NASCAR Truck Series Notes (06/02/97)
5 June 1997
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Notes of Interest Week of June 2, 1997 DAYTONA BEACH, FL - Pennzoil/VIP Discount Auto Center 200 Wrap: - Jay Sauter's first career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, on May 31 at New Hampshire International Speedway, came in the West Salem, Wisc. competitor's 16th start. Sauter lined up 26th, deepest in the field of any series winner. The old mark was 16th, accomplished most recently by Joe Ruttman in the Jan. 19 Chevy Trucks Challenge at Walt Disney World Speedway. - The victory was No. 17 for Richard Childress Racing, as the Welcome, N,C,-based team joined Rick Hendrick Motorsports and Dale Earnhardt, Inc. with wins in all three years of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. RCR's last win? Mike Skinner, on Oct. 13, 1996, at Bakersfield, Calif. Following was a winless streak of nine races, RCR's longest NCTS drought. - Sauter's best previous finishes were a pair of thirds, the most recent coming in Tucson, Ariz. on March 1. - Sauter had failed to finish his last two starts and had three DNFs in the 1997 season's first seven events - one more than RCR experienced in 44 appearances during 1995-96. "I haven't had this many wrecks in one year since I started racing," commented the 34-year-old competitor, who's had to come from an average starting position of 20.75. "Until today, we just never had given him what he needed," said team manager Will Lind. - The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series now counts seven winners in eight races. There were seven winners in each of the two previous campaigns. Sauter was the season's fourth new winner - joining Kenny Irwin, Rich Bickle and Tony Raines. - Series standings leader Bickle's string of top-five finishes ended at four, thanks to a lap-127 accident which left his Sears DieHard Chevrolet 20th - his worst performance in 1997. Bickle entered the Pennzoil VIP Discount Auto Center 200 with a 77-point lead over Jack Sprague, which eroded to just 10. - Sprague's superspeedway lead lap-finish streak increased to 14, as he duplicated his 1996 runnerup finish at the 1.058-mile oval. The Quaker State Chevrolet again was the dominant truck, pacing 173 laps from the Busch Pole, before handling trouble gave Sauter the lead on the 188th circuit. Sprague also became the first series drivers to post consecutive fast qualifying numbers at superspeedways. His record lap is 126.985 mph. - Other members of the pre-NHlS top-five weren't so fortunate. Mike Bliss, also involved in the Bickle accident, retained third after a 17th place finish. Butch Miller finished 14th to remain fourth but defending race winner Ron Hornaday, who switched to a backup after damaging his NAPA Brakes Chevrolet in practice, dropped all the way to ninth in the points on a 29th-place run. Irwin, Ruttman and Chuck Bown held fifth through seventh, while Dave Rezendes, Hornaday and Jimmy Hensley show in the final top-10 spots. - Cintas Rookie Boris Said was a big gainer in the standings at Loudon, moving from 21st to 18th on the strength of his first top-10 finish - a solid fourth-place. Said, a road racing specialist and 24 Hours of Le Mans veteran, gave the Irvan-Simo Racing Federated Auto Parts Ford its second consecutive lead-lap effort, suggesting the 34-year-old Carlsbad, Calif, competitor is maturing. ..lt is the best place a rookie could be, just hanging around him," he says of co-owner Ernie Irvan. "He's forgotten more than I know about going left." - Three teams had new crew chiefs at NHIS: Fred Graves replacing John Monsam at DEl; Roland Wlodyka for Glenn Bopp with the Circle Bar Motel and RV Park Ford of Rick Crawford; and team owner Robert Blake taking over for Rodney Haygood on Doug George's Chevrolet. Turning to Texas: - The Pronto Auto Parts 400 (8 p.m. EDT, ESPN and NASCAR Truck Network) is the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series' first visit to Texas, No. 1 sales market for new light trucks and sport utility vehicles. The Texas Motor Speedway event also is the first night race of 1997; Bristol, Indianapolis and Richmond being the others. With test speeds in the high-170 mph range, TMS will be the fastest venue yet for NCTS teams. - Rookie drivers usually don't rate too many looks at superspeedways but USAC National Midget Champion Irwin may be the exception. Driving the Raybestos Ford, he's got a win (Homestead), two top-five and three top-10 finishes and average starting position of 7.00 in this season's four big track appearances. "I just went there open-minded and ended up pretty fast," Irwin said of the April Ford test at TMS. "I was really happy with it and am confident we can go back and be pretty nice." And the Texas speeds? "Speed is relative," Irwin observes. "A driver doesn't think about it until he comes in and people say, 'Oh, you went 175 mph.'" - Experience, however, figures to be a major asset in Fort Worth, with the nod going to such competitors as Ruttman, Bown and Hensley. "It will be a stay-out-of-trouble deal," predicts Hensley, driver of Richard Petty's Cummins Engine Company Dodge. "I hope we have enough experience so that the younger guys watch what we do and keep everything in perspective." Hensley will have a driving partner at TMS; former NASCAR Winston Cup Series rookie-of-the-year Kenny Bouchard, who'll debut Petty's Touch 1 Dodge. - Dave Rezendes, winner of the 1996 series stop at Homestead, Fla., sees track position being crucial during the Pronto Auto Parts 400. "Qualifying will be the key," suggests the Ortho Lawn and Garden Chevrolet driver. "You're going to have to jump on mistakes other people make and not make any of your own." Stat of the Week: There have been four different winners - Ruttman, Irwin, Sprague and Sauter - of the four superspeedway events held in 1997. Last year, there were just three as Sprague captured five of seven checkered flags and finished second in the other two races. By NASCAR Public Relations