Craftsman Truck Series Notes -- Colorado 250
22 July 1997
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Colorado 250 By Snap-On Tools Notes of Interest July 21, 1997 DAYTONA BEACH, FL - Ron Hornaday continues his all-out assault on Mike Skinner's series win records with his July 19 victory in the Colorado 250 by Snap-On Tools. The Palmdale, Calif. competitor's third consecutive victory matched Skinner's record, established in 1996. Hornaday's four-out-of-five win streak broke a standard he also shared with the 1995 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion. - Hornaday's 15th career victory leaves him one win shy of Skinner's all-time record. - And what of Skinner's eight-win season mark? It could be in jeopardy. Skinner got win No. 5 in the 10th event (of 20) in 1995 and the 14th race (of 24) a year ago. Last weekend's race was the 14th of 26 on the 1997 schedule. As for personal bests, Hornaday won six times during his first season on the tour. - The Colorado 250 by Snap-On Tools was the fifth consecutive race that Hornaday has led. He's far behind Skinner's NCTS record of 10 straight, which began and ended with 1996 wins at Indianapolis Raceway Park and Mesa Marin Raceway, respectively. - Joe Ruttman finished 12th at Colorado National Speedway to maintain third-place in NCTS point standings -- behind Rich Bickle and Jack Sprague and one spot ahead of Hornaday. The finish ended the season's longest top-10 string at eight. - Bickle, meanwhile, hasn't led a race since May 24 at Odessa, Mo. Still, his short track performance has been formidable. His fifth-place finish at CNS continues a perfect run of seven top-five efforts on tracks of less than a mile in length. His average short track finish is 3.86. Hornaday also counts seven top-fives on short tracks and a 2.29 average. - Mike Bliss finally broke his Colorado jinx -- and then some. His Team ASE Racing Ford led twice for 76 laps, before finishing runnerup to Hornaday. Bliss' best previous effort at CNS? A lowly 23rd. "We were fast all day (but) we could not get the breaks in traffic," said Bliss." - Another big day for Virginia's Stacy Compton, who became the season's seventh different Cintas Rookie-of-the-Race. Compton's third-place finish was a personal best for the second straight week, as David Hodson's Valvoline Instant Oil Change Ford improved upon a sixth at Louisville. "We felt like we had a better truck than we qualified (13th) but I guess they say it makes it better if you come from the back," said Compton, who gained three positions over the final eight laps. - Mike Wallace and Cintas Rookie Rick Crawford became the season's 19th and 20th different race leaders. That compares with 23 in all of 1996. Crawford, No. 2 in Cintas standings (to Kenny Irwin), recorded his fifth top-10 finish -- sixth in Tom Mitchell's Circle Bar Motel & RV Park Ford. "We should have run better than this last week," said Crawford, referring to his Louisville accident while running third. "If we had, we'd be ahead in the rookie points now," Irwin, 14th at CNS, tops Cintas standings with 156 points to Crawford's 142. Both now begin discarding worst finishes. - The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standings have stabilized to a degree. Bliss replaced Chuck Bown in fifth-place; Jay Sauter is up a spot to sixth, also bypassing Bown; while Rick Carelli is up a slot in ninth, dropping Irwin to 10th. Bickle's 102-point standings lead is the largest of 1997 and the greatest margin since Sept. 21, 1996 when Hornaday enjoyed a 132-marker cushion following the Hanes 250 at Martinsville, Va. By NASCAR Public Relations