So far, Benson and Hornaday have had seasons that have been just about identical. Each driver has earned five victories, 13 top-five and 16 top-10 finishes in the first 22 races of the season. And with just three races left on the season, Benson holds a razor-thin margin of just 31 points over Hornaday, the three-time and defending NCTS champion. For both men, it's time to make that last move to secure the championship in the best battle in any of NASCAR's top-three divisions.

Here's how things shape up with the season on the line at Texas:

CAN HORNADAY TAME TEXAS AGAIN? Hornaday comes into Texas with the knowledge that he put a big ole can of whupass on the Truck field when the series last raced here in June. That's when Hornaday led 140 of 172 laps to score the victory in his Camping World Chevrolet Silverado. And that was before NASCAR cut the horsepower of the Toyota Tundras by mandating a smaller tapered spacer. Hornaday has an average finish of 11.545 and has led 495 laps here to Benson's 14.00 average and just 16 laps led in eight starts.

"I know we have a really good truck for this race," said Hornaday of his Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevy. "It's been a good truck all year and we've won a couple of races with it. It's the truck we won with at Kansas and the first Texas race. Rick Ren (crew chief) and all the guys at KHI have been working really hard this year to make these Chevrolet trucks fast and they will do the same this week."

WILL BENSON BETTER HIS BEST? It's not like Benson is totally out to lunch at Texas. Far from it. He finished third here in June, his Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Toyota Tundra turning in a more-than-respectable performance. But he knows this weekend he'll have to pick it up if doesn't want to lose 25 points to Hornaday, as he did in the June race at Texas.

"We're not approaching anything differently than what we need to," said Benson. "We're just trying to run as fast as we can and do the best job that we can, and we're really not doing anything different than we've done all season to get us here. Sure, you're going to look around and you're going to see what's around and see what's happening, but I don't think we really did anything more or different earlier in the year either because they all count the same.  I don't see any big changes."

FEAR THE ONION Bodine may be third in points, but the driver of the Lumber Liquidators Toyota has four victories at Texas and an average finish of 8.625, second among the drivers entered in the race.

"Germain Racing has a really good intermediate track program," says Bodine. "Texas falls right into that. As a team, we've had wins and pole awards with our Lumber Liquidators Tundra and with our No. 9 Tundra program. It's a track where we just seem to have good success."

GOING, GOING, GAUGHAN? Like Bodine, Brendan Gaughan is a four-time winner at Texas Motor Speedway, though the driver of the No. 10 International MaxxForce Diesel Ford F-150 has had what so far has been a disappointing season. Gaughan is ranked just 14th in points, having led a mere two laps all season long. Still, with his track record here, he's hard to overlook whenever the trucks race at Texas.

SKINNER TO SHINE? Mike Skinner has a most unusual record at Texas. The driver of the No. 5 Toyota Tundra-sponsored truck out of the Bill Davis Racing stable has the best average finish of anyone at TMS, a gaudy 5.222. And for sure, Skinner loves him some 1.5-mile tracks. And yet, he's never won here, although in nine starts, he's finished second three times and third twice.

"Texas is just one of those places that is absolutely first class all the way. You go into the facility, and it's kind of like going into Indy," said Skinner. "It's like, 'Wow,' it's just such a neat race track.  And it's just a super neat race track for trucks. For some reason, we've really got around there good in the past. We've led a lot of laps, got several poles. We haven't walked away with a win yet, but we've been very close. It's one of those places that you always look forward to going to."

HOW WILL NOOBS FARE? There will be some new faces behind the wheel at Texas, with Cale Gale driving the No. 2 American Commercial Lines Chevrolet that Ryan Newman drove to victory Saturday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Two open-wheel racers will drive Toyotas for Germain Racing: "Mad" Max Papis in the No. 13 Geico entry and Paul Tracy in the No. 9 Bombardier Learjet Tundra. Collectively, the three should add some spice to the race.

WILL TOYOTA CLINCH? Having already clinched the NASCAR Nationwide Manufacturers' Championship, Toyota is on the verge of clinching its third consecutive title in the Truck Series as well. For that to happen this weekend, the top finishing Toyota will only need to finish second if a Chevrolet wins, or finish ahead of the top Chevrolet if the winning truck is a Ford or Dodge.

CAN THE BELL TOLL AGAIN? T.J. Bell, driver of the No. 7 Home4theHolidays.org Chevrolet, came into the series at mid-season and subsequently has strung together a series-best streak of five consecutive top-10 finishes in his TRG Motorsports Chevrolet.

CHECKERS OR WRECKERS? Texas Motor Speedway has always been known for close finishes and the last five Truck races here have ended in green-white-checkered finishes. Will we see another on Halloween night? The forecast says, yes.

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com.  He is the author of "Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED," and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association.  Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing.