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Craftsman Truck And Winston West
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Yesterday

The idea for the Truck Series dates back to 1993, when a group of off road racers made a prototype for a NASCAR-style pickup truck. These were first shown off during the 1994 Daytona 500, and a number of demonstration races were held during the season. These trucks proved to be extremely popular, and it led to NASCAR creating the series, originally known as the "SuperTruck Series", in 1995.

While a new series, it managed to garner a lot of support from prominent Winston Cup people immediately. Prominent Cup owners Richard Childress, Rick Hendrick, and Jack Roush owned truck teams, and top drivers such as Dale Earnhardt and Ernie Irvan also fielded SuperTrucks for others. The series became known as the Craftsman Truck Series in 1996.

Initially, the series used a number of rules that differed from both Winston Cup and Busch Series racing. Truck races had a "halftime" break, in place of pit stops, where teams could make any changes they'd want to the car. The series also used a different points system. These later phased out to resemble the other series. A more popular rule that still remains is the "overtime" rule. All Truck series races must end under green flag conditions, and the rule mandates that all races must end with at least two laps in green flag condition, often referred to as a "green-white-checkered" finish.

In the first year of the series, the trucks ran on circuits of a mile in length or less as well as two road courses. Most of the first races were no longer than 125 miles in length, and were often less than 100. A number of races were held at tracks that didn't host any other NASCAR event. By 1998, most of the short tracks were phased out in favor of speedways of 1 to 2 miles in length, and more of the races were held at tracks that hosted Cup and Busch events concurrently. Road courses were phased on by 2001. Most races nowadays will last around 250 miles at larger tracks, 150 to 200 miles at most others, and 250 laps around the shortest tracks.

Most of the first drivers in the series were veteran short trackers who hadn't made it into the other NASCAR series. It is worth noting that most of the early champions have used their title to become Winston Cup regulars at one point in their careers.

The restrictor plate in the Truck Series is on the cowl rather than between the carburetor and intake.

Today

The NCTS provides an entry point to NASCAR's upper echelon, for drivers, crewmembers, team owners, sponsors - even major manufacturers. Dodge got its tires wet in the truck series before embarking on a Cup program. Now it appears that Toyota is following the same path. And regardless of how you feel about the politics of the situation, Detroit's competitive pumps have been primed as a result. GM has ratcheted up its NCTS program, while Ford and Dodge have tried to one-up each other for the right to claim the world's fastest production truck. (Never mind that a pickup truck's top speed is about as relevant as a steamroller's aerodynamic downforce.) So there's one drivers thing about the truck series: It encourages competition among makes to a greater degree than NASCAR's other two top series.

The most notable event on the NCTS schedule is the Ohio 250. It is the only race in NASCAR's top three series held at a weekly short track (Mansfield Motorsports Speedway). That alone makes the truck series important.

There's also an interesting cross section of drivers in the trucks, from kids who are working their way up, to old pros whose careers are winding down. Of the former, Carl Edwards and Jon Wood stand out, if for no other reason than they are in Roush Racing trucks, which are drivers barometers of Nextel Cup success. Both Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle went on to win Cup races for Jack Roush after proving themselves in his trucks.

The truck series also serves as a sort of senior tour for former Cup drivers such as Bobby Hamilton, Ted Musgrave, Geoffrey Bodine, and Mike Skinner.

Skinner epitomizes a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver. He won the first official NASCAR "SuperTruck" race in 1995, en route to the first championship, and he returned to the series for its 10th season after his Cup options dried up.

Not that he minded. "I'd never be one bit ashamed to finish my career in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series," Skinner said.

Now, it would be easy to dismiss that comment as a driver on the downside of his career trying to put a drivers spin on a bad situation, if not for one small detail: Skinner said it four years ago, when he still had a full-time Cup ride with Richard Childress.

You have to root for a guy like that. And thanks to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, you still can.

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series are limited to 358 cid, the same as Nextel Cup and Busch Series. Roller cams, aluminum heads, and a single 390 cfm carburetor are part of a truck engine package that winds up well into the 9,000 rpm range and produces upwards of 730hp in race trim.

Now Comes Toyota

Ten years ago, Toyota began dialog with NASCAR about participating in the sanctioning body's series. Its first try, entry into the old driversy's Dash series in 2001, ultimately resulted in 2003 championship with driver Robert Huffman. The Dash effort, say Toyota executives, was more about developing a relationship with NASCAR than winning the series.

Making friends this way can he expensive. Toyota didn't have an engine that was even close to those required by NASCAR. A distributor had to be added where there had been none, and it had to be run off belt-driven Camshafts. The fuel-injected engine had to be made to run well on a carburetor, and they couldn't run the crank configuration of the stock engine. The engine was down 30 cid to the American engines in the series. The transformation to adapt the street engine and make it competitive was daunting, but Toyota got the job done and quickly. Huffman's Celica won the June pole and race at Kentucky in Toyota's seventh start in the series.

Things got real hot the following January, when Bill France flew to Costa Mesa "and invited us to come along" to the Craftsman Truck Series, said Toyota VP David Wilson.

Other than wheelbase (trucks a 112 inches, Busch cars 105) and height (Busch is 50½ inches, truck is 59 inches) Craftsman Truck and Busch racing chassis are the same.

Toyota does not build a carbureted engine or a V-8 or even an engine with its cam in the block.

Even so, the development project to build those engines was as massive as it was rapid. In August 2003, a Toyota truck was on the track for the first time, but with the engine from another manufacturer. At the time, Toyota was a long way from having its own engine. With Daytona in February as the goal, by the fall there still were no teams, no drivers signed, and no sponsors. The engine wasn't approved until October 19 for a race that would take place on February 13.

By Daytona, there were seven trucks in the race. Travis Kvapil was the highest qualifier (3rd) and highest finish (2nd). The rest qualifying from 8th to 17th: David Reutimann, Bill Lester, Hank Parker, Jr, Mike Skinner, Shelby Howard, and Robert Huffman finished 9th, 16th, 18th, 28th, 29th and 36th respectively.

But after the checkered flag, the trucks were put on the chassis dyno and the engineers and mechanics got it right. At Atlanta, David Reutimann won the pole in Darrell Waltrip's Toyota and was joined by three other Toyotas in the top five. In the race, Skinner's Toyota led 69 laps and Toyotas finished second, third, and fourth, with Bobby Hamilton's Chevy the winner after Skinner - who came through turn three side-by-side for the win - lost it as he came out of turn four and came across the line sideways.

An ATL 22 gallon fuel cell is supplied free to teams competing in the series.

NOTE:

The biggest reason for Toyota's truck program is to sell trucks, or so says everyone who wears a TRD (Toyota Racing Development) shirt.

"We'd love to be in Cup one day," said Toyota VP David Wilson, "but we're not doing a car that's relevant to Cup. Nor," he added, "has upper management approved that."

TRD general manager Lee White offered,

"We're not even thinking about Nextel Cup. There are no plans, no budget, no schedule, no nothing for Cup. Would we like to be there? Sure." But, said White, before making that step, "we need to know that those people in the grandstands accept us as part of NASCAR. We're prepared to work hard and show them that we can earn it."

Toyota's Craftsman Truck engine dyno testing runs the equivalent of 600 miles, although the longest race in the series is just 250 miles.

You are, we trust, aware that there is a 600-mile Nextel race in late May.

The people who developed Toyota's NASCAR engine are competitive, talented, and hard-working. They have management's ear.

Although today's public speak is that this program is all about the Truck Series, Saturday night racing, and nothing more, bet everything you own that somewhere down the road there will be a Toyota competing in The Great American Race. And probably winning it.

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