has teammate Johnny Benson and Hornaday has teammate and owner, Kevin Harvick.  Skinner actually complained about both last week, Harvick because he drove through his pit stall and "threw off" his (Skinner's) pit crew's momentum and Benson, for not "giving" him a position at the end of the race.  We all know Harvick will play interference if given the opportunity, but would Benson do the same for Skinner?  I guess tonight will tell.

It should be an interesting race to say the least.  Who will win the Championship?  That's up for grabs, I think Skinner has a slight edge with the points lead, but I'll be hoping Hornaday can pull off the upset.

Your thoughts? 

Skinner makes it three in a row

Mike Skinner did it again, it seems like the truck series is becoming the Mike Skinner Show.  Not only has he won three in a row, he's won three in a row from the pole.  Jack Sprague is the only other winner in the truck series this season so far, but Skinner is on a role.

There were lots of spins in the race and surprisingly, some of them didn't bring out cautions.  I always have a hard time understanding exactly when NASCAR deems it a caution when a truck goes spinning, sometimes a caution will come out and other times it won't.

I haven't heard anything about the pit crew member that got knocked down by his teams truck yet either.  It was Cook's truck and a NASCAR official basically pulled the guy from being run over when Cook backed up, at least that's what it looked like on TV.  I haven't seen a single thing mentioned about that, but it's always difficult to find updates and detailed news about the truck series.

If the truck race is any indication of what's to come for the Cup series, I see a lot of tires being cut by the splitters, especially in the corners.

Your thoughts?

NASCAR's not doing enough

This weekend at California shows just how much NASCAR isn't doing enough for it's lower series, Busch and Truck.  Neither series had a full field for the California race and that's with about half of the Busch race being Cup drivers.

NASCAR keeps saying that Cup drivers racing in the Busch Series helps it, if so, why was there not a full field?  Why were half of the drivers Cup drivers and it still not be a full field? 

I read an article that pointed to one of the reasons, money.  If you don't finish in the top, you can't even cover the costs of going there to race.  I thought NASCAR had made all these rule changes to help cut costs, but it doesn't appear to be working.  The purses are a lot lower in the Busch and Truck series races, but yet the cost of running in those series keeps going up, it's not fair to the teams.

NASCAR needs a way to cut costs to the teams and not need the Cup drivers to fill the field for these races, plain and simple, it seems everything they do it doesn't help the teams unless the teams are associated to Cup teams.

Another thing NASCAR needs to do, and I've said this before, have REAL qualifying for all three series.  No guaranteed spots because of your position in points, the fastest 43 make the race, plain and simple and if a big name goes home, so be it.

NASCAR seems to be ignoring or pushing aside it's lower series and if they don't do something about it, both will become a distant memory.

Your thoughts?  What should NASCAR do to change the apparent downward spiral?

Sprague wins Daytona in a three-wide finish

Jack Sprague won the Dayton truck race from the pole, giving him his first win at Daytona and giving Toyota it's first win at the track.

The race was slowed by 7 cautions, but the dramatic finish is what fans will remember.  Travis Kvapil led for a lot of the race and it looked like he was going to pull out the win when Benson gave Sprague a big push to the front on the final lap and then made it three-wide for the finish.  Benson ended up finishing ahead of Kvapil in the finish.

The biggest question was that Benson actually went below the yellow line to pass Kvapil on the botton, a move NASCAR supposedly reviewed and deemed legal?  I always thought that if you went below the line and advanced your position, you were penalized, so why was Benson's below the yellow line pass deemed legal?

I'm not a fan of either of the three in the finish, I just don't understand why Benson was allowed to pass below the yellow line and it be allowed to stand when others in the past have been nailed by it.

Your thoughts?

Photo credit NASCAR.com