11/13/03……….. The Toyota Tundra has been in the news a lot lately. The Japanese manufacturer recently unveiled the Toyota Tundra Racing V8 engine at the SEMA auto show which will be used in the Craftsman Truck Series debut of the Toyota Tundra this coming February 13th at Daytona. The normally aspirated overhead valve Toyota V8 racing engine was developed in the United States by Toyota Racing Development.

The 358 cubic inch V8 is capable of producing 650 horse power with the computer optimized cooling system for the cast aluminum cylinder head and cast iron block. The engine is equipped with forged aluminum pistons, forged steel connecting rods, and high strength steel crankshaft. Even the fuel pump and exhaust system were created by the Toyota racing Development team at its Costa Mesa, California facility.

This past week, former Craftsman Truck Series driver Joe Ruttman drove the Tundra at the Daytona facility in a two-day manufacturers testing session. Ruttman is reported to have turned a speed in the 49 second range of 180.181 miles per hour on the 2.5 mile high banked tri-oval. Ruttman won the 2001 Florida Dodge Dealers 250 and holds the qualifying record of 187.583 miles per hour.

The Scene daily reported that Bill Davis Racing (BDR) tested the Tundra at the Atlanta Speedway this past Wednesday with Shelby Howard and Matt Crafton. Crafton is reported to have had the best lap of the two turning 176.336 on the 1.54 mile track while the 18 year old BDR development driver Howard turned a fast lap of 174.014.

The rumor mill has been buzzing with the teams and drivers who will be representing Toyota in the 2004 Craftsman Truck Series. Naturally, Bill Davis Racing will be among the fray with at least one truck that may be driven by Shelby Howard. A team called Bang Racing owned by Larry McReynolds and Alex Meshkin will field two trucks that may be driven by Travis Kvapil and Mike Skinner. Innovative Motorsports (George de Bidart) is believed to be fielding two trucks that may be driven by Hank Parker Jr. and Robert Huffman. Waltrip Racing Inc. is reported to be fielding one Toyota truck. D W is planning on driving a lot of the races, but it isn’t known at this time who will be helping him out the driving duties on the tracks that his wife Stevie won’t allow him to race on.

11/14/03….. Matt Crafton won’t be driving a Toyota Truck for BDR. Kevin Harvick Inc. announced today that it will be fielding a full time truck team in 2004. The No. 6 Chevy will be driven by Matt Crafton and will be sponsored by GM Goodwrench, the same sponsor that backs the No. 29 Chevy Harvick drives for Richard Childress racing.

Toyota announced today that the above named teams, Innovative Motorsports, Bill Davis Racing, Bang Racing, and Waltrip Racing Inc. will be fielding their Toyota Tundra’s for the 2004 season. The manufacturer also announced in its press release that BDR will assist Toyota Racing Development USA in building the trucks and the NASCAR spec Toyota V8 engine.

11/15/03…… Travis Kvapil is the winner of the 2003 Craftsman Truck Championship! As per usual with some of these down to the wire decisions, there’s a certain amount of controversy associated with the win. This year marks one of the closest and most decisive championships in Truck Series history.

We all know that you can’t pass to the left on a restart in any NASCAR race, regardless of what series is involved. The drivers all know that too. Things happen; sometimes drivers get on the throttle a little too heavy and spin their tires on a restart. When this occurs the driver behind them either has to use his brakes heavily, or swerve around the slower driver to avoid ramming into him. This is what Ted Musgrave claims happened to him on the final restart of the championship race with just two laps to go. Musgrave claims he had to pull out around the truck in front of him to avoid a collision, but he pulled out to the left and was in the act of passing before the restart, so he was black flagged by the race officials, taking him out of the championship lead and relegating him back to third place in the standings. Naturally, Musgrave is livid as to the circumstances and the results, but NASCAR’s rules are very simple in this case, and the officials took ten minutes or more to make the final decision, giving Musgrave every benefit of the doubt, BUT, videos don’t lie, and after watching the pictures of the restart several times, NASCAR officials awarded the championship to Travis Kvapil. Unlike his usual demeanor, Musgrave had some harsh words to say after the decision, and also stated that he would be coming back next year with a different attitude concerning the rules and the way he races. That sounds like the robber telling the banker when and where he’s going to rob him!

Travis Kvapil won his first Craftsman Truck Series Championship with 3837 points. Dennis Setzer moved up two spots to finish in second with 3828 points, just nine points down from the leader. Musgrave finished in third with 3819 points, 19 points out of the lead. Brendan Gaughan, the point’s leader coming into the race, finished fourth with 3797, just 40 points away from the brass ring. Jon Wood finished in fifth, with a -178. Carl Edwards was the top finishing rookie finishing in 8th and will no doubt take the Raybestos Rookie of the Year title.

Bobby Hamilton was the winner of the final event of the season, giving him two wins for the season and four overall wins in the series. The top ten starters and how they finished:

1. Bobby Hamilton -- No. 4 Dodge – finished 1st
2. Chad Chaffin -- No. 18 Dodge – finished 10th
3. Andy Houston -- No. 2 Dodge – finished 4th
4. Travis Kvapil -- No. 16 Chevy -- finished 6th
5. Terry Cook -- No. 29 Ford – finished 11th
6. Brandon Whitt -- No. 138 Chevy – finished 35th
7. Rick Crawford -- No. 14 Ford – finished 2nd
8. Bill Lester -- No. 8 Dodge – finished 18th
9. Jon Wood -- No. 50 Ford – finished 8th
10. Ted Musgrave -- No. 1 Dodge – finished 13th

Following Hamilton across the finish line were Rick Crawford, David Starr, Andy Houston, Jack Sprague, Travis Kvapil, Dennis Setzer, Jon Wood, PJ Jones, and Chad Chaffin.

11/22/03……….. The 2004 Craftsman Truck Series season may end up being the best ever. We’ve all been watching the emergence of Toyota into the sport, and regardless of how we feel about a foreign automaker coming into NASCAR racing, I truly believe that they’ll add much needed spice to the rather bland truck series.

Also adding lots of spice for the 2004 season will be the new team of Bang Racing. We’re all aware of co-owner Larry McReynolds’ contributions to our sport, and we should all rest assured that the Bang Racing team will have great direction. As I wrote in my last article, Bang Racing will field two Toyota trucks, the No. 42 which will be driven by former Craftsman Truck Series Champion Mike Skinner, and the No. 24 which will be driven by this season’s champion, Travis Kvapil. This gives Bang Racing the upper hand with two championship caliber drivers. Look out Dodge, Toyota’s here!

Mike Skinner’s No. 42 Toyota will be sponsored by Toyota Racing Development (TRD). I haven’t heard who will be sponsoring Kvapil’s No. 24 entry, but will keep an ear to the ground for any future news on it. McReynolds wrote in an article for Fox Sports earlier in the week that Toyota sought a young developmental type driver for it’s second entry and this past summer when Xpress Motorsports owner Steve Coulter hired three time champion Jack Sprague to drive Kvapil’s No. 16 IWX Chevy in 2004, it left the door open for Bang Racing and Toyota to sign Kvapil. Little did they know at that time that they would be hiring this season’s champion, although they were aware that he was in contention for the title.

Travis Kvapil bathed in the spotlight at the 2003 Craftsman Truck Series award ceremonies held last week at a resort in Miami Beach. The first time champion received the driver’s point fund check for $320k and more than $50k in other bonuses for his stellar season of one win, 12 top five finishes, 22 top ten finishes, and three Bud poles awards in 25 races.

Kvapil won the closest championship race in history amid controversy involving point’s leader Ted Musgrave’s pass on the left during a late race restart. The ending championship points had a spread of only 40 points between the top four drivers. The fourth finishing driver, Brendan Gaughan was fined $10k this past week for improper language after the event, along with Ted Musgrave, who was fined $2.5k for his derogatory comments after losing the championship.

This improper language thing needs to be looked at more carefully. These race drivers have to go though a lot of emotional twists and turns during a race, especially those who are involved in the championship hunt. I feel that it’s unfair for the media to stick microphones in their faces as soon as they exit from their racers, or as soon as they get bad news that hold emotional consequences, such as what happened with Ted Musgrave.

Sure, you’ll have fans who feel that these drivers should be fined for their foul mouths and that they are role models for kids, and all of that blah. What people need to realize is that these drivers are only human, and it’s NASCAR and the media who should be fined for not allowing them to gain their composure before they are held up in front of the world in an effort to make NASCAR and the media look good! If this kind of attitude persists between NASCAR and the media, you’re going to have more drivers like Tony Stewart, who decline to even speak to the media or NASCAR until they have had a chance to cool off. It may even come to pass where all you will hear is “no comment” on a regular basis from drivers, owners, and team members. This is the only way to teach NASCAR and the media the valuable lesson they desperately need to learn!