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NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series
DUNLAP: The 2008 Truck Series Twilight Zone
Now that we’ve popped the cork on 2009, let’s look back at the 2008 NASCAR Truck Series season, an oddball year in many respects...
Ray Dunlap  |  Posted January 02, 2009   Charlotte, North Carolina
Ray Dunlap, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Reporter. (Photo: SPEED)

Now that we’ve popped the cork on 2009 and sung Auld Lang Syne, let’s look back at the 2008 NASCAR Truck Series season, an oddball year in many respects that could be aptly described as “The Twilight Zone.” But for all its quirks, the season still featured dazzling competition and excitement.

Strangest events: Several events in 2008 seemed oddly out-of-place, such as three consecutive first-time Truck Series winners Donny Lia, Matt Crafton and Scott Speed. That’s an odd phenomenon, especially with Crafton taking 178 races to claim his first win. At that rate, it will be 2016 or so before he wins again.

Ryan Newman passing Kevin Harvick Inc. teammate and championship contender Ron Hornaday for the win at Atlanta was weird. Newman essentially stole 15 points from Hornaday, who ultimately lost the title by seven. It’s not too often a teammate impacts a championship in that manner.

Thirdly, KHI won three consecutive races with three different drivers (Newman, Hornaday and Harvick) for the first time in series history.

And who could forget Phoenix when Hornaday spun out on the first lap racing Kyle Busch? Hornaday’s team got him back in the race, but based on where Johnny Benson was running at the time, it initially appeared futile. However, Benson then raced T.J. Bell in the corner and crashed. I was beginning to wonder if neither guy wanted the championship. That’s probably the strangest and most unbelievable race I’ve covered in my motorsports career.

The Kyle Busch factor was another quirky twist to the 2008 season. It’s very rare for a driver to be that successful in all three divisions and still not win a championship.

Finally, Lia’s win at Mansfield came out of nowhere, as he hadn’t been a factor all night and hadn’t even led a lap ever until he jammed his truck in there on the final lap, slammed into Todd Bodine and knocked David Starr out of the way. It was a very exciting finish but still strange that he won his first race after leading the first lap of his career.


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Ray Dunlap

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