NASCAR: Craftsman Truck Series Notes (04/28/97)

04/30/97

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Notes of Interest
Week of April 28, 1997


- Skinner and Ron Hornaday are the two previous winners of the
Craftsman 200 by NAPA Auto Parts at Portland Speedway. The combined
margin of victory at the half-mile asphalt oval is 2.394 seconds.

- Hornaday is the only entered driver to have led a lap at Portland
Speedway.  His total is 161 of 400 run. The defending NASCAR Craftsman
Truck Series champion also is the leading Portland money-winner among
entered competitors, with $40,025.

- Two competitors, Mike Bliss and Butch Miller, own top-five finishes
in both previous series stops at Portland Speedway. Bliss was last
year's runnerup.  Hornaday, Joe Ruttman, and Bill Sedgwick are the
remaining entered drivers to count one top-five here.

- Six competitors are perfect in series top-10 finishes at Portland:
Rick Carelli, Bliss, Hornaday, Miller, Sedgwick, and Jack Sprague.

- When Rich Bickle gave Dodge its first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
fast qualifying time at Portland Speedway last May, the Wisconsin
native took nearly three-tenths of a second off the previous
record. With Bickle's standard at 20.393-seconds, the first heavy
vehicle sub-20-second lap in the venerable oval's more than 50-year
history is possible.

- Bickle, who now drives Darrell Waltrip's Sears DieHard Chevrolet,
leads NCTS standings and is licking his lips in anticipation of the
return to Portland Speedway. "Winning my first pole last year at
Portland was something I'll never forget," he says. "It feels great
going to a track (and) trying to break my own record, not someone
else's."

- More than 40 drivers will battle for 32 starting positions in the
Craftsman 200 by NaPA Auto Parts. How has the entry progressed? Well,
just 26 teams came to Portland for the NCTS inaugural in 1995, while
33 were on hand for last year's race. The season's average entry for
the first four events is 53 teams.

- Portland Speedway has been kind to many of this year's entrants,
who've won a combined 13 NASCAR touring series races in the Rose
City. Winners include Tobey Butler, five (all REB-CO Northwest Tour),
most recent 1993; Hornaday, two (NCTS and Winston West Series); Dan
Press, two (REB-CO Northwest Tour, 1994, '95); Chuck Bown, one
(Winston West, 1977); Jim Bown, one (Winston West, 1985); Doug George,
one (Winston West, 1995) and Sedgwick, one (Winston West, 1992).

In addition, Hornaday holds the NCTS 200-lap race record; Butler the
NRNWT 125-lap record; George the NWWS 250-lap race record and Sedgwick
the NWWS one-lap qualifying standard.

- The 2nd Annual Doernbecher Truck Manufacturers' Challenge will be
held at 7 pm May 1 at Malibu Grand Prix, 9405 SW Cascade Ave.,
Beaverton, OR. The event, which benefits Doernbecher Children's
Hospital, a division of Oregon Health Sciences University, raised
$2,000 in 1996. Drivers scheduled to appear include Hornaday, Bliss,
and Chuck Bown.

- Current NCTS streaks: Top-5, 3, Bliss; Top-10, 3, Bliss, Bown,
Hornaday, Dave Rezendes, and Sprague; Running at Finish, 48, Sprague;
and Consecutive Different Winners, 4.

- The July 31 Cummins 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park will be
broadcast live by ESPN2. Start time is 9:30 pm EDT.

- Sprague's third Phoenix International Raceway Busch Pole on April 19
was a series record. He'd shared the existing mark with Skinner
(twice, Bristol and Indianapolis) and Hornaday (Heartland Park).

STAT OF THE WEEK:

With provisional starting positions now based upon 1997 driver and
owner point standings it's interesting to note that just two - that's
correct, two - competitors have improved their current ranking over
their final 1996 points tally. Who are they? Bickle, who's up 10 spots
to No. 1 and Bliss, whose third-place is two better than '96.

By NASCAR Public Relations