By the Numbers: Truck

Top-10 facts and figures for a CTS staple, Las Vegas

By Jarrod Breeze, NASCAR.COM
September 18, 2008
11:36 AM EDT

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Only twice in the first 13 years of the Craftsman Truck Series has it not raced at Las Vegas Motor Speedway -- the inaugural season of 1995 and again in 2000. No driver has made every appearance at Vegas, and only 10 current series regulars have made more than half of the races.

In the early years at Las Vegas, Jack Sprague was about as close to a sure thing as there was. He's made 10 starts there overall, the first five in the then-No. 24 Chevrolet of Hendrick Motorsports. Those races, beginning in 1996, produced two victories -- he remains the only two-time winner there -- and three runner-up finishes, and he started from the pole three times. Since, driving three other trucks, he's had two top-fives but two DNFs, as well.

Rick Crawford is the only other driver with as many starts at Las Vegas as Sprague, and he has only one less top-10 with six. But that's about as close as Crawford gets to Sprague. Crawford has but one top-five and led a total of six laps. Sprague has led a series-high 298 laps.

But Crawford does have top-10s in two of the past three races at Las Vegas including a ninth-place finish last year whereas Sprague hasn't had a top-10 since finishing fourth in 2005.

Coverage for the Qwik Liner Las Vegas 350 begins at 9 p.m. ET Saturday on SPEED.

1Laps led in nine starts at Las Vegas by Dennis Setzer, who has completed all but two of a possible 1,364 laps, second-most of any driver (Rick Crawford has completed 1,393 laps, leading a grand total of six). Setzer has seven top-10s, tied with Jack Sprague for the most at LVMS, and a 7.7 average finish.

2Drivers to post their first series win at Las Vegas: David Starr and Shane Hmiel. Starr's victory came in 2002 in his 66th series start. He now has four wins in 207 starts. Hmiel's victory came in his only full-time season in the series in 2004 and is the only win in a career short-circuited by suspension.

3Poles in six starts at Las Vegas for Mike Skinner, consecutively from 2004-06. Skinner finished sixth twice before winning in '06, and led 151 of 156 laps (fourth-most in track history) during that span. Overall, Skinner has a 4.3 average starting position four top-10 finishes. He started second last year, but finished 13th.

4Starts at Las Vegas for Todd Bodine and Johnny Benson, each with a 10.8 average finish. Bodine, who's led the third-most laps (187), finished second and first in his first two starts and has finished 12th and 28th (crash) the past two years. Benson finished fourth in two of his first three races sandwiched around a 33rd (engine). He finished second last year. Bodine's average start is 6.0; Benson's is 16.5.

5Races at Las Vegas won from the pole including the past two years: Jack Sprague (1998), David Starr (2002), Brendan Gaughan (2003), Mike Skinner (2006) and Travis Kvapil (2007). Eight races have been won from a top-five starting position and only one has not been won from the top 10 (Shane Hmiel started 21st in 2004).

6Consecutive top-10s at Las Vegas for Ted Musgrave before finishing 15th last year. Musgrave's streak began with his victory in 2001 and ended with back-to-back runner-up finishes in 2005-06. Jack Sprague had a run of six consecutive top-fives from 1996-2003.

7Starts at Las Vegas for Ron Hornaday, tied with Matt Crafton for the fourth-most races there without a win: Rick Crawford has made 10 starts and Dennis Sezter and Terry Cook nine each without winning. Hornaday has four top-fives and five top-10s but finished 22nd last year, his only result worse than 13th, and the only time he failed to finish on the lead lap.

8Laps led in seven starts at Las Vegas for Matt Crafton, all coming in the one race when he didn't drive the No. 88 Chevrolet of ThorSport Racing. Crafton's only top-10 came in the 88 in 2003 when he finished ninth. He has finished 21st or worse five times.

9Starts at Las Vegas for Brendan Gaughan, who only has two lead-lap finishes there. He has two top-10s including an eighth-place finish in 2002 when he finished one lap off the lead. Gaughan led 106 laps when he won in 2003. In fact, his 122 laps led are fifth-most in track history.

10Place of finish last year at Las Vegas for Chad McCumbee, the only Chevrolet in the top 10, marking the first time the manufacturer placed only one truck in the top 10. Chevrolet, which posted the last of its series-high four victories at LVMS in 2004, only has 10 top-10s the past three years. Dodge, which last won in 2003, also had but one top-10 last year (seventh place for Dennis Setzer). But that's still one better than the previous year.

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Craftsman Truck Series

Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Year	Winner	Make	St.	Led	Pole

1996	J. Sprague	Chevy	3	98	B. Reffner
1997	J. Ruttmann	Ford	8	3	J. Sprague
1998	J. Sprague	Chevy	1	25	J. Sprague
1999	G. Biffle	Ford	5	29	S. Compton
2001	Musgrave	Dodge	10	18	J. Sprague
2002	D. Starr	Chevy	1	28	D. Starr
2003	B. Gaughan	Dodge	1	106	B. Gaughan
2004	S. Hmiel	Chevy	21	2	M. Skinner
2005	T. Bodine	Toyota	3	114	M. Skinner
2006	M. Skinner	Toyota	1	114	M. Skinner
2007	T. Kvapil	Ford	1	29	T. Kvapil

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Craftsman Truck Series

Official Standings

Pos.	+/-	Driver	Points	Behind

1.	--	Johnny Benson	2771	Leader
2.	--	Ron Hornaday	2697	-74
3.	--	Matt Crafton	2529	-242
4.	+2	Rick Crawford	2462	-309
5.	-1	Todd Bodine	2458	-313
6.	+1	Erik Darnell	2454	-317
7.	-2	Mike Skinner	2441	-330
8.	--	Jack Sprague	2371	-400
9.	--	Dennis Setzer	2280	-491
10.	--	Terry Cook	2272	-499