CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES Canadian racing fans were more interested than ever in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck series because Jacques Villeneuve chose that series to jump into NASCAR, thinking it was closer to the COT Cup cars. This is where he discovered close fender-to-fender racing.
Jacques raced a Toyota truck with the Bill Davis Racing Team. Ironically, the series leader for quite a while was Mike Skinner, another Bill Davis racer. Villeneuve performed...not so bad in his first race in Las Vegas but did not fare that well during the rest of the season. Nonetheless, he says he learned a lot in Craftsman Trucks. On the other hand, Skinner almost won the championship. He and Ron Hornaday clearly dominated the season with one or the other leading the points during the whole year (expect for the first race of the season that was won by veteran Jack Sprague). Unfortunately for Skinner, his last race at Homestead was a real disaster and he lost the championship to Ron Hornaday and his Chevrolet. Johnny Benson, another Bill Davis man, came in third followed by Todd Bodine and Nextel cup racer Kyle Busch in fifth. There were very few Dodge Rams in the series this year and none won a race. All were won by Chevy Silverados, Toyota Tundras and Ford F-150s. Wouldn't it be nice to see one or more Canadian drivers showing up in the Craftsman series next year? And wouldn't it be nice if the series visited Canada one day? By the way, 2008 will be the last year Craftsman Tools will sponsor the series that is gaining in popularity. No word about who will replace Craftsman later on.
photo: Bill Davis Racing