By the Numbers: Truck

Top 10 and then some for the series at New Hampshire

By Jarrod Breeze, NASCAR.COM
September 11, 2008
10:42 AM EDT

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Ron Hornaday is the defending Craftsman Truck Series champion. He's the defending winner of this week's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. And he comes to Loudon fresh off his series-tying fourth victory of the season.

This week's number as it pertains to Hornaday is 94, that's how many points he trails series-leader Johnny Benson, the only other four-time winner in 2008. Those two drivers happen to be the past two winners at New Hampshire, with Hornaday becoming the first repeat winner in the series' 12-race history at the track after having won the first race there in 1996.

Hornaday goes into Saturday's Camping World RV Rental 200 (2:30 p.m. ET on SPEED) with five top-10s in seven career starts at New Hampshire, where he hasn't finished worse than sixth in the past three races. He's also led at least a lap in all but two races there.

But Benson has been pretty good at NHMS, too, leading the third-most laps in series history. But they all came in just one start. For more on Benson, and others:

1Races at NHMS not won from a top-10 starting position: Jay Sauter started 26th in 1997. The past eight races have been won from a top-five starting position and three from the pole, the most of any starting position including Ron Hornaday last year.

2Consecutive top-five finishes at NHMS for Mike Skinner and Todd Bodine, two of three former champions currently driving in the series full-time who have yet to win there. Skinner has finished second and third the past two years and has three top-10s in five career starts. Bodine has finished fourth the past two years, his first top-10s in four starts. Ted Musgrave has three top-fives and five top-10s in seven starts including seventh last year.

3Wins at NHMS for crew chief Rick Ren, with three different drivers: Andy Houston (1998), Johnny Benson (2006), Ron Hornaday (2007). Ren has 19 wins overall as a Truck Series crew chief, second all-time, and 13 since the start of 2006, a series high.

4Starts at New Hampshire for current points-leader Johnny Benson, whose average start and finish is the same at 11.0. Benson has one win, two top-fives and three top-10s including an eighth-place finish last year.

5Top-fives at NHMS for Dennis Setzer, most of any driver. Sezter won his first start there in 1999, then from 2001-05 strung together five consecutive top-10s including four top-fives and a worse finish of sixth. He finished 30th last year, his worst non-DNF there and just the second time in nine starts he's failed to finish on the lead lap.

6Place of finish for Rick Crawford last year at New Hampshire, his third consecutive top-10, matching Ron Hornaday for the longest active streak. Crawford also finished sixth in his first start at NHMS, the first of a series-tying high 11 races in which he has competed there. He has five top-10s, accounting for his only lead-lap finishes including a victory in 2005.

7Times the lap-leader at NHMS did not win the race including three times when the driver led more than half of the laps. Ron Hornaday led just one lap in winning the first race there in 1996. Jack Sprague, who's led the most laps of any winner (183 in 2001), also has the mark for most laps led by a non-winner (173 in 1997). The lap-leader has won the past two races, however: Johnny Benson (145 in 2006) and Hornaday (174 in 2007).

8Combined Truck wins for Jay Sauter, Andy Houston and Jimmy Spencer, each of whom picked up their first series win at New Hampshire. Sauter won in 1997 and went on to win four races in 90 starts. Houston, now the spotter for 2001 NHMS winner Jack Sprague, won in 1998. He's a three-time winner in 121 career starts. The 2003 win was Spencer's second career start, and lone win in 31 series races.

9Times Terry Cook has finished outside the top 10 in 11 career starts at NHMS. Since winning in 2002, Cook has posted just one top-15 finish in the five subsequent races. However, he has only three finishes outside the top 20 but three of the past four races have been among his worst including 22nd and 18th the past two years.

10Starts at New Hampshire for Jack Sprague, who holds track records for poles (three) laps led (529) and lead-lap finishes (eight). Sprague also has six top-10s, tied for most with Dennis Setzer. Sprague finished second at NHMS upon his full-time return to the series in 2004, but hasn't had a top-10 since and finished 24th last year, his worst non-DNF.

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Craftsman Truck Series

New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Year	Winner	Make	St.	Led	Pole

1996	R. Hornaday	Chevy	8	1	M. Skinner
1997	J. Sauter	Chevy	26	13	J. Sprague
1998	A. Houston	Chevy	7	56	M. Wallace
1999	D. Setzer	Dodge	10	48	S. Compton
2000	Ku. Busch	Ford	5	35	J. Ruttman
2001	J. Sprague	Chevy	1	183	J. Sprague
2002	T. Cook	Ford	2	39	J. Leffler
2003	J. Spencer	Dodge	1	124	J. Spencer
2004	T. Kvapil	Toyota	3	13	J. Sprague
2005	R. Crawford	Ford	5	26	M. Crafton
2006	J. Benson	Toyota	2	145	M. Skinner
2007	R. Hornaday	Chevy	1	174	R. Hornaday

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Official Standings

Pos.	+/-	Driver	Points	Behind

1.	--	Johnny Benson	2596	--
2.	--	Ron Hornaday	2502	-94
3.	--	Matt Crafton	2397	-199
4.	--	Todd Bodine	2347	-249
5.	--	Mike Skinner	2323	-273
6.	--	Rick Crawford	2307	-289
7.	--	Erik Darnell	2289	-307
8.	--	Jack Sprague	2233	-363
9.	+1	Dennis Setzer	2165	-431
10.	-1	Terry Cook	2158	-438