Camping World Truck Series Teams Suffer Rampant Sponsorship Woes

While the Camping World Truck Series is on the longest break of their season, sponsorship woes continue to plague its teams.

While I knew with the economy in a downturn, in NASCAR the truck series would be effected the hardest.

We've seen three of four races, with drivers going home and seen full fields of 36 trucks racing, but we could see that change when the trucks race at Kansas April 25.

Half a dozen of the full-time teams due to lack of sponsors may be forced to switch to race to race mode, run a part-time schedule, or park their trucks for good.

No team owner or driver has been immune to the difficulty of landing sponsors for their teams. A few have been successful with finding and securing sponsors.

Probably the lone bright spot has been Kevin Harvick Inc. Who landed Monster Energy Drink, Longhorn Brand Smokeless Tobacco and have been adding a bunch of one race sponsorships from Oakley Sunglasses, Charter Communications, and Bounty.

The team over the off-season lowered their asking price for sponsorship, worked it out that they aren't affecting the teams performance on the track, and maybe some of these other struggling teams need to follow suit.

We've seen Todd Bodine win at Daytona in a sponsor-less No. 30 truck, then follow it up the next week with a second place finish at Fontana and haven't been able to attract a sponsor.

They flirted with Tilted Kilt, but nothing materialized from the one-race deal and had Whelen on board at Martinsville. They are now in race-to-race mode and no sponsor, no race.

This is a shame, since they are a contender for the championship in 2009.

Johnny Benson and T.J. Bell at Red Horse Racing have had sponsors for a couple of races and currently are running plain generic white trucks.

While the team's committed to running out of pocket for Benson, apparently they are close to race to race mode with him.

The good news is Benson may have land a sponsor in a unnamed gun manufacturer to sponsor the defending champions No. 1 Toyota. Let's hope that happens.

It's caused a bit of controversy, with comments Benson has made over the potential sponsorship deal with NASCAR and television networks and hopefully it all gets resolved.

His teammate Bell more than likely will be parked soon with no sponsor for his No. 11 truck.

After Martinsville, it looks like Terry Cook and HT Motorsports are close to running just select races with it's No. 25 with no sponsor on board.

Add Shane Sieg and the Billy Ballew Motorsports No. 15 may have run its last race at Martinsville, and with no sponsor, they are done.

Rookie J.R. Fitzpatrick and TRG Motorsports, while committed to run the entire season, are looking to add more sponsors. They do have Mommoet.com on board for 10 races, maybe more.

Thanks to Strutmasters.com adding two races, it's kept Timothy Peters and Premier Racing on the track racing at Kansas and Charlotte, and hopefully buy them some more time in finding more sponsors to keep racing full-time.

I just concentrated on the full-time teams, the part-time teams are also affected by  sponsorship woes, and they are a driving force that so far has enabled the series to weather the economic storm.

Over this long break, we can only hope these struggling teams try the Harvicks approach to securing full-time sponsors or are able to limp through the season, putting together a bunch of one-race deals.

After all, the Camping World Truck Series is a vital series for NASCAR, with its mix of young, talented drivers and wily veterans help them put on the best show in NASCAR.