Year in and year out, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series most always resembles a championship boxing match: One fighter throws a hard punch, the other comes back with an even stronger shot in return. And so it goes, on and on, for 25 long and brutal rounds. Last man standing wins.
That's been the scenario so far in 2009, when four different drivers have led the NCWTS points in the first 10 races of the season. Heading into Saturday's Memphis 200, which will be televised live from Memphis Motorsports Park at 5:30 p.m. ET on SPEED, four different drivers are within 90 points of the lead. And three of them are past series champions.
Ron Hornaday Jr. retook the points lead from Matt Crafton last week, with a stunning drive on The Milwaukee Mile, where he led 180 of 200 laps. The three-time series champion now leads Crafton by 36 points, a narrow margin that could easily reverse itself in any race. Lurking close behind Hornaday and Crafton are former series champions Todd Bodine, who is just 88 points out of the lead and Mike Skinner, who is a mere 1 point behind Bodine.
It's a volatile mix up front, and the only driver who's held the points lead for more than two weeks in a row is Kyle Busch, who's not racing in Memphis or for the championship.
On Saturday night, the truckers will be racing for points, cash and the fabled track trophy, a bronze Elvis Presley like the one on Beale Street in Memphis. Based on past performance, Hornaday would seem to have the advantage here among this year's class of title hopefuls. In six Memphis starts, Hornaday has a finishing average of 6.000, including two victories and five finishes of sixth or better. He is also the defending event winner.
Rick Ren, crew chief of Hornaday's No. 33 Longhorn Chevrolet Silverado, said it will be business as usual this weekend. "I really prepare the same for every track," said Ren. "The thing winning the year before does for you is provide you with a great set of notes. However, each year is different and there are going to be different circumstances so you just have to work off of what you have."
Crafton, Hornaday's closest competitor at the moment, hasn't been able to find victory lane at Memphis yet, but he's been awfully consistent, with seven top 10s in eight starts, and a finishing average of 8.750. He will be looking to bounce back from a 16th-place finish at Milwaukee and get the No. 88 Menards Chevy back to the points lead, which he held for two races until last week's stumble.
Memphis may pose a thornier test for Bodine and Skinner, both of whom have average finishes of 15.000 at the track. The key, Bodine said, will be getting the setup as close to right as possible.
"Memphis is such a challenging track because each end of the race track is so different," said Bodine, who drives the No. 30 Copart Toyota Tundra for Germain Racing. "Turns 1 and 2 are a long, sweeping, momentum corner, then for 3 and 4 you've got to really slow down because it's so sharp in the middle. When we work on the Copart Tundra setup, it's almost like (crew chief Mike Hillman Jr.) and I have to compromise on the setup of the truck and as a driver, I have to make up the difference between the setup and what the truck needs at each end of the track."
And in addition to the four points leaders, keep an eye on veteran Dennis Setzer. In 10 Memphis starts, he has seven consecutive top-five finishes and has finished outside the top 10 only twice. Setzer and the No. 8 MRD Motorsports Chevrolet might present the toughest challenge to another Hornaday runaway.
In any event, expect another tough fight on Saturday night from Memphis.
