There's never been a first-time NASCAR Camping World Truck Series winner at
Gateway International Raceway and Friday's Copart 200 isn't likely to crown one.
The 1.25-mile track is that difficult.
Six of the Madison, Ill., facility's previous winners are series champions,
including defending winner Ron Hornaday Jr. (No. 33 Longhorn Chevrolet). The six
— Hornaday, Johnny Benson, Greg Biffle, Todd Bodine (No. 30 Ventrillo Toyota),
Ted Musgrave and Jack Sprague — own all but three of series' 14 season titles.
Gateway's 10 winners (in the track's first 11 events) boast a combined 159
victories. Musgrave is the only driver to win the Copart 200 twice.
"A driver has to be up on the wheel the whole race," said David Starr (No. 24
Zachry/Harris Trucking Toyota), who won NASCAR's last multiple
green-white-checkered race at the track in 2004. "The guys who are winners at
Gateway are winners because they're the best (drivers)."
The track's degree of difficulty is compounded by a pair of tight turns, one and
two, coupled with the more sweeping third and fourth corner.
"That makes it definitely one of the tougher ones — Daytona being the hardest,"
said Benson, currently a SPEED TV analyst and the 2007 Copart 200 winner.
"People who win there have an understanding of compromise."
Bodine, the Gateway winner in his 2006 title year, likes the track because
there's no one right way around.
"You can make your truck do different things," he said, "but you've got to have
everything right — strategy and pit stops. And the fewer trucks you have to
pass, the better off you are."
Starr agrees. "It's a driver's race track. A driver can really help the truck if
it's not handling well," he said.
Cook, who won in 2002, likens a lap at Gateway to laps at two different tracks.
"One and two demand patience and finesse while three and four you barrel around
them like there's no tomorrow," he said. "Mentally, you have to approach each
one differently."
That, explains Cook, is why the leaders often separate themselves from the
field.
"You're having to do different things twice a lap and that takes a balancing
act," said Cook. "And you're working without a net."
Bodine agrees that fast at Gateway means being on the edge from start to finish.
"You can have one problem and make one mistake and end up wrecking," he said.
