S.M.'s Camping World Update, No. 19
2009 Team News
David Starr will be back with Red Horse Racing, in the No. 11 Toyota Tundra and Zachry's Holdings, Inc. has re-newed it's sponsorship for 2009.
Rick Crawford will back with Circle Bar Racing, in the No. 14 Ford F-150 and International Diesel will be back as sponsor in 2009.
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Ron Hornaday will be back with Kevin Harvick, Inc., in the No. 33 Chevrolet Silverado, both Camping World and the VFW will be back as sponsors in 2009.
News
Speed TV Enjoys It's Best Ever Season Rating Wise
With the dramatic finale in the NCTS, Speed peaked at more than one million households, making 2008 the most watched season since 2003 when the series moved to the network.
"The race at Homestead-Miami Speedway scored a Nielsen Household Rating of .96 (702,000 households), up 146 percent from last year's .39 (286, 000 households). The broadcast peaked at 1.39 (1,021,000 households) and marked the highest year to year average rating increase of the season". (speed.com)
"The 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season on Speed was the highest rated ever, averaging a .80 and 585,000 households. On the year 19 of 22 races on Speed saw year to year Nielsen Rating's increases, 15 in double digits." (speed.com)
Awards Banquet Winners
The final Awards Banquet for the Craftsman Truck Series was held Monday night at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Grand Ballroom and here's the list of winners.
Champion: Johnny Benson
Rookie of the Year: Colin Braun
Most Popular Driver: Johnny Benson
Wix Filters Lap Leader Award: Ron Hornaday
Featherlite Awards: Ron Hornaday
Mobile 1 Contingency Award: Johnny Benson
Goodyear Contingency Award: Johnny Benson
Sunoco Contingency Award: Johnny Benson
Manufacturer Champion: Toyota
Speed TV on Dec. 8th at 8:00PM will air highlights from the banquet.
NASCAR.com Latest Poll Question
Which Series was the most entertaining in 2008? Here's the results as of 3:12AM 11/21.
Truck Series: 22,087 votes for 53%
Cup Series: 14986 votes for 36%
Nationwide: 4329 votes for 10%
Speed Bump
(This will be the final one, it will be on hiatus, but should Speed do any truck races in the future it will be back.)
Scott Speed had his heart set on watching friend, mentor, and teammate Johnny Benson battle for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship, but to do it he had to come from the back not once but twice.
Before the race even started, Speed was on pit road getting his transmission changed, scratching his seventh place starting spot in the Ford 200.
So he started in the back, by Lap 40, he was running in 15th place and would get a speeding penalties on his first pit stop and he would again start from the back.
But Speed would not be denied watching JB win the title andby the green-white-checkers on Lap 134. He would be sitting in eighth with JB, in front of him and Ron Hornaday in ninth behind him.
He'd take his time getting started on the restart, holding up Hornaday just a few fractions of a second, and yes the Speed Demon got to watch JB win the title and couldn't be happier for him.
Saying that JB not only was a nice guy, but he really helped Speed out intially when he first started driving the No. 22 truck, so it was really nice to see him win the title.
Hornaday's Corner
Ron Hornaday, Friday night showed why he's a three-time champion and what a class act he is.
Hornaday was 10 laps away, from winning his fourth title, when his crew chief Rick Ren had him pit for four fresh tires and he just couldn't make up the lost track position.
Post race he stayed composed in defeat, he didn't even blame his crew chief and would go congratulate JBdousing him with water, even gave the 23 crew the thumb up.
It's been a great battle between him and JB, both have had off days or maybe mulligans a better word. You can't dwell on it, it is what it is, but it's nice to see the sportsmanship shown.
Even his boss, Kevin Harvick was a class act about it. They'll come back stronger for it and I'm picking Hornaday to win the title in 2009.
"For virtually the entire 2008 NCTS season Benson, Hornaday and their respective crews slugged it out like the heavyweights they are. Only one man could win the title, but both carried themselves like champions." (speed.com)
2009 Camping World Truck Series Schedule
Date Tracks
Feb. 13 Daytona International Speedway
Feb. 21 Auto Club Speedway
March 7 Atlanta Motor Speedway
March 28 Martinsville Speedway
April 25 Kansas Speedway
May 15 Lowe's Motor Speedway
May 23 Mansfield Motorsports Park
May 29 Dover International Speedway
June 5 Texas Motor Speedway
June 13 Michigan International Speedway
June 19 The Milwaukee Mile
June 27 Memphis Motorsports Park
July 18 Kentucky Speedway
July 24 O'Reilly Raceway Park
Aug. 1 Nashville Super Speedway
Aug. 19 Bristol Motor Speedway
Aug. 28 Chicagoland Speedway
Sept. 12 Gateway International Raceway
Sept. 19 New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Sept. 26 Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Oct. 24 Martinsville Speedway
Oct. 31 Talladega Superspeedway
Nov. 6 Texas Motor Speedway
Nov. 13 Phoenix International Raceway
Nov. 20 Homestead-Miami Speedway
New Things For My Update
Rookie J.R. Fitzpatrick will be replacing the Speed Bump, he's running in only 15 race schedule for TRG Motorsports. But may turn into a full-time ride with more Sponsorship and he's working on getting proper approval from NASCAR to run CWTS full-time in 2009.
I'm also going to be working on the track information to add a track fact section and will be for that particular weeks race.
Let me know if you might have some other ideas to add to my Update.
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Final Point Standings for 2008
1. Johnny Benson -3725
2. Ron Hornaday -7
3. Todd Bodine -104
4. Erik Darnell -313
5. Matt Crafton -333
6. Mike Skinner -362
7. Rick Crawford -410
8. Dennis Setzer -528
9. Jack Sprague -600
10. Terry Cook -653
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