A lot of eyes in the NASCAR Nextel Cup garage were watching Friday night's Craftsman Truck race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC. This is because the track was repaved during the off season and no one knows yet how things are going to go at next week's Coca Cola 600. During testing it was discovered that the cars were too fast with a softer tire and were hard to control. So Goodyear has provided a tire so hard that it will never wear out. So during practice guys were using tires for several laps and plan to use those during the race. New tires make the cars too loose. So this was the first opportunity to see a race on the new pavement. Mike Skinner-#5 Toyota won the pole and history was made as Erin Crocker-#98 Cheerios Dodge became the highest qualifying woman ever in a NASCAR race by qualifying second. She finished 18th. The third qualifyer was interesting too. Marcos Ambrose-#20 Team Australia Ford is from Tazmania and is a champ in Australia. He is trying to break into NASCAR and this was his best qualifying effort. But he crashed on lap 4 and finished last.
Mike Skinner led early but eventually had mechanical problems and dropped out of the race. Kyle Busch-#51 Nationwide Land Liquidators Chevy took the lead on lap 37 and was never really challenged and won the race. Terry Cook#10 Powerstroke Diesel Ford finished second but never came close to Busch. Todd Bodine-#30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota finished third and still leads the points. It was Kyle Busch's second consecutive Charlotte Craftsman Truck series race. But the race itself was nothing unusual and that bodes very well for tonight's Nextel All Star race.
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