S.M.'s Camping World Update, Issue No. 23

Rumors

Thorsports Racing, looks to have done a driver change with it's No. 13 truck, looks like Johnny Sauter will be replacing Shelby Howard and be a teammate to Matt Crafton.

Brendan Gaughan, if he runs trucks in 2009, it will only be in the No. 10 Ford, driving for Tom Mitchell and Rick Crawford.

But he does have two Cup options that could possibly happen. One is the No. 41 Target ride, which he would be a long shot for and the other would be the No. 77Penske ride. Should Hornish, be headed back to the Indy team to replace Helio Castroneves.

He also has a Nationwide deal, that is basically done with Rusty Wallace Racing, it's on standby waiting to see what happens with the two Cup options. I think he'll end up driving for Rusty, when it's all said and done.

Ricky Carmichael, a former motocross star, has signed a contract with Kevin Harvick, Inc and would be driving the No. 2 Chevy truck.

It also looks like he'll run a partial schedule, in 2009, as KHI is finalizing a deal with Monster Energy Drink and a sponsor from Carmichael's motocross days. Now being a teammate, to not only Horn and add Rick Ren in the picture, this will help his development and they do a great job mentoring him.

To update Chad McCumbee, he still doesn't know which Series he'll be competing in for the 2009 season. He is signed to Petty Enterprises, he also has their permission to drive for another team in either the Nationwide or the Camping World, should a deal materialize.

2009 Team News

Stringer Motorsports, has announced that Gabi Dicarlo will be running in some truck races in 2009 and also will run most of the ARCA Re/Max schedule.

Randy Nelson will be her crew chief, Great Clips, Inc. will be her sponsor, they drive a Toyota Tundra and receive funding help from Lucas Oil.

Billy Ballew Motorsports, announced Miccosukee Resorts will be back as sponsor of it's No. 51 truck with Kyle Busch and he's still working on sponsorship for the No. 15 truck.

News

NASCAR maybe making a few rule changes in the truck series to help teams save money. While neither is official yet, we could see them announced, implement shortly and you can already guess I hate both of them.

The first one, NASCAR would limit the number of credentials/hard cards, the teams can purchase for the season. Which will limit the number of people, the teams are bring to the track each week.

With the size of the teams, come on this would work better with the Sprint Cup Series than in the trucks, to really help save teams money.

Plus most of these teams and driver, have terminally ill Children with their families in their pits meeting the drivers, crew members and owners. Maybe NASCAR could help the teams by having the teams let them know, when these kids will be visiting the track and provide them with free credentials for them, plus save the teams money.

The second rule change by NASCAR, would limit the number of pit crew members on pit road that go over the wall from 7 to 6.

Most likely teams, would eliminate a tire carrier in theory save teams money, by needing one less crew member. But nothing even saving some money should get in the way of safety. Lets face it this one will be changed back if it happens, after a few races, when we see some bad wrecks on pit road resulting from this change and lets hope it doesn't cost a crew member it's life.

The Wednesday Night Bristol Truck Race, Gets An Exciting Dance Partner:

NASCAR has announced that the Whelen Modified Tour has been paired up with the Camping World Truck Series at Bristol Motor Speedway. The O'Reilly 200, will be held on Aug. 19, it will be exciting to see the Modified's at Thunder Valley and hope Speed adds the race to it's schedule.

Photo Credit: truckseries.com (From 2003, of Bobby Labonte taking the Checkers at Martinsville Speedway.)