For the first time in his young NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career, Brian Scott will be in familiar territory when the division takes the green flag at Atlanta Motor Speedway this Friday.

The 20-year-old driver of the No. 16 Shark Energy Drink/Albertsons Chevrolet will be making his 10th career Truck Series start - and the first on a track that he has some division experience on.

"It will be good to go back to a track where I have raced a Truck before," said Scott. "I had a good experience in the Truck race there last fall and I know that's going to be a big advantage not to have to learn the track for a change."

The last time Scott visited the 1.54-mile Atlanta oval in October, he was making his fourth ever NCTS start. Despite his inexperience in both the division and at the Atlanta track, Scott turned in a solid 19th-place, lead-lap finish that day.

"We were really good at Atlanta last October," said Scott. "I adapted right away. It's an awesome track. I really like the configuration and the type of racing it lends itself to. You can go three-wide, run the bottom right up to the high line. You could run wide open a lot, which at times was a little hairy, but it was all good. It was a lot of fun to be able to hold it wide open for a bunch of laps.

"It might be a little bit different this time with the engine spacer plate and dealing with the draft, but if anything that means you might be able to hold it wide open for even a longer period of time," Scott continued. "The challenge this time will be to get our Shark Energy Drink/Albertsons Chevrolet to handle well enough so we can do that as much as possible."

Scott has been exceeding the possible since joining the Truck Series tour late last year at New Hampshire. The Boise, ID native scored four Top-20 finishes in seven starts to close the season and followed it up with a career-best, ninth-place finish to open the 2008 Truck Series campaign at Daytona. According to Scott, the team is ready to build on the most recent effort - a 23rd-place finish at California.

"We didn't have the results we were looking for at California, but we did take over the lead in the Raybestos Rookie of the Year battle," said Scott, who leads the NCTS freshman battle by a 20-19 margin over three other contenders. "We'll take that - and some of the other things we did that weekend - and build on them as we look forward to the next race in Atlanta."

To continue the building process, Scott will again be faced with trying to master the ultra-fast Atlanta superspeedway oval.

"Atlanta is definitely a fast track, but it compares to a lot of places on the circuit we go," said Scott. "I really don't think much about the speed. I don't think about how fast I'm going. For me, it's all about perfecting the line, making sure I know how to race the track and the other cars on it. It's all about getting the best experience and last fall at Atlanta, I had a good experience. That's why I like it and I'm looking forward to going back there."

Scott is 13th in the 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season championship chase with 232 points after the first two events of the season. He is just 18 markers out of 10th place in the standings heading into Atlanta.