The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season kicks off Friday night at Daytona International Speedway with the NextEra Energy Resources 250, which will be televised live on SPEED, with the green flag set for 8 p.m.

The Trucks almost always put on a great show, and this year, the 10th time the Truck Series will race at Daytona, should be no exception. Nine prior NCWTS races at the 2.5-mile superspeedway have produced nine different winners, with the largest margin of victory in any one race being a whopping 0.318 seconds. Of the seven Daytona Truck races that ended under green flag conditions, the total margin of victory is .944 seconds. It doesn't get much more competitive than that.

And this year, there's an extra measure of anticipation in the air. With no off-season testing, and a lot of movement among teams amid the uncertain economic conditions, drivers are ready to get on the track and see exactly who has what. In other words, time to get busy, time to go racing, time to get on with lift. And there's no better place to kick it off than on NASCAR's biggest stage.

"When you come to Daytona, it's our Super Bowl," said Todd Bodine, the defending race winner and driver of the No. 30 Germain Racing Toyota Tundra. "It's what we all strive to get our name in the record book.  You got a Daytona win, you're something different. You got that name in the book. To be able to finally get that last year, it meant a lot. It meant a lot to me. I think it was 34 tries to finally get it in there, and we did it. Friday night is going to be another opportunity to do something special — and that's get two in a row."

"Its hard to believe this is our 10th year at Daytona," said Rick Crawford, the 2003 winner and driver of the No. 14 International Truck and Engine Ford F-150. "For every racer this is sacred ground and when you win at Daytona, you've accomplished a dream that many racers have chased and few have achieved."

The real draw of Daytona, of course, is the finish. With the huge holes that the trucks punch in the air, drafting is critical and last-lap slingshot passes — or attempted passes — make for compelling drama.

"Coming down to the last couple laps, you're not sure who's going to win," said Johnny Benson, the reigning Truck Series champion and driver of the No. 1 K&N Filters Toyota. "It's going to provide a great race and there's times we don't know who's going to win the thing coming to the line. There's times where we've been leading it and not win it and times you've been third or fourth and able to win it.  … I'll bet you that when we come down to it, it's going to be three-wide for the checkered here."

Despite the dismal U.S. economic conditions, a total of 39 trucks showed up at Daytona, a bigger field than some expected. And although the count likely will be thinner next week at Auto Club Speedway, the competitors said that won't diminish the quality of racing.

"It's harder to win right now than it's ever been in the Camping World Truck Series," said 1995 champion Mike Skinner, who this year has moved to Randy Moss Motorsports and the No. 5 Exide Toyota. "And if we go to California and we don't have 36 trucks, they're still going to see one heck of a race. I think as the times get a little bit better, these fields are going to be as full as this one if not more. When we started no one knew who we were and this probably helped our careers do something that we had wanted our whole life to do.  If there wasn't 15 of us out there, it's harder to win now than it's ever been."

Series Director Wayne Auton is equally bullish.

"We rolled into Daytona with 39 trucks," said Auton. "That's more Trucks than we had last year. That's a great sign for the things that are coming. We've got new owners in the garage area that know that now's the time to get into the sport, which is a great thing. Looking down the road? There's nobody that can answer that, but I will say this: We rolled into Atlanta last year with 32 trucks in the garage area and it was ranked one of the top five races of the year. So as Mike (Skinner) and Ron (Hornaday Jr.) have alluded to, how many trucks does it take to put on a great race? Two."

And the first great race of the 2009 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will take place Friday night at Daytona and live on SPEED at 8 pm ET.  Watch the NCWTS Setup with Krista Voda at 7:30 pm ET.