Mansfield hosts downtown festival … Mansfield, Ohio, delighted with the thousands that lined streets for last year's hauler parade, will close city streets Friday evening to showcase participants in the UAW/GM Ohio 250. Hauler display and driver autograph opportunities are the centerpiece of festival events.

ETC.  … Mansfield Motorsports Speedway management announced last week that all 25,000 tickets have been sold marking the second consecutive full house for the UAW/GM Ohio 250. The speedway added 5,000 seats for this year's race. … Sunday's race will be a home state affair for many competitors including the Germain-Arnold Motorsports trucks of Chad Chaffin (No. 9 Germain-Arnold Toyota) and Shige Hattori (No. 9 AISIN/AISIN AW Toyota). Team co-owner Stephen Germain's auto dealership group is located in Columbus, about an hour west of Mansfield Motorsports Speedway … Terra Marckese has joined Kevin Harvick Inc. as the engineer for Hornaday's team. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. …  TECH-NET Professional Auto Service has inked one-race sponsorship of Bobby Hamilton's No. 04 Dodge. … Toyota Certified Used Cars becomes an associate sponsor of Johnny Benson's No. 23 Bill Davis Racing Toyota for the remainder of the season. Xtreme Outdoor Camo will sponsor the team at Mansfield. … More than 65 Ohio companies will participate in NASCAR Day on May 20. For a $5 donation to any one of three charities - Victory Junction Gang Camp, Speedway Children's Charities and Speediatrics pediatrics units at hospitals in Daytona Beach and Miami, Fla. - employees receive a commemorative lapel pin and may wear NASCAR-themed apparel to work.

ON THE RIGHT TRACK

Experience counted for this rookie … Tracy Hines (No. 13 ThorSport/Dave Zoriki Chevrolet) finished a career-best fifth as the leading Raybestos Rookie of the Year contender in last year's UAW/GM Ohio 250. Hines, unlike most of the field, had prior experience in open-wheel competition at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway. He was one of seven freshman drivers to complete all 252 laps.

QUOTEBOOK

"Mansfield is a great race track and the fans there are unbelievable.  They pack that place - you would think we are the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series putting on a show there. You see 250,000 people at a NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race and I know they don't seat 250,000 seats at Mansfield but it's like its 250,000 people because there is no room for anyone else." - David Starr, No. 75 Spears Manufacturing Chevrolet.

"I just plan to take the approach of looking at the track and going from there. Sometimes if you watch a tape of a race to see what to expect, it puts your parameters in a smaller box. You see what people are doing on the track and you only set your mind to doing those things." - Johnny Benson, who'll see Mansfield Motorsports Speedway for the first time this weekend.

"If I go into the race track the same as everybody else, I'll probably run the same as everybody else. But if I push the limits and what the rules are, I'll go out and win races. That's kind of what our job is - to push the limits and make things go better and make them faster." - Chris Showalter, crew chief for Jack Sprague, defending winner of the UAW/GM Ohio 250.

10 YEARS TOUGH

There were 15 short-track events on the 1995 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule - most ever in a single season. Mike Skinner won six of those races; Ron Hornaday Jr. won four. Joe Ruttman (two), Mike Bliss, Terry Labonte and Butch Miller split the remaining short-track stops of the inaugural campaign.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Mansfield Motorsports Speedway, at a half-mile, is the smallest track on the 2005 schedule, but not the shortest short track on which the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series has competed. The old Saugus Speedway northeast of Los Angeles measured a third-mile with both Colorado National Speedway and Tucson Raceway Park checking in at .375-mile. South Boston Speedway, at a quarter-mile and the old Louisville Motor Speedway at .438-mile complete the roster of facilities under a half-mile.

Fast Facts

Next Event: UAW/GM Ohio 250 (Race 6 of 25).
Where: Mansfield Motorsports Speedway.
When: 2:15 p.m. ET, Sunday, May 15.
Track layout: .5 -mile paved oval.
Race length: 250 laps/125 miles.
Posted awards: $452,500.
TV: SPEED Channel, 2:15 p.m. ET.
Radio: MRN, XM Satellite.
2004 winner: Jack Sprague.
2004 polesitter: None, field set via Rule Book due to inclement weather.