Trucking into a Memory
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is at a crossroads. And the future doesn't look very bright.

Since it was born in the mid-1990s, the truck circuit has been a niche series that filled a need NASCAR and the auto manufacturers saw as an opportunity - to help market and expose the fastest-selling segment of the new vehicle market in this country, pick-up trucks.

But now as we all painfully know, the economy and rising fuel prices have taken their toll on all new vehicle sales but particularly truck and SUVs.

Declining sales has meant manufacturers don't have the dollars to fund the truck series any longer and Dodge was the first one to announce they would be forced to pull its factory support of teams competing on the circuit next year.

Rumors in the garage area are that either Ford or Chevrolet may soon follow suit.

Add in the long and drawn out process NASCAR has had trying to find a replacement for title sponsor Craftsman - which will end its run as the series' only title backer after this season - and the future isn't very bright for this series, which continues to put on some of the best racing in NASCAR.

Less than 30 trucks were on the preliminary entry list last week in New Hampshire and at the rate things are going, there are big questions whether or not there will be 30 to start the 2009 season opener in Daytona.

Like the convertible circuit of the 1950s, which filled a racing niche more than 50 years ago when ragtops were flying out of the showroom like hotcakes, the trucks are very close to being a part of NASCAR's history unless some big changes - and money - come into the division.

Here's hoping that happens and the trucks enjoy a long run into the future. 
Posted: 9/19/2008 9:19:39 AM
Comments:
SHOULD HAVE KEPT THE SERIES IN TUCSON< ARIZONA WHERE IT STARTED WITH BENNY & GREG
Posted On: 9/22/2008 3:18:40 PM

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