Tough Weekend Ahead At Kentucky
09-02-2010 10:47 am

The racers in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series are known for their toughness. But by now, even they are getting tired.

Friday night's Built Ford Tough 225 at Kentucky Speedway marks the ninth consecutive week of racing for the Truck Series, the longest run in the 25-race 2010 schedule.

SPEED's live coverage of the race begins Friday night with qualifying at 6 p.m., followed at 7:30 p.m. with the "NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Setup."

With 17 of 25 races already in the books, Todd Bodine holds a 236-point lead over Aric Almirola, with Johnny Sauter 303 back and Timothy Peters 325 in arrears. Barring a complete collapse, which is highly unlikely, Bodine and his Germain Racing team appear headed for a second NCWTS championship.

That doesn't mean he and the team are coasting now. Far from it. Bodine heads to the Bluegrass State looking to win his fourth Truck Series race of the season.

"We had a real good truck last year at Kentucky Speedway so we're going back with a lot of expectations," said Bodine. "We were leading last year and the rear end gear burned up. This Germain Racing team, our game is real good right now. We definitely feel like we can go back to Kentucky and get our Germain.com Tundra out front again."

Of course, Bodine will be facing some stiff competition.

The red-hot Kyle Busch, winner of his last four NASCAR starts including at least one victory in all three of the sanctioning body's top divisions, will be back behind the wheel of his No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota Tundra on Friday night.

He will drive the same chassis he won with last weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, which like Kentucky is a 1.5-mile track.

Busch, who will also race in the NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series races at Atlanta this weekend, made a last-minute decision to race at Kentucky, an event he was not originally scheduled to participate in.

"The schedule kind of allows it since you don't have anything on track in Atlanta until Saturday and Sunday," said Busch. "Thursday and Friday, I was open and decided that I might as well go run it myself. Plus, we were able to secure sponsorship from Dollar General. Hopefully, we'll have a good, solid run and try to win that thing."

Both Bodine and Busch have won NASCAR Nationwide Series races at the 1.5-mile Kentucky Speedway, but neither man has won in a truck here.

As for Almirola, if he's to have any shot at running done Bodine for the championship, he needs to start making things happen now. Almirola's scored five consecutive top-10 finishes and he was fifth in this race a year ago. But he's going to need race victories and top-fives is he's to cut into Bodine's lead.

"I'm really looking forward to Kentucky," said Almirola, driver of the No. 51 Toyota out of the Billy Ballew Motorsports stable. "We had a really fast truck last year, and we were up front racing for the win. We weren't able to seal the deal at the end, but we had a strong run and led laps. It gives us a lot of confidence going back there and trying to get it done this time. ... This Graceway Pharmaceuticals team has been strong all year, and now we're going back to a place where we led laps last year."

Now, the aim is to seal the deal.

"We were close last year so it'd be nice to go back and get it done," said Almirola.

Peters is excited about his prospects as well.

"I'm really looking forward to getting back to Kentucky," he said. "It's where I got my first top-five finish of the season last year, so I have all the confidence in the world that we can repeat that performance. As the season is winding down, the points battle is getting tighter and tighter. We can't afford to have any more issues so we are very focused as a team to get top-10 finishes each week and work our way back up in the standings and, of course, we want to get back to victory lane before the year is out."