1996 Season
1995 was a great start to my NASCAR career. In 20 starts I achieved the following box score
- 2 wins
- 7 top 5s
- 11 top 10s
- 4 poles
- 88 out of 1053 laps led
- 9.6 average finish
- 5th place in the final championship
It was a very tough season with the schedule mostly composed of bullring tracks that got down to a third of a mile (just over 500 metres) to large winding road courses. I had my highs and I had my lows.
The 1996 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule has had quite a drastic makeover:
- 1.5-mile ovals are introduced to the calendar. The two biggest tracks are the newly constructed Homestead Miami Speedway that starts the season off, and Las Vegas Motor Speedway that completes the season
- Four additional races have been added to the schedule, making this year a test of endurance
- The average race length has gone from 32.7 miles to 51.9 miles. This means that pit strategy will be a lot more relevant this year
I will also be tasked against a familiar crew of competitors: Mike Skinner, Ron Hornaday, Jack Sprague, Mike Bliss, Joe Ruttman, and others will keep us on edge throughout the year.
But in addition to the Truck Series is a whole ‘nother challenge: The Busch Series.
I have picked five races in the 1996 Busch Series schedule to give a shot:
- The season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway, the 2.5-mile high-speed crown jewel of stock car racing
- The Busch Light 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, held the week before the season opener of the Truck Series
- The Dura Lube 200 at the famed Darlington Speedway, also known as the Lady in Black
- The MBNA 200 at Dover Speedway
- The AC Delco 200 at Rockingham Speedway
I picked these tracks as they are very unique from the Truck series calendar. The races are longer, the tracks are trickier (especially Darlington and Dover), and the cars are different. How different? I don’t know, we’ll just have to wait until February.
I’ll be driving Dodge Rams in the Truck Series, just like how I did last year. Dodge will continue to sponsor my truck for 1996. My Busch car is a newly-revamped Ford Thunderbird sponsored by Rain-X, a water repellent product for car windshields.
My Schemes
And so with a tough Truck schedule and a foray into the higher division, 1996 will be one tough year.
So go ahead and pull those belts one more time!