The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will be transporting their high energy tailgate party to deep in the heart of Texas for Friday night’s running of the WinStar World Casino 350k at the Texas Motor Speedway. There will be plenty of Texas sized bragging rights on the line because this series traditionally runs some very exciting races at this speedway. There’s also the matter of that coveted moment when the race winner gets to don the official Texas sized cowboy hat and fire the six shooters into the air.
THE STORY BREAKDOWN
During the course of any series race you can always expect aggressive driving from Kyle Busch and Todd Bodine as they charge their way to the front. Racing fans can expect their level of on track intensity to get turned up a notch Friday night because there’s something that they both want. That would be the bragging rights of being the driver with the most wins at the Texas Motor Speedway. Each driver has fired the pistols in victory lane there six times each.
There’s also some other unfinished business between these two drivers and their teams. That would be their quest for the coveted owner’s championship. Prior to last weekend’s race at Talladega Steve Germain, the owner of record for Bodine’s Germain Racing Toyota, held a 39 point lead over Kyle Busch Motorsports. But his driver got caught up in a late race accident and there was a total reversal in the owner’s standings. Busch now goes into Friday night’s race with a 42 point advantage over Germain. However the points race is still too close to call with three races left in the season. By the way, if Busch does win the owner’s title it will mark the first time in series’ history that the same team didn’t win both championships.
On the championship points side of things, Bodine and company are in great shape towards winning their second series title. Bodine holds a very healthy 216 point advantage over runner up Aric Almirola.
Also on the topic of series championships, Toyota can possibly wrap up the manufacturer’s title at Texas for the second year in a row. To accomplish this, one of the Toyota teams will have to take the checkers at least one position ahead of the highest finishing Chevrolet team.
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Turner Motorsports will be conducting a press conference Friday afternoon to announce their team plans and driver line up for the 2011. Team owner Steve Turner just recently purchased Braun Racing and will be fielding teams in both the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the Nationwide Series. There is a general feeling that says Friday’s press conference is going to contain some “really big news.” There has been some garage rumors recently that says Turner has had a conversation with Ron Hornaday Jr about changing teams.
Turner Motorsports drivers James Buescher and Ricky Carmichael will be very busy in Texas this weekend performing double duty. Each driver has been scheduled to drive in both the truck race and the Nationwide Series race the following day.
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THE RACE BREAKDOWN
The WinStar World Casino 350k is 167 laps/250.5 miles around the Texas Motor Speedway’s 1.5 mile tri oval.
The race has 38 registered entries who will be vying for the 36 starting berths.
13 of those entries are on the go or go home list. That means these teams do not have a guaranteed starting berth because they are currently outside of NASCAR’s top 25 in owner’s points. These teams will have to rely on qualifying times to make the race.
The defending race champion from last year is Kyle Busch. Todd Bodine won the first Texas race of the season back in June.
The WinStar World Casino 350k will be broadcast live by the SPEED Channel on Friday night with the pre race show beginning at 830 pm eastern time.
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