Homestead finale appears to be fight to the finish for some in Truck series

By Jared Turner - SceneDaily Staff Writer

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Roush Fenway Racing's Colin Braun is seventh in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series standings heading into the final race of the season Friday at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

David Griffin
NASCAR Scene

RSS Feed
Email to a Friend
Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size RESIZE
Share
- Facebook
- Del.icio.us
- DIGG This
- Reddit
- Newsvine
- Stumbeupon
0 Comments

While the 2009 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship has already been settled, there are plenty of positions still up for grabs in Friday’s season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

The most coveted of those positions is fifth, the lowest finisher who will be recognized at the season-ending awards banquet.

Just 25 points separate fifth-place Johnny Sauter from seventh-place Colin Braun in the standings. In between those two is Brian Scott, who sits just 13 points behind Sauter.

It’s also still mathematically possible for any of those three drivers to unseat fourth-place Todd Bodine, who is 109 points ahead of seventh.

So despite the fact that Kevin Harvick Inc.’s Ron Hornaday clinched the title a week early, doing so last Friday at Phoenix International Raceway, there are plenty of positions to be gained or lost among those behind him.

“Phoenix was a tough race for us, so we have put that behind us, and we are focused on the last race of the season at Homestead,” said Braun, who is moving to the Nationwide Series next season with his Roush Fenway Racing organization. “We are taking one of our favorite trucks which has been good at the intermediate tracks all year. We won Michigan with it, so it would be awesome to win Homestead with it, too.

“We really need a strong finish to have a shot at ending the season in the top five in points. That is our goal, and we’re not giving up on it just because we lost some points in Phoenix.”

This is the first season that only the top five drivers in the Truck series will be honored at the banquet; the number has previously been 10.

But NASCAR announced in April that it would combine the annual Nationwide and Truck series banquets into one event held Nov. 23 in Miami, with only the top-five drivers from each being recognized. The move was designed to save teams an additional trip following the season finale at Homestead.

Bodine comes into Homestead as the defending race winner and hungry for a victory. The Germain Racing driver has triumphed twice in 2009 but hasn’t been to victory lane since the season’s eighth race, held at Texas Motor Speedway.

“Homestead-Miami Speedway is a special place for Germain Racing’s Copart Tundra team,” said Bodine, the 2006 Truck champion. “We have two wins there, and we clinched our championship there. I like racing at Homestead, I always have, and I’m looking forward to seeing if we can get the Copart Tundra one more win this year.”

Sauter, who holds that pivotal fifth spot in the standings, wants to do more than just hang on. The ThorSport Racing driver is focused on finishing out the season on a strong note.

After a tough first half to the 2009 campaign, the series rookie has been a consistent frontrunner. Sauter picked up a win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sept. 26 and would like to carry his momentum into the offseason.

“We’ve come a long way this season, but we still have a long way to go,” he said. “This team is here to win races each week, and as far as next season is concerned, there’s no reason we shouldn’t expect to battle for a championship. But we still have business to tend to at Homestead first.”

Also at stake is the 2009 owners’ championship. Although Hornaday wrapped up the drivers’ championship with a fourth-place finish at Phoenix, the owners’ title remains unsettled.

Hornaday and his No. 33 KHI team currently lead the owners’ points by 60 over Billy Ballew Motorsports, which has used five drivers in its No. 51 truck this season.

The primary driver, Kyle Busch, has gone to victory lane seven times in 14 starts. The only driver who has been as consistently strong as Busch has been Hornaday, who has six victories en route to his series-record fourth drivers’ championship.

“I can’t believe all that we have accomplished this year, but we aren’t done yet,” said Hornaday, who is 215 points ahead of second-place Matt Crafton in the driver standings. “We still have to go out this weekend and run well so we can bring home the owners’ championship for Kevin and DeLana [Harvick].

“I’m very proud of this team and the entire KHI organization for standing behind me and giving me such awesome equipment to drive.”

Race: Ford 200
Track: Homestead-Miami Speedway
Time: 8 p.m. EST
TV: Speed
Radio: MRN
Qualifying time: 5 p.m. Friday
Previous Homestead race winner: Todd Bodine