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NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series
DUNLAP: Bolstering The Truck Series
Cost-cutting is essential across all NASCAR divisions but especially in the Truck Series because it was the one hardest hit by the manufacturer pullback...
Ray Dunlap  |  Posted February 11, 2009   Daytona Beach, FL
Ray Dunlap, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Reporter. (Photo: SPEED)

There was never any debate that changes would be necessary within the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series to keep it afloat in 2009 but I don’t think many of us in the business were expecting those modifications to hold such promise for the on-track action itself.

Cost-cutting is essential across all NASCAR divisions but especially in the Truck Series because it was the one hardest hit by the manufacturer pullback and sponsorship slowdown. Therefore, NASCAR recently alerted the Truck Series teams of three major policy changes heading into the 2009 season: an engine usage policy; pit stops limited to either adding fuel or tires (but not both simultaneously); and a cap on the number of crew members allowed per team at the track.

Implementation of these policy changes should go a long way toward significant savings. Owners will be required to run an engine in two separate races without a total re-freshening. This policy excludes Daytona and Talladega because we run a different type of engine at the superspeedways.

It’s almost impossible to put a price tag on the average team’s engine budget last year but teams spent anywhere between $750,000 and $1.2 million for the year. There is such a variation between the “haves” and the “have-nots” and some teams still receive engines from their manufacturers, but many fell under that range. We’re expecting to see teams’ engine budgets cut almost in half with this two-race engine rule, which is a great concept.

The pit stop strategy shake-up is the most interesting component of the entire group. NASCAR’s original idea weeks ago was to throw competition cautions throughout the race, during which everyone would pit and return to the track in the same order in which they left, with the end result that specialty pit crews would not be necessary and anyone on the team could leisurely step over pit wall to service the truck. But that idea totally eliminated race strategy from the equation and from a broadcaster’s standpoint, I hated it.



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