NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Notes -- Lund Look 275
23 July 1997
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Lund Look 275K Notes
Heartland Park Topeka
HEADING FOR HEARTLAND PARK (AND THE LUND LOOK 275K)
TOPEKA, KS - The Lund Look 275K is the first of three road course events on
the 1997 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule. Other left/right turn races
will be held Aug. 24 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International and Oct. 5 at Sears
Point (Calif.) Raceway.
- Dave Rezendes won the most recent series road race, at Sears Point
Raceway, last October. There were three winners of three road races in 1996.
- Skinner is the defending champion of the Lund Look 275K. The NASCAR
Winston Cup Series off-week gives double-Daytona Busch Pole winner Skinner
the opportunity to make it two-in-a-row. He'll drive the same Llumar Window
Coatings Chevrolet in which he finished fourth at Homestead, Fla. in March.
- Just a little memory refresher: Hornaday remains the NCTS road race king
with (in five starts) three wins, five top-five finishes, an average finish
of 1.6 and 166 of 298 laps led. He's won $128,225 -- slightly more than 10%
of his career total. He won at Heartland Park Topeka and Sears Point in 1995
and at Watkins Glen last August.
- Hornaday and Skinner are the only series drivers with a pair of top-five
finishes at HPT. Two races of 33 starters each have produced a lead lap
finishing average of 17.0. That's 52% of the starting fields.
- Hornaday, Skinner and Ruttman are the only drivers to have led a series
race at HPT.
- Cintas Rookie-of-the-Year contender Tony Raines won the 1996 American
Speed Association event at Heartland Park Topeka. "I want to have three solid
finishes on road courses (and) I think we would be in good shape," predicted
Raines of his standing in the Cintas point battle. He currently ranks third
and has two starts remaining until reaching the 14-race, points-scoring
maximum.
- Sauter was the top-finishing Cintas Rookie-of-the-Year candidate a year
ago -- fifth -- as no other freshman cracked the top-10. He should be a
contender this time around, driving Skinner's Topeka-winning GM Goodwrench
Service Chevrolet.
- The average starting position for the two winners at Heartland Park Topeka
is 2.0. Jeff Burton proved, however, that a poor start is no bar to a high
finish. Burton went from 28th to eighth a year age.
- Hornaday twice has set the Heartland Park Topeka qualifying record, most
recently at 93.146 mph. There'll be another record in 1997, since the track
configuration has been lengthened -- from 1.8 to 2.1 miles.
- Road racing specialists figure to have an impact on the Lund Look 275K.
Cintas Rookie candidate Boris Said, who won his class at Sears Point Raceway
a few hours after his recent top-10 finish at Louisville, is an obvious
favorite. Other series drivers have extensive road racing backgrounds include
Rob Rizzo, Brian Cunningham, Michael Cohen and Jon Leavy. Sports Car Club of
America World Challenge Champion Lou Gigliotti is entered, while Rob Morgan,
a Professional SportsCar Racing World Sports CAr Ferrari driver, will make
his NCTS debut at Heartland Park Topeka in a Ford owned by Oklahoman David
Dollar. SCCA TransAm veterans Ron Fellows and Dorsey Schroeder also are among
the 40-plus entered drivers.
- Also making news: The July 17 RE/MAX Rick Carelli Golf Tournament raised
more than $25,000 for the John Nemechek Memorial Fund...Colorado National
Speedway operator Marshall Chesrown announced his ambitious, $3.6 million
expansion program which will see the 3/8-mile facility expanded into a
5/8-mile tri-oval with seating for up to 30,000. Construction begins in late
September with completion due by March 1, 1998...Track, Inc., a bowling ball
manufacturer based in San Antonio, Tex., has joined Terry Cook and Sealmaster
Racing's PBA Tour Chevrolet team as an associate sponsor.
STAT OF THE WEEK
Consistency remains the key to winning the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
championship. Standings leader Bickle, who hasn't finished out of the
top-five during Hornaday's June 21 to July 19 hot streak -- averaging a
finish of 3.8 during the period -- has given up just six points to the
defending series champion. Hornaday's 24th-place DNF at Nazareth, Pa. is the
reason why he's still 211 points behind the leader, down only fractionally
from the 217 deficit entering the Loadhandler 200 at Bristol, Tenn.
By NASCAR Public Relations