The Truck Series reminds me of why I love NASCAR

November 21, 4:25 PMDetroit NASCAR ExaminerJosh Lobdell

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From henceforth Fridays here at the Detroit NASCAR examiner shall be devoted to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Of the three national NASCAR divisions this is by far my favorite. It as all the things that made me a NASCAR fan in the first place, and it has enjoyed the best TV ratings of any of the NASCAR series.

For me the best thing about this series is the length of the races, most truck races are around 100 laps at any given track, and it only allows really for one trip to pit road for tires. What I am getting at here is this is not a strategy game, racing in the Truck series is just that racing. To win in this series generally one has to run fast and up front for the entire 100 lap shootout.

In 2008 the best thing about the Truck series was the Championship points battle that came down to the final race at Homestead. In fact Johnny Benson and Ron Hornaday battled each other side by side for 20 laps in that race to decide the ’08 champion. Side by side down to the white flag is the best way to decide a national champion. In this regard the truck series almost always delivers.

The 2007 Championship fight came down to a last race duel between Ron Hornaday and Mike Skinner. That race would have been just as good as this year’s had it not been for a mechanical problem on Skinner’s #5 Toyota. Compared to this year’s chase for the Sprint cup which was essentially decided in October, the trucks keep people guessing right up to the very end.

Here a few interesting facts about the 2008 Truck season supplied by the NASCAR media group:

• Todd Bodine won the series opener at Daytona and became the ninth different driver to win that race in the last 9 years
• Kyle Busch became the sixth different winner over the six races held at the California Speedway, now knows as the Auto Club Speedway
• Ron Hornaday has won at least one race in 11 of his 12 seasons on the Truck circuit
• Ryan Newman won his Truck series debut at Atlanta joining Mike Skinner, Robert Presley, and Kasey Kahne as the only driver’s to accomplish that feat.
• Bill Davis won his first NASCAR championship of any kind with Johnny Benson. He becomes the 10th team owner to win the truck title in its 14 years of existence.
• Jack Roush leads all owners in number of wins at 49.