File this in the Makes No Sense Department. The co-owner of one of the top teams in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series has hired Paul Tracy to run later this season but the 2003 CART champion still can't get a ride in an Indy car.
A few weeks ago, P.T. tested Todd Bodine's truck at Chicagoland Speedway and impressed Bob Germain enough to get a one-off deal.
"Paul did a nice job so we got a little bit if support and decided it would be fun to run him in his hometown," said Germain, who along with his two brothers owns 19 car dealerships in Ohio and Florida. "He's our style, very aggressive, and he and Todd are a lot alike."
Tracy, who had a few rides in the old Busch series with mixed results, looks at his truck debut as something bigger.
"I figure it's an audition for 2009 with those guys, because I think Todd wants to go to the Nationwide series," said Tracy.
Currently, Germain runs Mike Wallace in the Nationwide series, plus Justin Marks and Bodine in the trucks (along with Chrissie Wallace, Mike's daughter, in selected events), and may be looking to expand.
"We're going to run Chrissie full-time in the trucks next year and we've got another year for sure with Mike (sponsored by Geico)," said Germain. "I know Todd would like to run the Nationwide series and we've got about a dozen different possibilities we'll be looking at. "And running Paul full-time in the trucks is one of those."
CONCORD, N.C. -- It took Matt Crafton 178 starts to snare his first Craftsman Truck Series victory. It took about 35-crash filled laps at Lowe's Motor Speedway to set the unlikely win in motion.
Crafton took advantage of the mistakes and ill behavior of others to drive his Menard's Chevrolet Silverado to victory in the North Carolina Education Lottery 200. Crafton's victory was his first in 177 NCTS starts, the longest stretch any driver has gone before winning his first race in the series.
Crafton held off Chad McCumbee in a green-white-checkered finish to score his historic win in a wild night of racing.
"Finally, we can shut them up," Crafton said. "Now they can say, 'When's the next one coming?
With the win Crafton moved up from seventh to fourth in the points race.
1. Ron Hornaday 874 Leader
2, Rick Crawford 865 -5
3. Todd Bodine 836 -38
4. Matt Crafton 829 -45
5. Dennis Setzer 817 -57
A fierce battle for second ended with Germain Racing's Todd Bodine third in the point standings, spinning points leader Ron Hornaday just past the start-finish line at the entrance to Turn 1. An angry Hornaday limped home 23rd and took umbrage with Bodine, who finished 12th after being penalized for rough driving.
"He just flat tried to kill me," Hornaday said. "You don't spin somebody out on the straightaway. Life is too short to have an #### like that."
Bodine said he didn't mean to cause Hornaday to wreck.
"I was just trying to help him," Bodine said. "And now I look like a goat."
McCumbee was followed by Brendan Gaughan who finished third.
Erik Darnell was leading late in the race but spun his tires in the night's second-to-last restart, recovering to finish fourth. Rick Crawford finished fifth. Hornaday leads the series points race, by five over Crawford.
Dennis Setzer finished seventh and slipped to fifth in the points behind Crafton.
In his first start at Talladega Superspeedway, Rookie of the Year contender, Kyle Krisiloff scored his career best Busch Series finish. He started the Haas-Carter Motorsports #14 Clabber Girl Ford 23rd in the lineup and finished the Aaron's 312 in 5th place. This was his best finish in 13 Busch Series starts since his 16th in the March 2007 Mexico City race. Former NASCAR Cup team owner Travis Carter is back in racing as the team manager for rookie Krisiloff's Busch Series team after a three-year layoff. Krisiloff is 20th in the series standings.
Carter still has his sense of humor intact, describing his role as "general manager, chief flunky and all that." Still, Carter seems to be enjoying his return to NASCAR. Carter last appeared in the sport in 2003, running the National Guard program with driver Todd Bodine. He went Hooters Pro Cup racing with his son for a while and says that he wouldn't mind doing that for a living. "If I had the money and didn't need to work, that's what I'd do is just race and have fun."
With private-equity investors reported to be hungry for the prize, DaimlerChrysler could net up to 9 billion euros for the sale of its US division Chrysler, a German newspaper said Saturday. Welt am Sonntag, releasing news to appear in its Sunday edition, quoted sources close to the negotiations as saying the sale could yield 'between 6 billion and 9 billion dollars,' well ahead of earlier estimates. The Goldman Sachs investment bank had earlier forecast bids would top out at around 6 billion euros. Private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management lodged a bid for Chrysler on Friday, the newspaper said. Cerberus was reported to see the key value in Chrysler's financial services division.
Mike Skinner started on the pole and stayed out front virtually all day at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, leading all but seven of 253 laps to win his third consecutive NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race. Coming off victories at California and Atlanta, Skinner set a series record by leading 246 laps and won for the 22nd time in his career. He became only the second driver in the series to win twice on the small, tight oval at Martinsville. "This was about as good as it gets right here," he said in Victory Lane.
Skinner beat Todd Bodine to the finish by 0.527 seconds after the 15th caution of the race brought about a two-lap dash to the finish in overtime. In all, the race went 253 laps, and 85 of them were run under a yellow flag because of numerous accidents. Each restart, however, only reinforced that Skinner's Toyota was the truck to beat. Series champion Bodine ran second in another Toyota, but never really challenged for the lead. "His truck was just incredibly strong the whole race," Bodine said. Skinner grew weary of the cautions, but appreciative of Bodine's style.
Mike Skinner had just secured the victory when his crew chief, Jeff Hensley, boomed over the radio: "We're going for No. 4 at Kansas." No rest for the dominating.
The win is Skinner's 22nd of his career. Ironically, Bodine was the last series driver to win three in a row, in the final three races of 2005. "That was cool, wasn't it? The thing just hauled butt all day," said Skinner, who leads the series standings by 94 points over Bodine. "I remember a couple years ago these Toyotas wouldn't run on short race tracks."
The only time Skinner didn't lead was during pit stops early. Even when Bodine used pit strategy to get better track position, he moved into second but couldn't close on Skinner.
HAMPTON, Ga. -- Mike Skinner bumped past Clint Bowyer to take the lead on a restart seven laps from the finish Friday night and raced away to his second consecutive victory in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series. Todd Bodine, the defending series champion and last spring's winner at Atlanta Motor Speedway, followed Skinner past Bowyer to grab second place on Lap 124 of the 130-lap event, but the leader was just too strong, pulling away to a five-length victory, the 21st of his truck career. Matt Crafton had a big day, finishing third after starting the race 17th. Rick Crawford, making his 250th start in the Craftsman Truck Series brought home his No. 14 Ford in fourth. Bowyer held on for fifth.
Brendan Gaughan stayed out when the rest of the field pitted with 34 laps to go, but the lead was short lived as Bowyer was able to pass him for the lead just two laps later. The move still worked for Gaughan, who held on for a sixth-place finish. Dennis Setzer finished seventh in his Morgan Dollar Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado.
Next up for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is the Kroger 250 at the half-mile Martinsville Speedway on Saturday March 31.
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