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  *Comments on the 2011 VFW 200:*
  View the most recent comment <#51> | Post a comment <#post>


  1.   18fan posted:
  08.20.2011 - 3:20 pm
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Nelson Piquet, Jr had a very hard crash on the last lap when he got
loose racing with his countryman Miguel Paludo for 3rd on the last lap.
He barely missed a big gap in the inside wall, so he was very lucky to
hit the wall where he did. Piquet has lost at least 3 or 4 top 10
finishes this year because of last lap spins.


  2.   Brad posted:
  08.20.2011 - 3:25 pm
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Happy is one drivin SOB!!!


  3.   12345Dude posted:
  08.20.2011 - 3:31 pm
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Anyone who doesn't waatch the camping world truck series needs to. The
racing Is 10 times better than the nationwide series and the cup series.
The only problem is when the cup guys dominate. Also there is only 1
stand a lone event left for the trucks.

Also the trucks and nw have great 3 way battles for the title. And there
is no chase in either one of them.

Amazing crazy race. Also Todd makes another stupid move in a truck race.


  4.   18fan posted:
  08.20.2011 - 3:40 pm
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How good this race was makes up for a Cup driver winning and another one
leading a bunch of laps. A bunch of cars that were fast got caught up in
the wreck when Kligerman got loose under Mark and tore up a bunch of
trucks. That bailed out Johnny Sauter, who took the lead in a great move
on a restart, tried to break the draft and got passed, then was too
close to Paludo's door in the corner and spun into the inside wall on
the backstretch.

Ron Hornaday had a dreadful truck all day and took advantage of wrecks
to finish 7th.


  5.   18fan posted:
  08.20.2011 - 3:44 pm
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This was only the 3rd DNF and 2nd mechanical DNF for a Kyle Busch
Motorsports truck.


  6.   00andJoe posted:
  08.20.2011 - 3:51 pm
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#2 sponsor: TapOut ("Racing" shouldn't be included)
#33 sponsor: Champion Spark Plugs
#51 sponsor: Matrix System/Bullet Liner


  7.   RaceFanX posted:
  08.20.2011 - 3:59 pm
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Colin Braun and Billy Ballew's #51 FINALLY gave the Ford fans someone
legitimate to cheer for this season. This series has been seriously
lacking on blue oval entries.


  8.   Bloop posted:
  08.20.2011 - 5:13 pm
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I wish Peters woulda won, but oh well. Another cup guy wins...ehh


  9.   Frank posted:
  08.20.2011 - 5:20 pm
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I knew that after fake caution it's gonna be mayhem. Especially among 13
and/or 3. Fortunately both of them lost points (although for Dillon it
has been terrible luck) and James Buescher finished 4th barely having
truck for 15th! What a story it will be if he won the whole thing
missing one race! Also Timothy Peters definitely in it.

I hate fake cautions, but at least it produced a lot of excitement.
Cheap but useful


  10.   00andJoe posted:
  08.20.2011 - 5:59 pm
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Given that the tire carcass off of Joey Coulter's truck was laying in
the middle of the frontstretch (with fender debris probably about, too),
I'd hardly call that last caution 'fake'.


  11.   18fan posted:
  08.20.2011 - 6:08 pm
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I think he's talking about the one that came out while SPEED was
interviewing Kyle Busch in the garage.


  12.   Espn posted:
  08.20.2011 - 6:10 pm
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Kevin Harvick is now 35 wins away from making history by being the 4th
driver ever to win 100 wins in the top 3 series in Nascar.


  13.   cjs3872 posted:
  08.20.2011 - 6:27 pm
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Anyone that has seen some of my posts would know why the racing in the
Truck series at Michigan is so much better. That is because the trucks
can actually draft, due to the hole they punch in the air. That gives
the trailing vehicle suction to close in, and it almost helped Timothy
Peters win the race.

Meanwhile, it looks like both the Truck and Nationwide titles may be
lucked into this year by whatever driver wins them. Late in this race,
Johnny Sauter spins and it looks like Austin Dillon is going to have a
HUGE points day, but then he gets taken out in the accident on the
backstretch, and actually LOSES ground, not just to second, but to THIRD
in the points standings. Is James Buescher, who suruvuved the late-race
mayhem to finish fourth, going to back into the championship, while
failing to win a race (so far), and actually failing to qualify for one
race.

Then, in the just-completed Mationwide race, it looks like Reed Sorenson
is going to make up ground in the points, but then gets spun and
eventually blows a tire as a result. Then Ricky Stenhouse looks like
he's going to salvage a rough race with an okay finish, until he runs
into trouble, while Elliott Sadler played it like a vateran, just
staying out of trouble all day and managing a finsh, at least.

Well, the top ten in NW points, as a group, will likely stay the same
through the end of the season. As for the Trucks, well anything seems
possible. Peters, who seemed totally out of contention not tool ong ago,
might be the favorite to take it all, though for me to make any kind of
prediction on who might win this title would be just pure lunacy at this
point. By the way, my pick to win the NW title, at this point, is
Sadler, due to his experience, as well as the vast amount of experience
behind him. And if he wins the title, he will most likely do so without
finishing higher than third in any race this year.


  14.   cjs3872 posted:
  08.20.2011 - 6:32 pm
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By the way, what will NASCAR do to its point structure if both the
Nationwide and Truck series champions do so without winning a race this
year? Because you know if either one, or hopefully not both, are won
that way, that significant changes will be coming. Bet on that. The last
thing NASCAR wants is to celebrate national touring champions that are
winless for an entire season, and it could have TWO this year.

I still think that the spread among the drivers below tenth is alright,
but there needs to be more spread among the top ten, and definately the
top five finishers. That might eliminate the possibility of drivers
winning the championship without winning a race, and we could even see a
driver (James Buescher) win a title without wining a race AND failing to
qualify for a race. That truly would be NASCAR's worst possible
nightmare come true.


  15.   Greg G posted:
  08.20.2011 - 6:32 pm
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What debris on lap 79? Did anybody see it?
Another rigged race for NASCAR.
Thank goodness I can watch clean racing in the Grand-Am race tonight.
Oh wait, thats owned by NASCAR as well.


  16.   00andJoe posted:
  08.20.2011 - 7:07 pm
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Ah, I see. Didn't see the debris on that one either.
However, there's a difference between "manipulated" and "rigged".


  17.   Iceman39 posted:
  08.20.2011 - 7:33 pm
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Let's hand it to Todd (No Driving) Bodine. This time he wrecked Joey
Coulter. I believe he has taken someone out just about ever Truck race
he been. Richard Childress needs to take a swing at him if he wrecks
another one on his trucks. Todd's talent have left him, just needs to go
home & watch Speed Channel to see the truck races. Not be in them.


  18.   irony posted:
  08.20.2011 - 7:38 pm
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If you want to be sure that the NW/Truck champions win a race, get the
Cup drivers out. It's really not that complicated.

The debris caution coincided with Crafton running out of gas, even
though he made it to the pits. It was a very convenient yellow for the
Cup drivers.


  19.   18fan posted:
  08.20.2011 - 7:39 pm
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Todd actually hurt his own truck and Colin Braun's worse than he hurt
Coulter's, although Coulter lost all his track position and was backed
into a strategy that was doomed to fail as soon as a caution fell.
Unfortunately, Mark Martin's strategy was also doomed to fail if a
caution came out, which it did. I thought Mark's classic Exide Batteries
paint scheme looked really awesome.


  20.   cjs3872 posted:
  08.20.2011 - 7:40 pm
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Actually IceMan39, Bodine probably would not have spun Coulter if he had
not misjudged the room with Colin Braun. When Bodine's right rear made
contact with Braun's left front, it turned him into Coulter, which spun
Joey out. By the way, it seems that the connection between Braun and
Ford may not be totally fractured, since he was driving a truck with a
Roush-Yates FR9 engine, the first one used in the Truck series. Maybe
Ford is planning a re-entry into that series. They haven't really been
involved for the second year.


  21.   Rusty posted:
  08.20.2011 - 7:52 pm
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This was a solid race. Mark Martin looked to have the strongest truck,
but he got taken out by Parker Kligerman on a late restart. The wreck
also ruined what looked to be a strong points day for Austin Dillon.


  22.   cjs3872 posted:
  08.20.2011 - 7:54 pm
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Irony, the Cup drivers or the Cup teams? Back years ago, when there
weren't as many Cup teams with Cup drivers in the lower siers, they
lower series' regulars could run with, and even beat, the Cup starts.
But with more and more Cup teams employing Cup drivers in the lower
series, that's what created the terrible imbalance.

Now what Kyle Busch is doing in the Truck series (and is rumored to be
planning to do in the Nationwide Series), is no different than what guys
like Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt, as well as other Cup starts
about 20-25 years ago used to do. Yes, they ran in the Busch/Nationwide
Series, but they would do so with their own equipment, or an established
NW team, and not with their Cup teams. In fact, Davey Allison, who ran
Fords in the Cup series, actually ran Chevrolets in the NW series when
he ran in it. Get the Cup TEAMS out of the series, unless they are using
development drivers, and you will see lower-level drivers win more races.

After all, when Childress and Hendrick started in the NW series, they
did so with lower-level drivers. Childress won the title in 2001 with
Kevin Harvick, who was, at that time, a Busch/Nationwide driver that was
thrust into the Cup series unexpectedly due to Dale Earnhardt's demise
in the 2001 Daytona 500, and Hendrick won the NW title in 2003 with
Brian Vickers, and then ran Kyle Busch. They were developmental drivers,
not full-time Cup drivers.

I still think that active Cup series drivers with 3 full years, or 100
starts, in the Cup series, should be limited to no more than 10-12 NW or
Truck series starts in a single season, which would open up things for
developmental drivers to have more opportunities to win races. But with
the way things are now, we are seeing top level drivers being frozen
out, due to the fact the Cup drivers, driving for their Cup TEAMS, are
winning almost all the races, especially in the NW series. Now what's
happening in Trucks, I have no real problem with, since the Cup drivers
there, for the most part, are either driving for teams they themselves
own, or are driving for other full-time Truck series teams (such as
Martin driving for turner Motorsports today), or non-Cup teams.


  23.   irony posted:
  08.20.2011 - 9:12 pm
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As long as they're in a truck, they're probably winning. The only
powerhouse Cup team in Trucks is RCR. Things are pretty even. And in NW,
the cars are very similar to Cup cars now, giving Cup drivers an
insurmountable advantage.


  24.   NicoRosbergFan posted:
  08.20.2011 - 9:14 pm
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Harvick and the KBM truck are turning this into as big of a farce as
IndyCar as far as competitiveness is concerned; if they don't dominate
then they luck into the win.


  25.   18fan posted:
  08.20.2011 - 9:59 pm
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I don't know why this is but it seems like on the intermediate tracks
Piquet seems to run the strongest of all the KHI trucks. Even today he
really wasn't that far off Harvick's pace.


  26.   cjs3872 posted:
  08.20.2011 - 11:07 pm
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But I have no problem with the drivers running in lower division races,
as long as it's with their own equipment, or with an established team in
that series, so what Harvick and Busch are doing in the Truck series, I
have no problem with at all. And irony, your point about the advantage
that the Cup drivers in the Nationwide series have,as far as knowing the
cars is a great one, but how big of an advantage would they have if they
didn't have the massive Cup budgets backing them? Not nearly as much, if
you were to ask me. Yes, they would have an advantage, but not nearly
the seemingly insurmountable one they seem to have.


  27.   00andJoe posted:
  08.20.2011 - 11:07 pm
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Is it just me or is Piquet making a habit of crashing out of very good
positions very late in races?


  28.   18fan posted:
  08.20.2011 - 11:14 pm
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00andJoe, Yes, Piquet has crashed out of a lot of good runs in the last
few laps. He crashed on the last lap at Dover, he spun running 7th on
the last lap at Charlotte, he crashed on a GWC restart running 3rd at
Kentucky, and crashed today battling for third. This has to be a
concern, but it is a positive Piquet is running really well
consistently, which is good for a guy who had never driven a stock car
until October or November 2009, and has seemingly every time Elliot
Sadler runs a truck race Piquet outpaces him.


  29.   AlmirolaFan88 posted:
  08.21.2011 - 12:46 am
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Kevin Harvick usually makes no more than 6 starts per year, but he makes
the most of them. Back to back wins.

Has J.J Yeley's career really come to this? Starting and parking for
Norm Benning?

Casey Roderick's Truck debut also ends in a park job.

Nelson just needs to calm down and just finish races instead of being
over agressive. Once he learns how to do that on a consistant basis,
he'll be a force to be reckoned with.


  30.   18fan posted:
  08.21.2011 - 12:54 am
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When Miguel Paludo was talking about being patient in his post race
interview, I said to myself, "Your fellow Brazilian needs to learn
that". Nelson has said that he wants to contend for a Truck championship
before he moves up to NNS. He's still 26, so he's got time to develop
and when once he figures out the non-intermediate tracks and learns more
patience, which a lot comes from inexperience, he could be the most
successful non-American driver in NASCAR history. He's already shown
that he can run up front, and if Harvick sticks with him through the
growing pains, Nelson has a bright future.


  31.   cjs3872 posted:
  08.21.2011 - 9:56 am
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I wonder what Piquet's father would feel if Piquet does become a wining
driver. After all, his father is probably the most underappreciated, and
most overlooked great champion in modern racing history. After all, when
you talk about the drivers that have won three or more F1 championships,
his name is hardly ever mentioned, yet he is among those drivers to have
won the F1 World championship three times. and he drove against some of
that branch of the sport's all-time greats, and yet his three titles are
overlooked.

Hopefully his son succeeds in NASCAR, if for no other reason, to shed
some light on his father's great career. Nelson Piquet, Sr., who along
with Emerson Fitipaldi, was the driver that paved the way for all the
Brazilian drivers that followed, including Ayrton Senna, who is actually
given a lot of the credit for the success of the Brazilian drivers. But
it is actually Fittipaldi and the elder Piquet that actually paved the
way for them. I'm not sure if he's been inducted into the International
Motorsports Hall of Fame, but if he hasn't, it's about time for Nelson
Piquet, Sr. to be so honored. And again, let's hope his son is
successful in NASCAR, if just to shine some light on his father's great
career.


  32.   00andJoe posted:
  08.21.2011 - 1:06 pm
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AF88: Harvick picks races he likes, which makes him a cut above your
average 'Whacker, would be best if it was just Truckers but with the
rules as they are better Happy than Busch. :P


I agree, if Nelson doesn't get early-canned like so many promising
drivers have in the past, he could really have a great career. He has
speed: that's the important thing. You can teach paitence to a fast
driver, you can't teach speed to a careful one.


  33.   18fan posted:
  08.21.2011 - 2:05 pm
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Here's the top 10 in driver rating and their relative position in points
in parentheses
1. Austin Dillon(3)
2. Johnny Sauter(1)
3. James Buescher(2)
4. Ron Hornaday(7)
5. Matt Crafton(6)
6. Cole Whitt(5)
7. Parker Kligerman(9)
8. Timothy Peters(4)
9. Joey Coulter(8)
10. Nelson Piquet Jr.(13)


  34.   Eric posted:
  08.21.2011 - 5:00 pm
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I Hope James Buescher or Timothy Peters can win the championship

And Like always a cup guy won


  35.   Martin5fan posted:
  08.21.2011 - 5:03 pm
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Why on earth would J.J. Yeley race for Norm Benning Yeley is a good
racer so why can't Kevin Harvick or Kyle Busch put him in their trucks


  36.   Vickers83fan posted:
  08.21.2011 - 5:05 pm
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It's sad to see a driver making their debut in a start and park team
like Casey Roderick


  37.   Buescher31fan posted:
  08.21.2011 - 5:12 pm
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why does the Start and Park Trucks have to make up a reason to get out
like Mike Harmon who got out because of handling

Why can't Busch and Harvick start and park and have Yeley and Roderick
run their trucks


  38.   00andJoe posted:
  08.22.2011 - 4:39 am
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"Why on earth would J.J. Yeley race for Norm Benning Yeley is a good
racer so why can't Kevin Harvick or Kyle Busch put him in their trucks "

Because Yeley is damaged goods. As for why he'd S&P? One, because if
you're out of sight in NASCAR you're dead, and two, because he gets a
paycheck. (Also, see below.)


"Why can't Busch and Harvick start and park and have Yeley and Roderick
run their trucks"
For one very good reason: Nobody would sponsor Yeley and Roderick.
Remember, Kyle Busch TRIED to run a young driver in Trucks last year -
Tayler Malsam. He had to pull the plug on that because nobody would
sponsor him.

Right or wrong, that's the way things are. And you can't even really
blame the sponsors. Let's see: for the same amount of money, you can
sponsor a team driven by Johnny No-Name who'll maybe win a race or two
in a year or two, or you can have Kyle Busch or Kevin Harvick drive the
same car or truck and get your company's name in victory lane six to
eight times this year alone. It's a no-brainer which one of those checks
gets cut...


  39.   00andJoe posted:
  08.22.2011 - 4:40 am
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(as an aside, I'd have to wonder if part of the
not-sponsoring-young-drivers might still be a knock-on from the fiasco
that Mike Borkowski's time with BDR was back in 2000...)


  40.   Talon64 posted:
  08.22.2011 - 6:07 pm
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Kevin Harvick gets his 11th career Truck win.

Timothy Peters ties his number of top 5's from both 2009 and 2010 with
his 5th of the season, and looks set to establish a new career high this
year. It's also his 2nd career runner-up finish, his first being at
Darlington last season. It's his 4th consecutive top 10 finish.

Miguel Paludo was the highest finishing rookie in the race, finishing a
career-best 3rd for his 3rd top 5 of the season and 2nd in the last 3 races.

James Buescher extends his top 10 streak to 11 straight races and now
has 3 straight top 5's, both career high's. He also leads the series
with 13 top 10's in starting 14 of 15 races. He also leads all regulars
with a 7.9 average finish; the next closest is Johnny Sauter at 9.9.

David Starr picks up his 5th top 10 in the last 6 races and 2nd top 5 in
the last 3; he's gone from 19th to 11th in the standings, scoring the
5th most points in that stretch.

Jason White picks up just his 3rd top 10 of the season, after having a
career high of 7 in 2010.

Ron Hornaday gets his 3rd straight top 10, but it's only his 4th in the
last 8 races.

Brendan Gaughan gets his first top 10 in 5 races.

Colin Braun finishes 9th in his first NASCAR start of the season, and
first Truck start since 2009 when he ran full time in the series (won
pole, finished 3rd at Homestead). Hopefully he and Billy Ballew
Motorsports will run some more races.

Cole Whitt gets just his 3rd top 10 in the last 8 races.


  41.   Talon64 posted:
  08.22.2011 - 6:09 pm
   Rate this comment:      (0)      (0)

also, I heard this past weekend that the #33 KHI team could be going
away next season and that there could be only 1 full time KHI Truck in
2012. That'd be bad news for Hornaday and especially for Nelson Piquet
Jr. if that pans out.


  42.   00andJoe posted:
  08.22.2011 - 6:46 pm
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Shane Sieg has been suspended for substance abuse.


  43.   00andJoe posted:
  08.22.2011 - 6:51 pm
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#41: I'd assume KHI going down to one full-time team would mean Piquet's
team would be the one being kept.


  44.   cjs3872 posted:
  08.22.2011 - 7:29 pm
   Rate this comment:      (0)      (0)

00andJoe, what would probably happen is that the #2 truck would be the
only one that was run full-time, probably with Harvick and a couple of
others sharing the load (probably Cup drivers, for the most part), with
the #8 and #33 teams shut down, or run just part-time, meaning Piquet
and Hornaday would be ride shopping.


  45.   18fan posted:
  08.22.2011 - 11:10 pm
   Rate this comment:      (0)      (0)

Remember that Piquet has, at least partial, sponsorship from Autotrac,
which is his dad's company. So that might help Piquet get a ride somewhere.


  46.   18fan posted:
  08.23.2011 - 2:52 am
   Rate this comment:      (0)      (0)

According to what Ray Dunlap said on NASCAR Race Hub, the KHI #33 team
is going away for sure, Piquet said he will be running full time trucks
next year but its not determined if it will be for KHI, and then there's
the #2 truck. Dunlap said that the #2 would stay for Kevin to use
sometimes. If Kevin runs as much as he usually does in the #2, which
isn't very much, I wonder if he would give a guy like David Mayhew more
races or if he would give the majority of the rest to guys like Sadler
and Bowyer.


  47.   00andJoe posted:
  08.23.2011 - 7:23 pm
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If the 33 goes away, I wonder if Hornaday will decide to retire...

And I'm also getting worried if we'll see even shorter fields next year
than we are this one.


  48.   Anonymous posted:
  08.24.2011 - 5:50 pm
   Rate this comment:      (0)      (0)

As long as Truck regulars aren't even able to win, the field will
dwindle. People don't want to enter a race that is already essentially
predetermined against them. A guy like Harvick or Busch will always find
some chucklehead to sponsor their cutthroat *cough* fun *cough*. It is
all moolah and I will miss Hornaday if he does retire.


  49.   44andJoe posted:
  12.29.2012 - 1:42 pm
   Rate this comment:      (0)      (0)

#93 owner: Rod Sieg.


  50.   Thehair17 posted:
  09.21.2014 - 11:41 pm
   Rate this comment:      (0)      (0)

Barring a NASCAR comeback, Colin Braun's last top ten.


  51.   RaceFanX posted:
  12.27.2014 - 10:43 pm
   Rate this comment:      (0)      (0)

Mark Martin's final NASCAR Craftsman Truck start sees him lead the most
laps but get zonked by pit strategy late and forced to settle for 14th.
This was Martin's second and last start of 2011, both of which came in
the retro-painted #32 Exide Chevrolet. In total Mark made 25 Truck
series starts in 1996, 2005-2007, and 2011 netting seven victories, 16
top-5s and 20 top-10s.


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