NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Notes (June 16, 1997)
17 June 1997
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Notes of Interest Week of June 16, 1997 DAYTONA BEACH, FL - Bristol (and the Loadhandler 200) in Brief: - Will the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series see a record, eighth different 1997 winner at the Bristol Motor Speedway? History says yes. Joe Ruttman (1995) and Rick Carelli (1996) scored their first series victories at the 0.533-mile facility. - Bristol hasn't been kind to series front-runners. No competitor has more than one top-five finish on the track's towering, concrete banks. Three drivers -- Ruttman, defending NCTS champion Ron Hornaday and Jack Sprague - are 2-for-2 in top-10s. Carelli and Lance Norick, ninth-place finisher in 1996, are the only entered drivers whose career-best finish came at the Bristol Motor Speedway. - One reason may be the difficulty of holding the lead lap at Bristol, where the average is just 8.5. Only one track - I-70 Speedway - had fewer drivers completing the full distance in 1996, when the series short track average (14 events) was 11.74. The 1997 short track average (four races): 12.75. That's just over a third of an average starting field of 36. - Starting in front can make a difference at Bristol. The winner's average start there is 2.5. Busch Pole winner, Mike Skinner in both previous years, averaged a finish of 12.0. - Bristol's 36-degree banks are the tallest on which the series competes. How intimidating is the Bristol Motor Speedway? Consider this: its 650-foot front and backstretches are banked 16 degrees. Only I-70, Mesa Marin, Nashville and Texas speedways have turns banked higher than Bristol's straights. - This is what Ruttman, driver of the LCI International Ford, had to say about Bristol: "Running here is like a roller coaster ride. You zoom from one thrill to another and hope there's no obstacle in between. If I was going to spend my hard-earned money on a race, this would be the place to do it. (The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series) has a lot to offer. It's close racing, a lot of fender-banging and stuff happening real fast. You can't ask for a better show than the one you're going to get at Bristol." - Bristol, however, isn't the fastest series short track. That honor belongs to Richmond International Raceway, a 3/4-mile layout. Skinner's one-lap record in Tennessee is 118.738 mph, compared to Kenny Irwin's RIR mark of 119.888. BMS could reclaim the mark in Busch Pole qualifying (7 p.m. EDT June 20), based on Hornaday's unofficial lap of 120.226 timed during a June 10 Chevrolet test. - With just 217 points spanning first to 12th in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Seres standings, the 1997 championship is very much a topic of conversation despite the season's conclusion being 17 races and more than five months distant. How well has a Bristol finish predicted the outcome in past years? Not very. Skinner was 20th in 1995, while Hornaday was eighth last year. Ruttman, however, took the runnerup spot in the standings in '95. - Bristol will be hosting two other NASCAR touring divisions during the Loadhandler 200 weekend -- the Goody's Dash Series (on June 20) and the Slim Jim All Pro Series. Several graduates of those divisions have done well at BMS, notably Rick Crawford, winner of last year's NASJAPS event; Ron Barfield, the 1994 winner and Mike Cope, who owns a pair of top-five finishes, including a third-place last June. Former Goody's Dash Series champion Robert Huffman, hoping to make his first NCTS start in the Loadhandler 200, also counts two top-five efforts in NASCAR's compact car division. - Tri-City area drivers Kelly Denton and Tommy Spangler, Bristol, Va. and Billy Ogle, Jr. of Knoxville are among the more than 40 entered drivers for the Loadhandler 200. Joe Buford, who competes in the NASCAR Winston Racing Series Late Model division at Nashville Speedway USA, is slated to make his NCTS debut in a Ford owned by his father, James "Flukie" Buford, a NASCAR Late Model Sportsman star of the 1970s. Stat of the Week: - Mike Bliss inherited the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series' current longest finishing streak, 25 races, upon Sprague's engine failure June 6 in Fort Worth. That string began June 30, 1996 at Nazareth (Pa.) Speedway, the week after his Team ASE Ford's wild, on-its-side ride from Bristol Motor Speedway's flagstand into Turn 1. Bliss, fourth in series points entering the Loadhandler 200, has yet to record a top-10 finish at BMS. In Other Series News: - Individual tickets for Phoenix International Raceway's 1997-98 season go on sale at 10 a.m. (EDT) June 24. That includes the Nov. 1 GM Goodwrench/Delco Battery 300 which, for the first time, will have reserved seating. The toll-free number is 800-638-4253. - The International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame, located in St. Louis, has joined Terry Cook and Sealmaster Racing's PBA Tour Chevrolet team as an associate sponsor. The official sponsorship unveiling will come June 28 at Nazareth, with PBA Hall of Famer Johnny Petraglia among participants. By NASCAR Public Relations