S.M.'s Craftsman Update, Issue No. 10

Rumors

Jack Sprague may be out of the KHI No. 2 truck at the end of the season. While it isn't confirmed yet, Ricky Carmichael may be his replacement. He currently drives in the Camping World East Series and is a former Motorcross star.

You Crate will be affiliated with the No. 2 KHI truck. The R&L Carrier company will make it's debut at the Martinsville race in October.

Justin Marks, from Germain Racing, will be driving the No. 9 Crocs Toyota Tundra for the final time this season at Las Vegas. He moving up to the Germain's Nationwide series team.

Donny Lia will once again be in the No. 81 Randy Moss Motorsports truck at Las Vegas and with his Nationrides.com sponsor.

Bobby East will be driving the No. 09 Zaxby Ford for Roush Fenway Racing at Las Vegas.

Rob Brent will be driving the No. 19 Brad Keselowski Racing Chevrolet at Las Vegas.

Jeff Green will be driving the No. 40 Key Motorsports Chevrolet at Las Vegas.

Jon Wood will be back driving the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford at Las Vegas.

Billy Ballew Motorsports will have John Andretti driving their No. 15 Hyprene Ergon Toyota and Shane Sieg driving the No. 51 Miccosukee Resort Toyota at Las Vegas.

Paul Tracy, a Canadian Open-Wheel driver, will be driving for Germain Racing at the truck race at Texas Motor Speedway. He'll most likely pilot No. 9 truck; it's only a one race deal and might grew into something more in the future.

2009 Team News

Germain Racing will be running Chrissy Wallace full-time in 2009 in CTS. The truck number and sponsors have yet to be determined.

News

Autograph Session                                                                                           If your going to the truck race in Las Vegas this weekend, there's a free driver autograph session at the Stratosphere Hotel and casino on Friday Sept. 19th.

The session takes place from 6PM to 7:30PM, the following drivers will take part in it: Todd Bodine, Ted Musgrave, Dennis Setzer, Justin Marks, Matt Crafton, Shelby Howard, David Starr, Jeff Green, Donny Lia, Terry Cook, Brian Scott, Andy Lally, Marc Mitchell and Shane Sieg.

Truck Entries Down                                                                                                            The last couple of races has seen the entries decrease. Last week's New Hampshire race had thirty entries with three more added at the last minute.

This week at Las Vegas, once again only 30 trucks are entered for the race. The TRG Motorsports No. 71 was withdrawn from the race. I am surprised that the Camping World West Series doesn't have a few entries for the race.

If the field stays with just thirty entries, it will be the smallest field in the last nine years.

I'm sure the economy plays a role in this, as several teams are running without sponsors or with limited sponsorship for so many races. There are also teams running part-time schedules on shoestring budgets.

I took a look at the full points standing list and came up with the following statistics, which could also explain decline in entries.

This season, 91 different drivers have run at least one race. But, only eighteen drivers have run all eighteen races this season. Eight drivers have run races ranging from 10 to 17 races, while 65 drivers have driven nine or less races.

It seems the majority of drivers in CTS are part-time operating teams with multi-drivers and the minority of teams are being run full-time with one driver. While with all the young drivers, it's easy to see they are coming to the series from others where they run full-time.

Maybe if they all go to the same races, can see where they're would be some due to scheduling you would miss races filling the field. Unlike the Nationwide Series, the Sprint guys don't effect the series; only Kyle Busch races in it on a limited schedule.

This could be good news for CTS fans. Speedtv announced a 29 percent increase in household viewing of the race. The NHMS race was viewed in 387,000 households, up from 302,000 last year (speedtv.com).

Shrub Sighting

Kyle Busch will be driving the No. 18 Z-Line Designs Nationwide car for Joe Gibbs Racing at the Monster Mile.

Of course, he'll also be in the No. 18 Interstate Batteries car in Cup and trying to rebound from a bad day at the Magic Mile.

Speed Bump

Scott Speed, aka "The Speed Racer," will be back in the No. 22 Bill Davis Racing team with his Red Bull sponsor at Las Vegas. He's also going to be running the last seven CTS races with the team, which is exciting news to here. Rest assured, I'll keep you updated on the Speed Racer, here on B/R.

Let me plug my latest Speed article here. Check out my race recap on the Speed Racer's run in Saturday nights ARCA race at Salem, Indiana.

Upcoming Races

Sept. 20th—Quickliner Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, on SPEED at 9:30PM. (Saturday)

Oct. 4th—Mountain Dew 250 at Talladega Super speedway on Speed, at 4:00PM. (Saturday)

Oct. 18th—Kroger 200 at Martinsville Motor Speedway on Speed at 3:00PM. (Saturday)

Top Five Picks At Las Vegas

1. Ron Hornaday: Why not here in Vegas. He's got luck on his side and the race is on a 1.5 mile track, and he's run well all year on them.

2. Johnny Benson:  He's got to run faster than then the pink Energizer Bunny to get his hands firmly grasped on the championship trophy. Look for him to position race with Hornaday like he did at the Magic Mile.

3. Mike Skinner: They're in Vegas, maybe he'll have some luck come his way. He had a championship caliber season last year and has done just awful this year.

4. Erik Darnell: Since the photo finish win at Michigan, he's been running really well and look for him to finish the year strong for Roush Fenway.

5. Scott Speed: he exciting to watch race, run really well in all nine races he's been in and after Bristol he's on my list for running up front.

Penalties

Look for my between the Issues update on NASCAR's action for the brawl at Saturday's truck race at NHMS. That involved crew members from Germain Racing two teams, Red Horse Racing crew members and David Starr. NASCAR hasn't announced anything yet in regards to it.

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Points Standing

1. Johhny Benson                           2771
2. Ron Hornaday                              -74
3. Matt Crafton                               -242
4. Rick Crawford                             -309
5. Todd Bodine                               -313
6. Erik Darnell                                -317
7. Mike Skinner                              -330
8. Jack Sprague                              -400
9. Dennis Setzer                             -491
10. Terry Cook                               -499