Did You Notice? That even with all the driver changes in motion for next year, there has been just one primary sponsor announced for 2008 that’s new to the sport? Sure, a few old faithfuls are moving on up from the Busch Series; 3M is increasing its involvement to sponsor the No. 16 Cup car next year, for example. But most of the sponsorship movement has been in the form of recycled material.
As the field wrecked behind him, Mike Skinner took the checkered flag ahead of Jack Sprague to win the Kroger 200 at Martinsville Speedway Saturday afternoon. A late-race red flag set the field up for a three-lap shootout, and Skinner prevailed, winning his third race at the 0.526-mile short track. Ron Hornaday, Jr, David Starr and Rick Crawford rounded out the top five.
Sorry for keeping you all waiting on this edition of my diary. Sometimes our schedules just get crazy! Our last race at Talladega was definitely a good one. That was a very important one for me since Talladega is my home track. I’m from L.A. That stands for Lower Alabama, which is where my hometown of Mobile is.
When the Craftsman Truck Series takes the green flag Saturday afternoon for the Kroger 200 at Martinsville, there will be a few new faces. Travis Dassow, Chris Jones, Colin Braun (pronounced “Brown”) will be making their Truck Series debuts. With an entry list of 40, the largest since the spring race at Martinsville when there were 41 entrants, each driver is guaranteed a starting position based on owner’s points.
Todd Bodine took the checkered flag 0.014 seconds ahead of Rick Crawford to win at Talladega on Saturday afternoon. Bodine survived an intense three-wide battle with Crawford and Johnny Benson to win his second race of the season. Jason Leffler and Dennis Setzer rounded out the top five. Rookie of the year contender Willie Allen finished sixth, his best finish of the season, followed by Ron Hornaday Jr. in seventh. Chad Chaffin, Regan Smith, and Jon Wood rounded out the top 10.
It’s another off-weekend for the Craftsman Truck Series, but that doesn’t mean I’m lounging around the house. Aside from the business of NASCAR racing, I keep myself extremely busy with David Starr Racing – my show car/simulator promotional company. We work with companies like Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper, and they use our real NASCAR Nextel Cup racecars for displays in front of Wal-Mart stores to promote their products and we also supply them with racecar simulators. We take simulators to different Wal-Marts every weekend, the kind where you get in, the seat moves left to right, and you have a big computer screen in front of you where your racing other cars. It’s a neat experience.
Just when you thought the Truck Series points race couldn’t get more exciting, the Smith’s Las Vegas 350 did just that. The combination of a dominating win by Travis Kvapil and a blown tire for Ron Hornaday Jr. has tightened up the points race just a little more… opening the door to make it a three-man affair.
Kyle Petty and Denny Hamlin got into it at Dover recently, after Petty confronted Hamlin in his car following a nasty incident that sent both drivers to the garage for repairs. Who should be apologizing to who – if anyone – and should NASCAR take action for this incident?
Travis Kvapil took the checkered flag ahead of Johnny Benson to win the Smith’s Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Saturday night. Kvapil outran Benson and Jon Wood, who finished third, in a couple of great side-by-side battles during the final six laps to score his fourth win of the season and ninth of his career. Terry Cook and Erik Darnell rounded out the top five.
Tomorrow evening, when the Craftsman Truck Series field takes the green flag for the Smith’s Las Vegas 350 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, former Formula 1 driver Jacques Villeneuve will make his NASCAR debut in the No. 27 Toyota Tundra for Bill Davis Racing. Villeneuve is scheduled to run the remaining seven races of the truck season as well as the ARCA race at Talladega in an effort to prove to NASCAR that he is worthy of a Nextel Cup ride for the 2008 season.
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