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NASCAR Craftsman Truck Stevens Beil/Genuine Car Parts 200: Post Race Notes

13 August 1997

 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
 Stevens Beil/Genuine Car Parts 200
 Post-Race Notes of Interest
 August 11, 1997
 
By NASCAR Public Relations
 
FLEMINGTON, NJ - Ron Hornaday, who withstood late charges by fellow NASCAR 
Craftsman ruck Series title contenders Joe Ruttman and Rich Bickle to capture 
the Aug. 9 Stevens Beil/Genuine Car Parts 200 at Flemington (N.J.) Speedway, 
is along as winningest driver in series history. His 17th career victory 
broke the record he shared with Mike Skinner.

 - The $35,925 win was the 39-year-old Palmdale, Calif. competitor's seventh 
of the 1997 campaign (and sixth in the past eight races), leaving Hornaday 
one shy of Skinner's single season win marks of 1995-96. Hornaday's 37th 
top-five finish also broke a record he'd shared with Skinner.

 - Hornaday currently is ahead of the 1995 NCTS champion in single-season 
winning percentage. Skinner's '95 percentage was .400 -- eight-for-20. 
Hornaday's current seven-for-17 works out to .411. He needs 11-for-26 to 
break the record.

 - Says the driver of the NAPA Brakes Chevrolet of his summer domination: "I 
hope the chain doesn't break. This is just awesome."

 - Flemington's winning pace, 98.232 mph, shattered both the race record for 
the 5/8-mile speedway and for all NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series short tracks. 
The previous fastest short track event? In 1995, at the now-shuttered North 
Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway. Mike Bliss won at a speed of 96.126.

 - The first two runnings of the Stevens Beil/Genuine Car Parts 200 produced 
16 total lead lap finishers. This year's race saw 17 of the 30 starters 
complete the 125-mile distance.

 - Just 22 laps were run under caution at Flemington Speedway. That's still 
eight more than the short track record but far below the track's two-race 
average of 47!

 - New pavement obviously aided 16 qualifiers who shattered Bryan Reffner's 
year-old single-lap mark of 116.907 mph. But the shocker had to be the Busch 
Pole winner. Terry Cook, who lapped the PBA Tour Chevrolet at a swift, 
119.406 to edge veteran Jimmy Hensley's Cummins Engine Company Dodge by just 
0.001-second. We say shocking because, in 19 previous appearances, the 
Sandusky, Ohio driver had failed to qualify five times. Cook's former best 
time trial effort, a 15th, came July 12 at Louisville.

Finding that extra, fraction of a second proved to be Cook's downfall. He hit 
the outside wall after turning the fast lap and, after the crew worked on the 
truck, Cook was forced to start at the rear of the field. "This is the only 
glory I'm going to get today," he told fans in accepting his $700 Busch Pole 
Award. Cook, the first Cintas Rookie to fast-time in '97, finished 18th, a 
lap behind.

 - Here's the rundown on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship 
top-10 through Flemington:

 - 10th: Kenny Irwin had another tough day, with a 25th-place finish. He's 
been out of the top-13 in seven of his last eight appearances.

 - 9th: Jay Sauter barely made the field, 25th, but slashed his way to 
sixth-place with a solid, second half performance.

 - 8th: Chuck Bown, who rode a six-race, top-10 finish streak earlier this 
year in the Exide Batteries Ford, finished 12th. That's his fifth straight 
finish of 12th or worse.

 - 7th: Rick Carelli, who finished fifth, logged his third finish of seventh 
or better at Flemington. It was the fourth consecutive top-10 for the RE/MAX 
International Chevrolet team, which has finished ninth or better in nine of 
its past 11 starts. 

 - 6th: Hensley challenged for the lead early but fell back to finish 13th 
after a mid-race chassis adjustment wasn't to his truck's liking. It ended a 
five-race run of eighth-place or better finishes.

 - 5th - Bliss' 10th-place finish was just his second top-10 in the past five 
starts. He came from 19th. 

 - 4th: Hornaday, now just 84 points behind in the title race, has a 4.13 
finishing average since his Bristol Motor Speedway victory. He's made up 133 
points in eight races -- or 16.7 points per race.

 - 3rd: Ruttman, now 52 points behind, nearly caught Hornaday at the stripe 
but settled for his fourth runnerup finish (to complement two victories). It 
was the LCI International Ford team's sixth top-five run in eight starts.

 - 2nd: Bickle, who cut a 10-point championship deficit to five, played 
hurt, following the Aug. 2 Brickyard 400 in which he broke three ribs. He 
still guided the Sears DieHard Chevrolet from 22nd to third-place. "My ribs 
didn't bother me too bad during the race, because the adrenalin was really 
flowing," he said. "I'm sure I'll be hurting tomorrow."

 - 1st: Sprague's now gone four, five, four at Flemington for a 4.33 average 
finish. So-called Mile Track Jack's only non-top-10 finish on a short track 
in 1997 was a 16th at Colorado National Speedway. The Quaker State Chevrolet 
team's overall short track average for the year: 4.89.

 - The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standings are the closest since March 
15, when Butch Miller led Bickle by just three points. The 
first-to-second-place margin in 1996, after 17 events, was 54.


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