NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series will be bringing their high energy tailgate party for some fun in the valley of the sun this Friday night with the running of the Lucas Oil 150. That of course would be the Phoenix International Raceway, the one mile basically flat oval, where these high powered racing trucks always seem to shine.
THE STORY BREAKDOWN
The Lucas Oil 150 could turn out to be about redemption Friday night following last week’s wreck marred season opener at Daytona. A lot of the series’ prominent drivers and teams found themselves leaving Florida in somewhat of an early season hole in terms of points standings.
Some of those season opening disappointments included drivers on the caliber of Ron Hornaday Jr, Todd Bodine, Travis Kvapil and Austin Dillon among others. Look for these drivers to seek points redemption, as well as their first win of 2011, this Friday night.
On the other side of this issue is the fact that Daytona was very kind to the series’ newcomers who are in the process of launching their NASCAR careers. While Daytona race winner Michael Waltrip and runner up Elliott Sadler put on a stunning finish that had the fans out of their seats or on the edge of their couch cushions, they are not eligible for series championship points under the terms of some recent rule changes from NASCAR.
That policy, which says drivers must officially declare which of NASCAR’s three national championships they’re racing for, has placed some young newcomers on top of the early season points standings. The new points system has placed young Clay Rogers, who finished third at Daytona, in first followed closely by Miguel Paludo.
Meanwhile Jeffrey Earnhardt, Ricky Carmichael and James Buescher are tied for third. Making this even more exciting is the fact that the new championship points configuration shows a 12 point gap between the first ten drivers going into Friday night’s race.
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It’s now apparent that NASCAR won’t be taking any action regarding the broken spoiler on Michael Waltrip’s Daytona winning race truck. When Waltrip came under the checkers the right side of the spoiler, on his Vision Aviation Racing Toyota, was virtually laying flat on the truck bed. NASCAR confiscated both ends of the spoiler and sent it to their North Carolina based Research and Development Center for official inspection.
But the morning after the race Kerry Tharp, NASCAR Public Relations Spokesman, said Waltrip’s win will stand adding “the spoiler broke, it appeared to be the failure of a part. We’re going to look at it and make any determinations past that.” Nothing has been said of the matter past that point so it’s now assumed that no news is good news.
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On the topic of Vision Aviation Racing, VAR: how stoked are these guys after winning their first ever venture in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series? Originally based in Las Vegas, this operation late last year moved to the Mooreseville-North Carolina area to make a run at NASCAR’s Truck Series. Just prior to last Christmas came an announcement that the team had merged with Billy Ballew Motorsports and would now be known as VAR. From that point the race was on to get everyone and everything ready for last week’s season opener at Daytona.
The original plan was to have Las Vegas drivers Justin Johnson and Dusty Davis in the cockpits of their Toyota Tundras. These are the same drivers who finished one-two last year in the NASCAR Whelen All American Series at the California based Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. However, the process of official certification for them to drive on a NASCAR super speedway track could not be completed in time and that led VAR to place Michael Waltrip and Aric Almirola in their trucks for the season opener at Daytona. In turn, that move led to the team’s amazing accomplishment of scoring their first series win in their first series race. That’s one of those special moments in time that is rarely seen anymore.
VAR drivers Johnson and Davis are scheduled to make their official series debut at Phoenix this Friday night. It’s a sure bet that VAR’s momentum is sky high going into the next race.
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THE RACE BREAKDOWN
The Lucas Oil 150 is 150 laps/150 miles around the Phoenix International Raceway’s one mile oval.
The track is always challenging because it’s so flat. Turns one and two are only banked 11 degrees while turns three and four are banked just nine degrees.
The race has 41 entries vying for the 36 starting berths. 15 of those entries are on the go or go home list meaning they do not have a guaranteed start in the race because they are presently outside of the top 25 in the series’ owner’s points. These teams will have to rely on qualifying speed to make the race.
The previous series’ race at Phoenix was won by Clint Bowyer last November driving a Chevrolet prepared by Kevin Harvick Inc. Bowyer will be present Friday night driving that same KHI truck, to defend his race win.
The Lucas Oil 150 will be broadcast live by the SPEED Channel with the pre race show beginning at 730 pm eastern time.
