Chad McCumbee (# 08 U.S. Restoration Chevy) is a believer in serendipity. Just when life was handing the 21-year-old North Carolina resident lemons, McCumbee squeezed out lemonade – and how. McCumbee, on foot after his original team cut back its Truck Series schedule earlier this month, got the seat in Green Light Racing’s Chevy when the original driver backed out of his commitment to drive the truck at Texas Motor Speedway. Enter McCumbee, who’d been knocking on Green Light general manager Bobby Dotter’s door for several days. McCumbee, a go-kart, Allison Legacy and ARCA RE/MAX Series graduate who earned 15 minutes of fame when he portrayed Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the ESPN bio pic “3,” took the bit in his teeth and charged to a career-best, ninth-place finish in the Sam’s Town 400. His performance was a personal best and Green Light’s top finish on a superspeedway. Owner Gene Christensen and Dotter were particularly impressed with McCumbee’s efforts during a late-race restart on which the driver was 10th – but on older tires than his pursuers. McCumbee quickly was promoted from substitute to fulltime driver beginning with last week’s event at Michigan International Speedway where he finished 18th and solidified his #3 position in Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings. He’ll make his next appearance in Friday’s Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200.
News & Notes Part II:
Driver/Budweiser Poles/Series Starts
1) Jack Sprague, 27, 232
2) Mike Skinner, 27, 114
3) Mike Bliss, 18, 159
4) Joe Ruttman, 17, 168
5) Three competitors with 12
Mike Skinner (#5 Toyota Tundra Toyota) continues his assault on Truck Series qualifying records. Skinner knocked down his third Budweiser Pole of the 2006 season at Michigan International Speedway on June 17 and moved his career-qualifying needle to 27 poles. The number “27” is significant in that it matches the all-time record held by Jack Sprague (#60 Con-way Freight Toyota). Sprague had held the mark alone since the 2001 season during which he surpassed Skinner’s qualifying record of 15 poles. Skinner has matched Sprague’s record in fewer than half as many starts – 114 vs. 232. That works out to roughly one pole every four races. Skinner’s bid to break the record could be blunted this week as Sprague is the defending Budweiser Pole winner at The Milwaukee Mile with four poles overall at the flat, one-mile speedway. Skinner was the #1 qualifier for Milwaukee’s inaugural event in 1995 and the first of five pole winners to win the Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200.
Career season adds up to huge point lead for Bodine: Todd Bodine (#30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota) had to hustle for his eighth top-five finish of the year in Michigan’s recent event. Bodine qualified 25th in the 36-truck field but stood fourth at the conclusion of the race. The finish pushed his championship lead to a record 178 points after 10 races as David Reutimann (#17 Team Tundra Toyota), despite finishing 15th, overtook Ted Musgrave (# 9 Team ASE/Germain Toyota) for the runner-up spot. The next-largest lead at this point in the season is 92 points – Sprague heading Greg Biffle in 2000. Biffle, however, rebounded to win the championship. This week marks the one-year anniversary of Bodine rejoining Germain Racing. He’s won eight races and recorded 18 top-five finishes in those 25 races.
But the second half of the top 10 is incredibly close: Rick Crawford (#14 Circle Bar Truck Corral Ford) took over the sixth position at Michigan – for now, anyway. Just 10 points covers positions six through 10th with Crawford scoring 1,318 points to #10’s Mike Bliss (#16 IWX Motor Freight Chevy) 1,308.
Benson bags #1 in 60th appearance: Johnny Benson (#23 Exide Batteries Toyota) welcomed a new sponsor in style with his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory that came, appropriately, before an estimated 60,000 mostly partisan fans at Michigan International Speedway. Benson had finished second on four occasions, the most recent coming in June 2005 at Texas Motor Speedway. The former NASCAR Busch Series champion became the 17th different competitor to score victories in all three of NASCAR’s national touring series. The win was the third for team owner Bill Davis and seventh for crew chief Rick Ren, who has guided four different drivers to Victory Lane.
Etc:
Thirty of 34 finishers in Saturday’s Con-way Freight 200 completed all 102 laps to eclipse by three the record for most lead lap finishers. The previous mark was recorded three times – including last year’s Michigan race and most recently last October at Martinsville SpeedwayThis week’s race marks a homecoming for several members of Billy Ballew Motorsports including crew chief Richie Wauters (Green Bay), mechanics Darin Bravery (Edgerton) and Jay Czarapata (Krakow) and hauler driver Chris Wood (Sun Prairie). In addition, Nacedah native Johnny Sauter has been tapped to drive the team’s #51 Bowen Family Homes Chevrolet. Crewmember J.R. Norris won last August’s NASCAR AutoZone Elite Series, Midwest Division race at The Milwaukee MileRyan Moore (#40 AutoMotion Chevy) has become the 18th member of this year’s Raybestos Rookie of the Year class. Erik Darnell (#99 Woolrich Ford) continues as the standings leaderThe Milwaukee Mile has produced just one rookie winner in 11 previous races. Kurt Busch’s 2000 victory was the first of four in his record-setting freshman seasonReutimann has fashioned back-to-back top-10 finishes in NASCAR Busch Series competition at Nashville and Kentucky and will do double-duty this weekend as well. The Milwaukee Mile hosts NASCAR Busch Series racing on Saturday marking the first of two weekends on which the two series appear together in 2006. They’ll next share the pavement Aug. 4-5 at the newly named O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis. Others slated to drive in both Milwaukee events are Sauter, Bliss and Erin Crocker (#98 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge).
On the right track:
Champions prevail at The Milwaukee Mile; seven of 11 races have been won by five Truck Series champions. Although only one – Skinner – has been able to win Milwaukee and a title in the same season (1995). All will compete in this year’s race: Skinner, Sprague, Bliss, Musgrave and Ron Hornaday Jr. (#33 Chevy). Musgrave is the track’s only multiple series winner with victories in 2001 and 2004. Add these three and the field boasts eight former winners Also competing are defending winner Dennis Setzer (#85 FlexFuel Chevy), Terry Cook (#10 Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford), the 2002 winner and Brendan Gaughan (#77 Orleans Racing Dodge), who visited Victory Lane the following year.
In the loop:
Last year’s winner, Dennis Setzer, came within a fraction of a percentage point of recording a perfect Driver Rating of 150.000. Setzer scored a 149.800 rating as five finishers had Driver Ratings in triple digits. Unsurprisingly, Todd Bodine is the season leader with a Driver Rating of 115.2. David Reutimann is next at 107.3 with Johnny Benson third at 101.7. Bodine has run 99.75 percent of this year’s 1,607 laps (1,603). Rick Crawford is second in the category at 99.38 percent (1,597/1,607) while Matt Crafton is third with 98.20 (1,578/1,607). Here’s a snapshot of Loop Data from last year’s event at The Milwaukee Mile.
From the archives:
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Two competitors – Mike Skinner and Dennis Setzer – who battled for victory in the final laps of the 1995 inaugural race at The Milwaukee Mile are among favorites to win this year’s Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200. They finished one-two in an event contested at a 125-mile distance. The race was expanded to 200 laps in 1996. Other top-10 finishers from 1995 expected to compete for this year’s victory include Ron Hornaday Jr. (third), Johnny Benson (seventh) and Jack Sprague (ninth).
Fast facts:
What: Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200 (Race 11 of 25)
Where: The Milwaukee Mile, West Allis, Wis
When: 9:15 p.m. ET, June 23
Track layout: 1-mile paved oval
Race length: 100 miles/100 laps
Posted awards: $519,687
TV: SPEED Channel, 9 pm/et
Radio: MRN, XM Satellite
2005 winner: Dennis Setzer
2005 polesitter: Jack Sprague
Pre-race schedule (all times local): Friday-Practice 11:00 a.m. -12 noon. Rookie Practice 12:30 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. Final Practice 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Qualifying 5:30 p.m. Trucks impounded after qualifying.(NASCAR PR)(6-19-2006)
