2011 Trucks

[MJ_N_09]

Uh ok, looks like things are cool now....

UPDATE 2: As one day ends, another one begins and the relationship between Rick Ware Racing and Jeffrey Earnhardt Inc continues. Emotions and a lack of communication between Rick Ware Racing and Jeffrey Earnhardt Inc in a stressful time have been resolved. Why? "We just want to race, and sometimes the issues of business just seem to make us lose focus on why we are here!" stated Rick Ware. The two sides have come to an agreement for Jeffrey Earnhardt to compete in the #1 Fuel Doctor Chevy at Martinsville Speedway. "Jeffrey will be in the truck at Martinsville and we will work hard to continue to keep him in that seat. The amount of effort we have poured into his career and having a place for him to perform is important in his development. He is young and there is a lot of promise in him and both the management of RWR and JEI have the same goal for him," continued Ware. Rick Ware Racing will be strenuously looking for marketing partners to keep Jeffrey competing in the truck series for 2011.(RWR PR)(3-30-2011)

[MJ_N_09]

Poor Taylor Malsam. Can't catch a break at all. Possibly the biggest victim of the top 25 lock in rule this year.

Randy Moss Motorsports #25 team shut down? UPDATE 2 #25 team will not be at Martinsville: Speedtv announcer Ray Dunlap is reporting that the #25 Iron Horse jeans NCWTS team at Randy Moss Motorsports has closed down as of noon Wed March 23rd. No word as to the future plans of driver Tayler Malsam. The team missed the first two events of 2011 and lost an engine at the most recent event in Darlington.(3-23-2011)

[MJ_N_09]

Oops. Double post.

[gomick]

Johnny Sauter beats Kyle Busch at Martinsville

STANDINGS (after 4 of 25)

Johnny Sauter - 150
Matt Crafton - 145
Timothy Peters - 143
Cole Whitt - 143
Ron Hornaday - 141
Clay Rogers - 131
Austin Dillon - 130
Todd Bodine - 122
Max Papis - 121

[rustyfan]

Time to get Kimi Mania going at Charlotte in a couple of minutes, live on SpeedTV in the US, Viasat Motor in Sweden/Scandinavia and Premier Sports in the UK.

My bet is that he'll be in for a rough ride, taken to school by the regulars.

[Knowlesy]

He is having a rough time. Crashed into the wall on lap 4. Has now almost wiped two drivers out within ten seconds.

But still there.

[rustyfan]

Looks like Kimi's getting the hang of it, he's made some nice moves on the bottom

His truck still seems a tad on the lose side though.

[MJ_N_09]

Yeah, this rest is about to break the series caution record for the track. Been crazy and exciting out there. Kimi is really impressing me considering how horrible the truck has been.

[FIRE]

Very good debut.

[gomick]

Forgot about Kimi - where did he finish? Did race side by side with Piquet?

[Axeman444]

Shrub can be a complete tool and i cannot stand him, BUT, nice to see a little soul in him with his tribute to Zahra Baker on the weekend...

[MJ_N_09]

This thread sooooo needs a bump...

Anyway, Busch wins another truck race, this time at Kentucky. Sauter is the points leader by a big margin now. Also, Germain started the year with 4 full time teams, but that's changed. The 77 shut down and withdrew from the race once Lofton moved to the 46 truck. Also, the team's flagship truck, Todd Bodine's #30, will scale back to a limited schedule due to a lack of sponsorship.

[gomick]

Kyle's 29th career win - P2 in trucks behind Ron Hornaday...

STANDINGS (after 10 of 25)

Johnny Sauter - 347
Cole Whitt - 324
Austin Dillon - 322
James Buescher - 315
Parker Kligerman - 312
Ron Hornaday - 310
Timothy Peters - 308
Matt Crafton - 297
Joey Coulter - 292

[FIRE]

Today I watched the race at Kansas. It was the 400th race in history of NASCAR Truck Series. They showed some coverage of the first race. At that time the front of the cars were much more looking like a rectangular box. Are the differences with the current cars only cosmetic or are the cars redesigned like the COT in Cup and N'wide?

[gomick]

Austin Dillon wins at Nashville...

STANDINGS (after 12 of 25)

Johnny Sauter - 431
Austin Dillon - 418
James Buescher - 389
Cole Whitt - 388
Timothy Peters - 384
Matt Crafton - 377
Parker Kligerman - 373
Joey Coulter - 366
Ron Hornaday - 362
Todd Bodine - 350
Brendan Gaughan - 346
Nelson Piquet Jnr - 334
David Starr - 327
Jason White - 319
Max Papis - 317

Piquet Jnr came 4th - 2 top 10 results in a row, hope he continues with the good runs...

[FIRE]

Piquet leading rookie of the year?

[Jacques Rabbit]

Originally Posted by FIRE

Piquet leading rookie of the year?

Cole Whitt is leading ROTY. Parker Kligerman and Joey Coulter are also ahead of Nelson Piquet at the moment. Not a bad rookie class at all and Piquet's run a lot better than the results have shown.

Part of me thinks the Trucks have more future Cup drivers than Nationwide this year. Dillon, Buescher, and Whitt all have a lot of potential, and while Kligerman and Piquet are longshots, they're pretty solid too. Only real highlights in Nationwide are Stenhouse and Allgaier.

[gomick]

Cup drivers should be banned from both trucks & nationwide - or maybe only allowed to race at say 10 rounds a year...

[Paradise City]

A 10 race cap restriction for Cup Competitors to compete in Nationwide/Trucks.

Or perhaps one or two Nationwide 'majors' with a purse in which Nationwide and Cup come together.

I think it's good that Nationwide drivers clash with Cup drivers occasionally but not where Cup drivers dominate race in race out.

[nickyf1]

Harvick wins and Piquet bins it on the inside wall.

[Jacques Rabbit]

That entire race had me saying WTF. Crazy that all the points contenders found ways to be contending for the win and they all went and had that go away, some more at their own fault than others.

I was hoping Paludo or Piquet could get around Harvick, but not meant to be. Piquet screwed it up big time.

[gomick]

Watched Bristol, always interesting racing, kyle's movie on sadler was pretty poor - should get suspended for $hit like that.... Harvick winning again, pfft, boring - get rid of the cup drivers!

Points...

[Jacques Rabbit]

Suspended? Why? Because he's Kyle Busch? No one before has ever been suspended for it, and while I could make a list of drivers who have gotten payback when they felt they were wronged (whether or not they were), I would just end up copy/pasting the entire starting lineup.

You want dirty...it's the stuff you don't see that's really dirty. Rusty Wallace was known for signaling to his competitors that they had a tire going down just to mess with their heads. And it would cause just enough of a hiccup it worked.

Sadler wasn't in the wrong, but Busch hadn't seen a replay, and he's not the most mature fellow in the garage. I'm glad he did it, if only for some drama, and to take two drivers I really dislike out of the top four.

Kyle's just lucky he has real-world probation and not the NASCAR one in this instance, bizarrely enough.

[St00ge]

I really was starting to get impressed by Kyle this year.. I have always seen the raw speed and pace in races, his results speak for them self across the top three classes and know he has what it takes; he has really matured as a driver lately (well as much and KB can haha ) but in the truck race for something that was pretty clearly un intentional he seemed to just go straight back to old school Kyle... yeah I know we all have the benefit of hindsight and instant replay but it was not like Sadler was gunning for him intentionally... There is a time and place for this tic for tac in Nascar and understand all is fair in love and war on the track but this is just making yourself another enemy who will look for pay back when it will hurt you more.. but hey this is what we should really expect from Kyle Busch

[Jacques Rabbit]

I just like that in NASCAR, Kyle can make that decision for himself. If he feels getting revenge (admittedly, over nothing, but he felt wronged) is worth the potential enemies being made etc., he should be able to do it...

...but NASCAR needs to commit. You have to look at intent (to payback), not result. If Kyle did that and Elliott was injured in a wreck, would it be different? It was different when Carl Edwards tried to spin Keselowski and his car flew, yet that wasn't the goal. Different again at Gateway with Edwards/Keselowski...you can't say payback is okay on a short track with lower speeds or when it's only a spin, but if the other guy wrecks, it's suddenly not okay. It has to be on intention...