TOYOTA RACING: Silverado 350K Pre-Race Report
10-30-2008 2:26 pm

TUNDRAS IN TEXAS:  Toyota Tundras will make their 10th NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCTS) start at Texas Motor Speedway Friday night.  Tundra drivers have won five of the nine NCTS races they have competed in, including back-to-back wins in 2007.  Tundra driver Todd Bodine has four wins at Texas (2004-2, 2005-2, 2006-1, 2007-1) and one pole position at the track.  Ted Musgrave won in last season's fall race.  Mike Skinner has held five pole positions in the NCTS at Texas.
 
RACE RECALL:  Six Toyota Tundras finished among the top-10 in the NCTS event at Atlanta on Saturday.  Hamlin finished third in a Billy Ballew Motorsports entry and was followed to the finish line by Bodine (fourth) and Speed (fifth). Tundra drivers Johnny Benson (seventh), Busch (eighth) and Brian Scott (10th) also posted top-10 results on the 1.5-mile Georgia oval.  Other Toyota drivers in the field included Jack Sprague (13th), David Starr (14th), Chrissy Wallace (25th), Skinner (26th) and Terry Cook (28th).
 
GOING THE DISTANCE WITH DENNY:  Is the race distance what attracts Cup regulars like Hamlin and Busch to compete in the Craftsman Truck Series?  "I'm voting that all races are only 130 laps," said Hamlin after Saturday's NCTS race.  "This one was just right.  You get the most action per lap when it's a short race like this.  In Cup you have to be more patient -- you don't see the battle for positions like you do in these truck races.  In Cup, you just run so many more laps and it takes so much longer that you just don't run 100 percent anymore in the Cup Series until the last 50 laps or so."
 
MIKE LIKES TEXAS:  "Texas is just one of those places that is absolutely first class," says Skinner, who has more than twice as many poles at Texas than any other NCTS driver.  "It's a neat race track for trucks.  We've really got around there good in the past, led a lot of laps  and got several poles.  We haven't walked away with a win yet, but we've been very close."
 
GERMAIN GETS IT:  Bodine and Germain Racing have found the right way to get around Texas like few other teams.  The Germain NCTS team has five wins and two poles at the 1.5-mile race track.  "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."
 
CHAMPIONSHIP CHASE:  Benson was able to maintain his NCTS point lead following Atlanta and now leads second- place Hornaday, Jr., by 31 points after 22 of 25 races.  Tundra drivers Bodine (third) and Skinner (seventh) are also in the top-10 in points with three races remaining.
 
HEADING HOME:  Two Toyota NCTS drivers will return to their home state of Texas for this weekend's race.  Starr, who will pilot the No. 11 Tundra, grew up about 275 miles south of Texas Motor Speedway in Houston.  In 20 NCTS starts at Texas, he has recorded nine top-10 finishes, including seven top-fives.   Ryan Lawler, who will drive the No. 15 Tundra, is originally from Colleyville, a suburb of Dallas.  At the age of 21, Lawler will be making his eighth career NCTS start.
 
REGIONAL CHAMPS:  Bill McAnally Racing and Toyota recently secured two championships.  Eric Holmes and his No. 20 NAPA Camry team clinched the 2008 NASCAR Camping World Series West championship with four wins, nine top-fives, 10 top-10 finishes and five poles this year.  He'll compete in the 'Toyota All Star Showdown' on January 23-24, 2009 at the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale.  Paulie Harraka, a product of NASCAR's Drive for Diversity program, captured the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model championship in his No. 16 Ruth's Chris Toyota with 11 victories in 2008.
 
TAKING A TITLE:  This past weekend, Busch became a championship owner when his race team captured the title in the PASS South super late model series.  Driver Alex Haase, an 18-year-old Las Vegas-native, guided the Kyle Busch Foundation Toyota to three wins, six top-five finishes and nine top-10 results in the series en route to the championship.  "The PASS South series is a fun series," says Busch.  "Congratulations to Alex Haase and all my boys.  They won the championship -- the first for a Camry in late models, I presume.  Also, a first for myself, and a first for Alex -- it was a good weekend."