After eight weeks straight, the Craftsman Truck Series drivers get a break in their 25-race schedule. Since off weeks tend to be slow on news, I got to thinking about the series and the shape it's in. Week in and week out, television coverage shows massive amounts of empty seating at every track, but is the lowest tier of NASCAR's "big three" in trouble?

"Oh man, I will tell you, I was driving like a wuss those last few laps trying not to make a mistake. Those guys with fresh tires were coming and Martin (Truex, Jr.) held them off just long enough to get us this win. I have to thank Jeff (Gordon), he could have gotten himself two (ten) more bonus points there, but he chose not to and I appreciate that. The two-tire call by Mike (Ford) was definitely what got us the win. Our FedEx Ground team was pretty good all day. We were a top-four car for the most part, but I knew all we needed was clean air for this car to be good. I just can't thank everyone enough, Chevrolet, Coca Cola, Wiley X, the whole FedEx team, Joe Gibbs Racing, the pit crew for turning this deal around. It is amazing; finally, we got a win." _Denny Hamlin_

*In a Nutshell:* Travis Kvapil returned to victory lane at Memphis Motorsports Park Saturday night. He held off Ron Hornaday on a restart and ran away from Jack Sprague with just five laps remaining to win the O'Reilly 200. Ron Hornaday, Mike Skinner and rookie Aaron Fike rounded out the Top 5.

After a strenuous two weeks, the Nextel Cup Series has decided to take a break while the Busch Series heads south of the border to Mexico. However, that doesn't mean that there isn't still plenty to talk about. Old adversaries Jack Roush and Ray Evernham are making plans to duke it out next week, while current plans for the Car of Tomorrow may be scrapped. Not quite sure what all that means? Check out this week's version of In Case You Missed It to find out all the details!

"It's a special win. It's not without Robbie, though. He spent the week at home while we were at Daytona building this car. Robbie built this team. Those guys didn't let some bad luck stop them or slow them down. Everybody on this team knows what Robbie would expect them to do, whether he is here or not. I thought I was going to have a problem because I really thought the No. 29 [Harvick] was going to run me down. Then, he had his problem and Jeff [Gordon] moved up to second and I thought he might run me down. But we got a real good restart and, after that, we were OK. It's really nice to get some of our points back from the Daytona deal." _Race Winner Matt Kenseth_

*In a Nutshell:* Mike Skinner celebrated his 20th career Craftsman Truck Series win Friday night in the San Bernardino County 200 by 0.554 seconds over 2nd place finisher Ron Hornaday. Skinner took the lead for the final time with just a few laps remaining when Mark Martin spun after contact with Ron Hornaday. Last week's winner, Jack Sprague, finished third, followed by pole-sitter Carl Edwards and Ted Musgrave.

"I was cheering for Greg Biffle or Mark Martin to win, obviously. Mark is my mentor and got me where I'm at. Obviously, I wanted him to win and if he couldn't win, I wanted to Greg to win because he's a teammate, but it didn't work out that way. If there are cars on both sides, there's only so much you can do. I was on the outside and Mark was on the inside, so I really couldn't do anything." _Matt Kenseth_ "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed right now, but when we look back a week or two from now to win two races this week is a pretty strong week. We had an awesome Speedweeks. We had two of the three days go absolutely perfect, so this is the only one that didn't go right!" _Tony Stewart_

*In a Nutshell:* In true Daytona fashion for the Truck Series, it was another fantastic finish in the season opener. Jack Sprague took the lead from Travis Kvapil just a few hundred feet from the finish line, taking Johnny Benson with him as both attempted to sneak by the No. 6 Truck. Both passed him easily, with Benson diving low to try to take the win himself, but Sprague held on to win the Chevrolet Silverado HD 250 at Daytona by a mere 0.031 seconds, almost breaking the record for the smallest margin of victory. Kvapil had to settle for third, finishing just 0.003 seconds behind 2nd place Benson; Mike Skinner and Todd Bodine rounded out the Top 5 finishers.

Since the season hasn't even started yet, I struggled trying to come up with a topic to talk about this week. My husband brought up a good point, though. The Craftsman Truck Series race at Daytona this year is called the *Chevrolet* Silverado 250, yet Chevrolet has never visited Daytona's victory lane in a truck series race. Ironically, Daytona is one of just two tracks on the schedule where Chevrolet has yet to earn a victory (Talladega, where Mark Martin's Ford won the inaugural truck race in 2006, is the other).

Well race fans, it's that time again. The offseason is coming to an end very quickly, and we are close to going back to racing. But before we do let's talk about what to expect from the Craftsman Truck Series this season.