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Camping World Trucks
TRUCKS: Spring Break Is Over
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is back after a month long break...
Ron Hornaday Jr. is currently 6th in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points standings. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Article by Nick Bromberg, RacinToday.com
You can forgive yourself if you’ve forgotten about the Camping World Truck Series. After all, it’s only been a month since the last race at Nashville.
“I’d rather be racing…I’m tired of doing honey-dos for my wife,” defending series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. said. “I’m tired of cutting trees down, painting garage doors, doing that stuff. If I race, I can pay somebody to do that and not have to do that. I just enjoy racing, I worked all my life to race and get an opportunity to do it.”
However, Mike Skinner, who won last year’s race at Kansas Speedway, the site of Sunday’s race, says that he enjoyed the break, but understands that the length of the break may not be the greatest thing for the series’ visibility.
“That’s a really, really valid question and I would have to say for the series it’s probably a little bit too long of a break,” Skinner said.
“I would rather see less break, run every other week, get your 25 weeks in or whatever and maybe stop our season – our season is the same length as the Cup season – do we really need to wrap our championship in Homestead in November? Or do we maybe need to be down in September or October?”
And because the Cup Series is in Richmond this weekend, this is the first race of the season that Kyle Busch will not be in and the second that Kevin Harvick will not race in. When asked about Harvick and Busch, Hornaday was surprised that Busch wasn’t flying in for the race on Sunday but said that the lack of Cup drivers didn’t make the race any different.
“They’re beatable, that’s what they’re there for. That just makes us turn up our wick more,” Hornaday said.
Skinner agreed that Cup drivers provide a great challenge, especially for young drivers in the series, but also said that he feels the series needs to build its own identity away from NASCAR’s top two series.
“The Cup Series has its own identity. Let these other series, even if we have to shorten the field up to 25 or 30 cars… if we have to do that to make the show right, then do it. In my opinion, and I’m just one person, I would much rather see us have much less companion races. We do need a handful of companion races because if you have a young driver coming up, say we have a Landon Cassill or someone else coming up, he needs to run against Kevin Harvick so we can see how he can do. But not every other race,” Skinner said.
Recently, Kevin Harvick Inc. has been the identity of the Truck Series, as Hornaday and Harvick have won 11 of the last 29 races. Todd Bodine, the 2006 CWTS champion, attributes that to coil binding, a setup that utilizes soft front springs and stiff rear springs.
“The biggest thing in the setups is the advent of coil binding. Back when we ran so well every week on these mile and a halfs we were probably the only guys that were almost coil binding. We weren’t quite doing it but we were right there and everyone else hadn’t caught on and once they started doing that on the Cup side and everyone figured it out, obviously it trickles down to what we’re doing. The biggest thing that I think changed that was when they went from having a valence on the front of the trucks to just having a true splitter, then the coil binding became a necessity and, you know, that took our advantage away,” Bodine said.
You can forgive yourself if you’ve forgotten about the Camping World Truck Series. After all, it’s only been a month since the last race at Nashville.
“I’d rather be racing…I’m tired of doing honey-dos for my wife,” defending series champion Ron Hornaday Jr. said. “I’m tired of cutting trees down, painting garage doors, doing that stuff. If I race, I can pay somebody to do that and not have to do that. I just enjoy racing, I worked all my life to race and get an opportunity to do it.”
However, Mike Skinner, who won last year’s race at Kansas Speedway, the site of Sunday’s race, says that he enjoyed the break, but understands that the length of the break may not be the greatest thing for the series’ visibility.
“That’s a really, really valid question and I would have to say for the series it’s probably a little bit too long of a break,” Skinner said.
“I would rather see less break, run every other week, get your 25 weeks in or whatever and maybe stop our season – our season is the same length as the Cup season – do we really need to wrap our championship in Homestead in November? Or do we maybe need to be down in September or October?”
And because the Cup Series is in Richmond this weekend, this is the first race of the season that Kyle Busch will not be in and the second that Kevin Harvick will not race in. When asked about Harvick and Busch, Hornaday was surprised that Busch wasn’t flying in for the race on Sunday but said that the lack of Cup drivers didn’t make the race any different.
“They’re beatable, that’s what they’re there for. That just makes us turn up our wick more,” Hornaday said.
Skinner agreed that Cup drivers provide a great challenge, especially for young drivers in the series, but also said that he feels the series needs to build its own identity away from NASCAR’s top two series.
“The Cup Series has its own identity. Let these other series, even if we have to shorten the field up to 25 or 30 cars… if we have to do that to make the show right, then do it. In my opinion, and I’m just one person, I would much rather see us have much less companion races. We do need a handful of companion races because if you have a young driver coming up, say we have a Landon Cassill or someone else coming up, he needs to run against Kevin Harvick so we can see how he can do. But not every other race,” Skinner said.
Recently, Kevin Harvick Inc. has been the identity of the Truck Series, as Hornaday and Harvick have won 11 of the last 29 races. Todd Bodine, the 2006 CWTS champion, attributes that to coil binding, a setup that utilizes soft front springs and stiff rear springs.
“The biggest thing in the setups is the advent of coil binding. Back when we ran so well every week on these mile and a halfs we were probably the only guys that were almost coil binding. We weren’t quite doing it but we were right there and everyone else hadn’t caught on and once they started doing that on the Cup side and everyone figured it out, obviously it trickles down to what we’re doing. The biggest thing that I think changed that was when they went from having a valence on the front of the trucks to just having a true splitter, then the coil binding became a necessity and, you know, that took our advantage away,” Bodine said.
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