SPECIAL EVENT (TEXAS) - Former NCTS Champions Call '07 Battle

With only three races remaining in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Ron Hornaday, Jr. and Mike Skinner continue to play “hot potato” with the points lead while a growing audience, including former Truck Series champions, watches the historic game.

After swapping the lead five of the past six weeks in one of the tightest battles in NCTS history, Hornaday, the 1996 and 1998 NCTS champion, leads Skinner, who won the inaugural championship in 1995, by four points heading into this weekend’s race in Texas (Friday, 9 p.m. ET Live on SPEED; NCTS Setup at 8:30 p.m. ET).

While it is anyone’s guess who will leave Homestead-Miami Speedway with the series title in three weeks, former champions are weighing in on each driver’s strong suits and vulnerabilities and venturing predictions of their own.

“I think Hornaday will win because his setups have been so good this year and with all that Rick Ren (crew chief) brings to the table, it makes them so hard to beat,” said Travis Kvapil, 2003 NCTS champion and driver of the No. 6 K&N Filters Ford. “They've only finished outside the top 10 once all year. They've been so steady all season long and I think they will continue that trend in the remaining races.”

Calling the winner of the championship may be a crapshoot.

“In the garage, we’ve talked about this for weeks now,” said Ted Musgrave, 2005 NCTS champion and driver of the No. 9 ASE/Germain Toyota. “I really don’t know who to choose -- it’s that close. From week to week, Mike and Ron are running good and they are both champions. It’s just going to come down to who has the best luck at the end of the season. I can’t see that either has a strong advantage."

"I don't think you can look at Skinner or Hornaday and say one is stronger or one is weaker,” said Mike Bliss, 2002 NCTS champion and driver of the No. 4 Open Joist Dodge. “The No. 5 team is no stronger than the No. 33 team is right now. They are both equally strong or they would not be in the situation they are currently in.”

While both drivers and teams may be on a level playing field, luck can always tip the scale in one direction or the other.

“It's going to take one of the drivers having a bad race to shake things up and that may happen now,” said Bobby Hamilton, Jr., son of 2004 NCTS champion Bobby Hamilton, Sr., and driver of the No. 35 McDonald’s Ford in the Busch Series. “Hornaday may have to gain a few points in each race, but both drivers should have top-five finishes in all the remaining races.”

“Both teams are doing a good job and are standing up to the test,” said Todd Bodine, 2006 NCTS champion and driver of the No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota. “They’re going back and forth in the points and getting good finishes, so the one who has the least amount of bad luck is going to be this year’s champion.”

Mechanical failures or less-than-perfect setups also threaten to take center stage in the play for the title.

“I think the weakness won’t come from Ron or Mike -- it will be more equipment-wise,” Musgrave said. “Both of the drivers are really good, so I think it’s going to be the teams behind them and which team will falter."

“The team that doesn't have a mechanical failure or get caught up in someone else's mess is going to come out the winner,” Bliss said. “Right now they have to be on top of their game in qualifying and during the race. Every second is going to count and your winner is going to be the one who has the best luck in the final three races.”

While the common denominators for both teams may be good fortune and the lack of equipment failures, each driver has his own special bag of tricks from which to pull in his attempt to capture the championship.

“Skinner’s strengths are his experience and ability to drive hard and aggressively,” Kvapil said. “The guy has been driving these trucks for a long time and he knows what it takes to get the job done.”

But that boldness on the race track can be a runaway horse if not reigned in.

“Sometimes Skinner is overly aggressive and that gets him in trouble,” Kvapil continued. “But he's done a great job this year of staying out of trouble for the most part.”

Kvapil says the same is true for Skinner’s closest competitor.

“Hornaday drives really hard and pushes the truck to the max, and sometimes that gets him in situations where his equipment gets torn up,” Kvapil stated. “But this year both of those guys have done a great job of keeping out of trouble.”

When it comes to winning championships, a smart and savvy driver won’t go very far without a solid crew chief and team.

“Hornaday has an experienced crew chief who has come close to winning championships in the past,” Kvapil said. “He also has the experience going for him.”

Oftentimes, former Truck Series champions see only aces in Hornaday and Skinner’s decks of cards.

"Evidently there’s not too much weakness in either Skinner or Hornaday, since those two guys are the two swapping the points lead back and forth from week to week,” Musgrave observed. “It seems like Skinner has changed his whole way of racing. He’s more consistent now. Ron is a little more of a gambler than Skinner. He’ll gamble a lot of positions, which we saw at Martinsville. Mike is more on the conservative side.”

After practical wisdom, past history and a little “Monday morning quarterbacking” have helped predict this season’s winner, there is always room for a personal favorite.

“I hope Hornaday wins it and I’m pulling for him,” Hamilton, Jr. said. “Both drivers have had good seasons but I just want to see Ron win another title.”

SPEED, now in nearly 78 million homes in North America, is the exclusive home of the NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge, Gatorade Duels at Daytona, NASCAR Nextel Pit Crew Challenge and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The only network delivering live, at-track programming all season long, SPEED offers the definitive pre- and post-race NASCAR Nextel Cup Series programs – NASCAR RaceDay and NASCAR Victory Lane, as well as other popular NASCAR programs including Trackside Live, Tradin’ Paint, NASCAR Performance, NASCAR Live!, Inside Nextel Cup, NCTS Setup, Go or Go Home and The Chase is On.