A 225 point-deficit cannot be erased in a day.
Everyone trying to catch points leader Ron Hornaday Jr. must live the clichéd “one race at a time.” They need to chip away.
With eight races remaining in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season, there’s ample opportunity to do just that.
This weekend’s race at Gateway is one of those chances, but probably not the best.
Hornaday has been strong at Gateway, racking up some of the top statistics in the series after winning there last year and finishing second in 2007.
Hornaday owns series-best marks in Driver Rating (116.1), Average Running Position (6.6), Fastest Laps Run (73) and Laps Led (207) since the inception of Loop Data in 2005.
Those closest to Hornaday don’t come close to matching those stats. Second-place Matt Crafton has a Gateway Driver Rating of 83.2 after finishing in the top 10 only once in the past four races. Third-place Mike Skinner is closer, with a Driver Rating of 94.9. Skinner finished seventh at Gateway last season and has led laps in each of the last two Gateway races.
Probably the driver with the best shot at keeping Hornaday from Victory Lane is Todd Bodine, who sits fifth in the points, 478 points out.
Bodine has four starts at Gateway, all of them top-10 finishes and three of them top fives. In that span, Bodine has an average finish of 4.0, a Driver Rating of 110.3, an Average Running Position of 8.3, 47 Fastest Laps Run, a Laps in the Top 15 percentage of 86.4% and a series-best Pass Differential (passes minus times passed) of +120. Auto Racing Daily
CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR 4 Ricky Carmichael* Chevrolet Monster Energy 5 Mike Skinner Toyota PC*Miler Navigator 6 Colin Braun Ford Con-way Freight 7 Jason Young Chevrolet 3BR Racing / ASI Limited 8 Todd Kluever Chevrolet Malcolmson Construction 8 Butch Miller Chevrolet SS Green Light Racing 10 James Buescher* Ford International Maxx Force Diesel 11 T.J. Bell Toyota Red Horse Racing 13 Johnny Sauter* Chevrolet Fun Sand / Rodney Atkins / Curb Records 14 Rick Crawford Ford Circle Bar Truck Corral / International 15 Brian Ickler* Toyota Billy Ballew Motorsports 16 Brian Scott Toyota Albertsons 23 Jason White Dodge GunBroker Racing 24 David Starr Toyota Zachry / Harris Trucking 25 Terry Cook Toyota Cajun Industries / Harris Trucking 30 Todd Bodine Toyota Ventrilo 33 Ron Hornaday Chevrolet Longhorn Smokeless Tobacco 47 Brandon Knupp Chevrolet FT-11 Multi-Purpose Degreaser 51 Aric Almirola Toyota Miccosukee Resort / Graceway Pharmaceutica- 60 Stacy Compton Toyota SafeAuto Insurance Company 63 Ben Stancill Ford Mittler Bros. Machine & Tool 81 Tayler Malsam* Toyota One Eighty 85 Brent Raymer* Ford CTR Fabrication 88 Matt Crafton Chevrolet Menards 102 Dillon Oliver Chevrolet Corrie Stott 117 Timothy Peters Toyota Strutmasters.com / Red Horse Racing 121 Nick Tucker Dodge GunBroker Racing 129 Mikey Kile Chevrolet Greased Lightning 136 Jack Smith Ford Mittler Bros. Machine 139 Ryan Sieg Chevrolet S&W Services 144 Tommy Joe Martins Ford TBA 148 Wayne Edwards Chevrolet Rockingham Speedway 157 Norm Benning Chevrolet Norm Benning Racing 165 Lance Hooper Chevrolet County Building Centers 172 Michelle Theriault Chevrolet James Carter 184 Chris Fontaine Chevrolet Glenden Enterprises 192 John Jackson Chevrolet James Carter 212 Mario Gosselin Chevrolet James Carter 273 Dexter Bean Chevrolet Tagsby Racing 293 Shane Sieg Chevrolet S&W Services
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