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NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series
TRUCKS: Chicagoland Here We Come
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will race at Chicagoland Speedway for the first time Friday night...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted August 27, 2009   Charlotte, NC
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series visits Chicagoland Speedway for the first time, where the truckers will do battle in Friday night’s EnjoyIllinois.com 225. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series visits Chicagoland Speedway for the first time, where the truckers will do battle in Friday night’s EnjoyIllinois.com 225. The race will be telecast live on SPEED, with the “NCWTS Setup” kicking off at 8:30 p.m. ET with host Krista Voda.

Although Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet is a new venue for the Truck Series, it did race at the now-defunct Chicago Motor Speedway in Cicero in 2000-01.

And a number of drivers entered in Friday night’s race — including Kyle Busch, Todd Bodine, Ron Hornaday Jr. and Stacy Compton — previously have competed at the long, flat Chicagoland oval in either the NASCAR Sprint Cup or Nationwide Series or both.

Still, anytime you visit a track for the first time, there inevitably will be both opportunities and challenges. But with many of the teams having tested there already and drivers having raced in other series at Chicagoland, it’s not as if the 1.5-mile track will be alien turf.

“For the inaugural NASCAR race in the Cup Series, I got the pole at Chicagoland, so I like the track,” said Bodine. “I’ve always enjoyed it. Germain Racing’s No. 30 Ventrilo Tundra team has done a lot of testing at Chicagoland. We’ve run really well. We ought to be able to unload … and be competitive,” said Bodine.

“We’ve always enjoyed going to Chicagoland. We think this should be a strong track for our team,” added Bodine’s crew chief, Mike Hillman Jr.

Another driver optimistic about heading to the track is Timothy Peters of Red Horse Racing, who will celebrate his 29th birthday on Saturday. Peters has been on something of a hot streak lately, with five top-10 finishes in the last seven races with his No. 17 Strutmasters.com Toyota.

“I'm really looking forward to Chicagoland,” said Peters. “I have tested there several times in the past and really like the race track. It's so much like Kansas and that's a track I really like. We are taking my favorite truck to Chicago and I'm really excited about that. This is our truck from Michigan, Kentucky and Nashville and we finished in the top-10 all three times with it. I'm looking forward to another good race and being there at the end racing for a win.”

“Chicagoland is a fun track to race at and since this is the first year that the trucks are racing there, it’s nice to be on the same playing field as everyone else,” said James Buescher, driver of the No. 10 Maxxforce International Ford F-150. “Last year in the ARCA car, my engine blew towards the beginning of the race which cut our day short, but I was able to make some laps and learn some things that should help us out.”

Of course, the man to beat at Chicagoland once again will be Ron Hornaday Jr., who comes into race No. 16 of 25 on the 2009 NCWTS scheduled with a 211-point lead over Matt Crafton.

“I’m really excited to go to Chicago,” said Hornaday, winner of six races already this season, including five in a row prior to Bristol. “We tested there some last year and I really liked the track. We have run pretty well at the 1.5-mile tracks this season. I know Rick Ren (crew chief) has been pouring over notes from all of the tracks we have run this year and test notes from last year. I’m confident we will have a good set-up when we unload, but it will take a few laps to find out where the grip is and what line my truck wants to run in.”

Hornaday likened the Chicagoland track to another Midwestern facility.

“It’s hard to make a comparison because each track has its own unique characteristics, but I guess the closest one is Kansas Speedway,” he said. “The track is still pretty smooth. It’s going to take us running a race though for me to be able to put it in its own category. I’m interested to see what everyone fights, I think we will be tight, but I’m not sure just yet. ”


Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of ?Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,? and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to



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