Image details: Built Ford Tough 225 served by picapp.com

Johnny Benson won his second race of the season and took the points lead for the first time in 2008 after making a 4-wide pass with just 32 laps remaining in the Built Ford Tough 225 Saturday at Kentucky Speedway. As the field restarted on lap 119, Benson was third in line behind Bill Davis Racing teammate, Michael Annett, and Dennis Setzer, and the lapped truck of Chad Chaffin was on the inside. Benson and Setzer both attempted the pass on Michael Annett at the same time, and Chaffin moved to the bottom of the track as well in an effort to make the pass and get his lap back. In the end, though, it was Benson getting the spot and cruising through the final 32 circuits to pickup the win.

Annett finished second - 0.475 seconds behind Benson - in just his third Craftsman Truck Series start. Matt Crafton finished third, with Setzer in fourth, and David Starr rounded out the top-five finishers. Kyle Busch failed in his bid to get his 15th overall win of the season, as he finished sixth. Mike Skinner, Terry Cook, Marc Mitchell, and Ron Hornaday finished 7th through 10th.

Making his debut for the newly formed Moss Motorsports, Willie Allen started 20th and finished 15th. Jack Sprague’s tough luck this season continued with a 22nd place run after starting 5th. Erik Darnell’s no. 99 Roush-Fenway Ford was caught up in an earlier accident and finished a disappointing 29th. And, in her third Truck Series start, Chrissy Wallace made it through just 50 laps before finding an accident of her own, and she finished 33rd.

Johnny Benson climbed up three spots in the standings to take a 1 point lead over second place, Matt Crafton. Ron Hornaday’s top-ten effort wasn’t enough, as he dropped two spots down to third, where he sits just five points out of first. Rick Crawford and Mike Skinner each moved up a spot to fourth and fifth, respectively.

Complete Ford 225 Results.

Craftsman Truck Series Standings:

Image details: Camping World RV Rental 250 served by picapp.com

It’s going to be a big weekend coming up for the Wallace’s as the NASCAR Nationwide Series makes a trip to St. Louis this weekend for the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 at Gateway International Raceway, hometown to brothers Mike and Kenny Wallace. Considered to be the home track for the Wallace family, the track has been kind enough to name the grandstands in Turns 1 and 2 after the Wallace’s, and even honored them by placing their name on the race itself during older brother, Rusty’s retirement year.

Despite all of the hometown recognition, though, a member of the Wallace family has never put a tally in the win column since the Nationwide Series began racing here back in 1997, but they’ll have a prime opportunity to change that this weekend. Mike Wallace is having one of his finer seasons as he currently sits 8th in points and would like nothing more than to notch one up here in front of his hometown fans. He nearly did just that back in 2005 when he finished 2nd here in an Evernham Motorsports car. Mike will also be an honorary guest at the St. Louis Cardinals game on Thursday where he will throw out the first pitch of the game.

Kenny Wallace will also attend the race, as will Steven Wallace, who will be driving for Rusty Wallace Inc, the team owned by his father, Rusty Wallace. That team is still looking for their first win of the season. Steven is currently 12th in the points standings, and Kenny is 18th. All three Wallace’s will also compete in a dirt track race at Tri-City Speedway on Friday in Pontoon Beach, IL.

Mike’s daughter, Chrissy Wallace, will be competing this weekend as well. Chrissy will make the third Craftsman Truck Series start of her career on Saturday in the Built Ford Tough 225 at Kentucky Speedway. To date, she’s finished 18th at Martinsville and 20th at the Milwuakee Mile.

Image details: Camping World RV Sales 200 served by picapp.com

After losing the race last weekend to Erik Darnell in hearbreaking fashion, Johnny Benson won the Camping World RV Sales 200 at the Milwuakee Mile for the third straight year, also giving he and Bill Davis Racing their first win of the season in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Benson exited the pits with the lead after a caution for light rain on lap 146, and then NASCAR again stopped the race, this time red-flagging it for lightning with only fifty laps remaining. From there, Benson went unchallenged as he raced his way to a 2.5 second win over Matt Crafton, who finished the race in 2nd. Making only his fifth start in the truck series, Landon Cassill finished third, and behind him was last week’s race winner, Erik Darnell.  Todd Bodine finished fifth.

Benson started the race from the pole position and had a 3.3 second lead over Rick Crawford 70 laps into the race when the field began cycling through their green flag pit stops. A caution came out on lap 78 as Benson was pulling out of pit road, and because of the timing, only seven lead lap trucks were scored behind him, with the others being considered the tail end of the lead lap and were placed in front of Benson, including Crawford. Crawford would later regain his track position on a lap 96 caution, and then rallied from 16th to 8th in the closing 56 laps of the race.

Other race notables: Michael Annett made his first start of the season for Bill Davis Racing, and finished 6th; Ron Hornaday dropped another spot in the standings after finishing 7th; Mike Skinner finished 10th; Jack Sprague finished 13th; Making only her 2nd start in the series for Germain Racing, Chrissy Wallace finished 20th.

The victory was the 10th in the series for Johnny Benson, all of which have come in the last 3 seasons, and it opens up a 50 point lead now over 2nd place, Todd Bodine.

Click here for complete Camping World RV Sales race results.

Craftsman Truck Series Standings:

This week, I’ve decided to compile a list of the top-ten future potential stars in NASCAR. The basis for this list isn’t based purely on driving skill, but also on other aspects that can contribute to their future success such as their organization, or even gender.

10. Justin Allgaier - 21 years-old, currently driving in his third full season in the ARCA/REMAXX Series. Has compiled one victory in each of the past three seasons.

9. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. - 20 years-old, has recorded 2 wins and 4 top-five’s through his first 20 races in the USAC Series.

8. Brad Keselowski - 24 years-old, currently driving in the Nationwide Series for Bob & Kay Keselowski. Currently 7th in points with 4 top-ten finishes.

7. Steve Wallace - The twenty-year-old son of Rusty Wallace; finished 17th in the Nationwide Series points standings last year, and currently 15th in points with a top-five and two top-ten’s.

6. Marcos Ambrose - The 30-year-old Australlian native has won several accolades in lesser series, and is known as an accomplished road racer. He’s turning that into some noticeable stock car success, and through two seasons has 2 top-five’s and 8 top-ten’s. He’s currently 16th in the Nationwide points standings.

5. Brad Coleman - Brad has a future with Joe Gibbs Racing, though the timeline is still a bit sketchy as long as JGR has Joey Logano in the waiting. He made his debut in the Nationwide Series this year and is currently 17th in points with one top-ten finish through ten races.

4. Austin Dillon - Being the grandson of Cup Series teamowner, Richard Childress, is sure to have its perks, and having the fortune to know that you can one day bring Dale Earnhardt’s former number back into NASCAR one day is one of them. He already has a win this season in the Camping World East Series, and is expected to win quite a few more before long.

3. Chrissy Wallace - She earned herself a top-20 finish in her first career start in the Craftsman Truck Series in March, and has recently signed a deal with Germain Racing that will have her competing full-time in 2009. With her family name, superior backing inside the NASCAR garage, and her appeal as a standout female star, big things could be on the horizon for Chrissy Wallace.

2. Aric Almirola - He’s scheduled to run a part-time schedule this year inside the no. 8 car for DEI that includes 12 races, the first of which came earlier in 2008 with a top-five run at Bristol. He’s currently slated to run full-time for the organization when Mark Martin goes into full retirement, which could be as early as next year.

1. Joey Logano - His future lies with Joe Gibbs Racing, producer of three Cup Series championships, and could have a pretty sweet deal lined up for himself depending on what Tony Stewart decides to do at the end of his contract in 2009. He recently won his first-ever start in the ARCA series a little over a week ago in Rockingham, and will make his first Nationwide start at the end of this month when he turns 18 years old.

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That’s right, folks, arguably the most talented Wide Receiver playing in the National Football League has decided to make a major multi-million dollar business decision, and it’s got NASCAR written all over it. Randy Moss, star WR for the New England Patriots, announced this past Tuesday the official formation of Moss Motorsports, LLC and his intent for the team to race a partial schedule in the Craftsman Truck Series as early as in the second half of this year, with a full-time schedule on his radar for 2009.

With sponsorship and personnel to be announced at a later date, Moss admitted that it would probably make more sense for the organization to attempt to find a driver with a veteran status that can get them into Victory Lane as quickly as possible, rather than attempting to build a team from the ground up centered around an unproven talent as many other race teams have attempted. Moss does not currently have anyone in mind, though, but is already scouting the market to see who will be available.

In terms of sponsorship, this is likely to be an area that Moss should find very little resistance. Aside from being one of the most marketable athletes in professional sports, the single season receptions record holder has purchased several local businesses, and has aligned himself with a slew of others. Though some of these companies may not necessarily serve as a full-time primary sponsor for his team, Moss does believe that these businesses will be delighted at any opportunities they may have to reach out to a new audience through this avenue. To help expedite matters, he has also contracted out with Integrity Sports Marketing LLC, one of the leading marketing companies for NASCAR.

Something that many of you may not know already, is that this is not the first venture in the racing world for Moss. He has been involved with sponsorship for local dirt track racing, and has also served as an ambassador for the Urban Youth Racing School. And, as we all know, he is certainly not the first person from the NFL to throw their hat into the NASCAR arena. A few years ago, hall of fame Quarterbacks, Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach, teamed together to form Hall of Fame Racing which they later sold towards the end of 2007. Oh, and it’s rumored that a former head coach by the name of Joe Gibbs may have something to do with the sport as well.

Moss told the media on Tuesday, “I am by nature a very competitive person and this is an outlet for me to compete at another level. There are some pretty awesome challenges in building a program like this from the ground up, but I am looking forward to it.”

The addition of Randy Moss to NASCAR’s roster is certain to be viewed as a positive step for the sport as it continues to evolve and reach out in their diversity programs. In the last few years, NASCAR has has already added drivers with immense international popularity, such as Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti, and just earlier this year Chrissy Wallace signed a deal in the truck series that is expected to draw a larger female audience. This could prove valuable in their search for an untapped urban fanbase.

For more opinions and insight on this topic, please be sure to read Moss Motorsports to Hit NASCAR Tracks Running over at Full Throttle.

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The Sprint Cup Series was off this past week while the Nationwide Series took to the streets of Mexico City for the Corona Mexico 200 as Kyle Busch cruised to his third consecutive Nationwide Series victory. That, however, was not the headline that the sports world took away from auto racing on that day because while Kyle Busch was debating whether or not to dump Scott Pruett, Danica Patrick was out in Japan making history en route to winning the first IRL race of her career, as well as becoming the first female driver to ever win a race in that series.

In a pure incident of coincidental timing, just days before Danica broke down the barriers for females in racing, Chrissy Wallace inked a deal with Germain Racing that will have her competing full-time in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2009.

Chrissy made her NASCAR debut just a few weeks ago at Martinsville Speedway in the Truck Series’ Kroger 250. Despite starting that race all the way back from the 35th position, she was able to find her way up to 18th by the final lap of the race. Her run was impressive enough to force the hands at Germain Racing to offer her up a contract, and they finalized the deal this past Wednesday. Chrissy will run another six races this year in the no. 03 Toyota Tundra – the first of which will be on June 20th in Milwuakee, and from there she will begin to prepare for her 2009 rookie campaign.

Regarding her signing with Germain, Chrissy stated, “I’m extremely excited. This is a big deal for us. When I saw my name on that contract, I almost couldn’t believe it. But, I’m thrilled about this opportunity.”

Chrissy comes from a long line of racers in her family, to include her father Mike Wallace, and uncles Rusty and Kenny. She has spent the majority of her amateur career racing late model stock cars, and became the first female driver to win at Hickory Motor Speedway in 57 years.  She has also earned herself the backing of the unofficial NASCAR spokesman himself, Tony Stewart, and that just simply can’t hurt matters.

The official signing of Chrissy Wallace is a huge step for NASCAR as they continue to work on building diversity within their garage areas. In recent years, the sport has added a number of drivers with foreign backgrounds, to include such names as Juan Pablo Montoya, Dario Franchitti, and Patrick Carpentier. They have also created and contributed to a multitude of diversity programs in an effort to help this cause. Although Chrissy certainly is not the first female to dawn a NASCAR firesuit, it certainly appears as though that she may potentially be the first to have the necessary combination of talent AND proper equipment afforded to her that it takes to win at NASCAR’s highest levels.

DYN Imposes:
This week, Do You Nascar also asks its readers …

1) Do you think that Chrissy Wallace will be successful in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2009, and will she win Rookie of the Year?

2) Are female drivers often given some of their driving opportunities simply because of their market value as women?

3) Have NASCAR’s diversity programs been successful, and is the diversity they’ve added been good for the sport?

4) What could NASCAR do to expand their diversity programs?

The Craftsman Truck Series returned to action Saturday night at Martinsville for the first time in three weeks since points leader Kyle Busch won in Atlanta. This time, however, it was Dennis Setzer taking the checkered flag in the Kroger 250, sending Bobby Hamilton Racing to victory lane for the first time since the late Bobby Hamilton himself won in Mansfield back in 2005. It was also the first win for Setzer since his victory in Mansfield back in May of last year.

Setzer’s no. 10 Dodge was the class of the field for the majority of the day, but had a steady pack of challengers not far behind him late in the race. Brendan Gaughan appeared to have a truck capable of competing for the checkers, but had to pit alone for fuel under caution with about 25 laps remaining. The stop sent him to the back of the pack and out of contention, though he was able to rebound to an 11th place finish. With only four laps to go, Mike Skinner ran out of gas in turn 2 while running in third place, causing a charging Kyle Busch to get into him and bring out the 14th caution of the day. Skinner was able to get back on the track, but now found himself 2 laps down.

The field lined up for the final restart of the day with Setzer still leading the way, followed by Johnny Benson and Kyle Busch. Setzer pulled away from the field and had the race well-in-hand, but on the final turn of the last lap Busch tried to get under Benson for 2nd place, and incidentally spun them both out, giving them finishes of 25th and 26th, thus ruining both their days.

After starting the race in 35th, Chrissy Wallace finished 17th for Germain Racing in her official NASCAR debut.  Ron Hornaday finished the day off in 8th, moving him into third in points. Kevin Harvick Inc. continued to experience their woes with the other driver, however, as Jack Sprague finished up in 24th after his involvement in an accident between he and Shelby Howard with about 30 to go. Cup Series regulars Denny Hamlin and Ken Schrader both made their first truck series starts of the season. Hamlin finished 21st, while Schrader finished 4th.

Complete Results (from nascar.com):

Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):

For those NASCAR fans that thought after the retirement of Rusty Wallace two years ago that the sole responsibility of getting the Wallace family name into the headlines of the racing world would fall squarely on the shoulders of young Lauren (Warren?) Wallace, you could be sadly mistaken. No, I’m not talking about the trio that currently occupies the Nationwide Series – Mike, Kenny, and Steve – and, I’m not even referring to the team of Rusty Wallace Inc.  I’m actually making reference to the 20-year-old Chrissy Wallace.

For those of you not familiar with the name, Chrissy is the daughter of Mike Wallace, and the niece of future Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace. She’s been racing for a few years now, particularly in late model events in North and South Carolina. She has won four late model events and is also the first female to win a late model stock car event at Hickory Speedway in the track’s 57 year history. Additionally, she’s won forty-plus races in legends cars.

Now, according to Raygan Swan at nascar.com, Chrissy will officially embark on her professional career on March 29th of this year when she competes in the Craftsman Truck Series’ Kroger 250 at Martinsville. She has partnered herself with the Toyota team Germain Racing and will compete in at least five Craftsman Truck races as well as five ARCA races throughout the course of the season. If she runs well in those events, who knows, she could potentially be tapped to run more events if scheduling permits. Chrissy’s father, Michael, also races for Germain in the Nationwide Series, and this move will officially make them the first father-daughter combo to ever race for the same team in NASCAR.

In response to questions regarding the status of women in NASCAR – or, in the racing world in general – Chrissy stated, “I feel more accepted here, especially lately because I proved my point by winning. But, guys have it stuck in their heads that females don’t need to be out here. The phrase ‘never a successful female’ is stuck in owners’ minds and some have said we don’t run well and look like idiots, but if you don’t take a chance, you’ll never know.”