NASCAR Truck Series Notes -- Link-Belt Construction Equipment 225
8 July 1997
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Link-Belt Construction Equipment 225 Notes DAYTONA BEACH, FL - Turning to Louisville and the Link-Belt Construction Equipment 225: - The Louisville Motor Speedway winner also was the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion in each of the two previous seasons -- Skinner (1995) and Hornaday (1996). Hornaday's victory was his second of four last season. - Ruttman, however, has the best finishing record in the Link-Belt Construction Equipment 225: an average finish of 3.5. He's the only entered competitor to count two top-five efforts on the 7/16th-mile venue Carelli, Miller and Sprague also own a pair of top-10 finishes. - How best to describe the Louisville Motor Speedway? Unique comes to mind. It's roughly triangular in shape, with distinct elevation changes -- uphill entering the first turn and downhill transiting the final bend. This is what Ruttman has to say about the track: "It's a miniature road course. You leap off into Turn 4 and one is a hairpin. It's just a fun place to run. Louisville bring you back to your roots. You walk in and say, 'Yeah, this is a Saturday night race track.' I've had decent success there -- but still not the success I'm looking for. That would be a win." - Not surprising that two previous races have produced a significant number of caution flags -- 11 during each running. That's 123 laps of yellow, or 29% of the 425 run. - Thirteen of the 21 starters in the 1996 event completed all 225 laps. Busch Pole winner Bliss was the final driver to go the distance, as handling problems slowed his contending Team ASE Racing Ford in the late-going. - Ground can be gained at Louisville -- and lost. Skinner advanced from 11th to second last year. Just four of the first 10 starters of that race, however, finished among the top-10. - Bryan Reffner was the only Cintas Rookie of the Year candidate to manage a top-10 finish at the Lousville Motor Speedway in 1996. He was sixth. - Here's the Louisville Motor Speedway form sheet on the drivers currently among the top-10 in the championship standings (with NCTS starts at LMS), as the 1997 season reaches its 13th-race midpoint (and $10,000 Gatorade Front Runner award to the leaders, as of July 16): 1. Bickle (27th); 2. Sprague (ninth/eighth); 3. Ruttman (second/fifth); 6. Bliss (seventh/13th); 7. Hornaday (first/16th); 9. Carelli (fifth/seventh); 10. Miller (third/ninth). If Bickle starts Saturday's race, only he and Sprague have a shot at the Gatorade prize. - A pair of Louisville Motor Speedway veterans, Bill Kimmel of Clarksville, Ind., and Scot Walters of Louisville, are among pre-entries for the Link-Belt Construction Equipment 225. Kimmel is the track's defending NASCAR Winston Racing Series Late Model champion and 1996 Heartland Region runnerup to NWRS National Champion Larry Phillips. Walters, who'll also compete in Friday night's NASCAR Slim All Pro Series event, is the third driver in as many weeks at the controls of Brewco Motorsports' Central City, Ky.-stabled Red Man Golden Blend Chevrolet, following David and Mark Green. - The race sponsor's logo will be carried on a Chevrolet driven by Wayne Grubb of Mechanicsville, Va., who's prepping for a Cintas Rookie-of-the-Year bid in 1998. "This is Link-Belt's first year of motorsports sponsorship with Grubb Motorsports. When the opportunity came to sponsor an event in our home state, we felt it was a nice complement," said John Claffin, Vice Presdient of Marketing and Sales for the Lexington, Ky.-based manufacturer of hydraulic excavators, telescopic boom cranes and other equipment. - Friends and colleagues of Mooresville, NC resident Barry Dodson, crew chief for Bliss and Jim and Marlene Smith's Ultra Motorsports team, have given more than $40,000 to establish athletic scholarships at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. in honor of his children, Trey and Tia, who were killed in an automobile accident in 1994. "Losing a son and daughter is like a free fall; you never get settled back," Dodson said. "I don't think you ever learn to deal with it. But this has made it easier when I thought nothing ever would. It has put life back into the whole family. A celebrity golf classic, to benefit the two scholarship funds, will be held Sept. 29 at The Birkdale Golf Club, an Arnold Palmer layout in Huntersville, N.C. Contact sponsors Jeanne Homesley or Joe Conti at The Checkered Flag Restaurant, 704-663-1778, for participation particulars. Stat of the Week: Three series drivers, Bickle, Sprague and Hornaday have won more than $200,000 with Sprague the money-leader at $244,680. That's one race and a month earlier than 1996, when the threshold was reached at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Thirteen competitors have won in excess of $100,000. That didn't happen until the 18th race of the past season. By: NASCAR Public Relations
