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Over the last several seasons, the Camping World Truck Series has been dominated by the old guard.  Names like Ron Hornaday, Johnny Benson, Todd Bodine, Ted Musgrave, and Bobby Hamilton have been inscribed on the championship trophy at years end.  This season however, the landscape of the Truck Series may be changing.

I want to start off by giving you an interesting stat.  Through the first ten races of the 2010 season, Ron Hornaday is winless.  It’s the longest opening stretch of races he’s ever gone in his CWTS career without winning a race.  For Hornaday and KHI, that’s a very big deal.  While Hornaday still sits third in the points standings, this winless streak appears to have taken its first victim.  Jayski is reporting that crew chief Doug George has left KHI.  Harvick expects the #33 Chevy to be competing for wins every week, so this move doesn’t come as a shock.  No word yet on who might replace George.

The other moderate surprise this season has been the struggles of Mike Skinner.  After winning three races in 2009, Skinner currently sits sixth in the standings and his best finish was fourth at Texas.  On top of that, he hasn’t been a real threat to win in any race this season.  I say moderate with Skinner, because on some level his performance isn’t surprising.  His #5 Randy Moss Motorsports team has been in disarray since it lost crew chief Eric Phillipsto Kyle Busch Motorsports before the season started.

So who has been winning races while Hornaday and Skinner struggle?  Besides at least one win by Todd Bodine, Kevin Harvick, and Kyle Busch, the story of 2010 has been the new faces.  Aric Almirola, Timothy Peters, Austin Dillon, and Johnny Sauter have all scored at least one victory, and any of these guys could legitimately challenge for the championship.

Starting last weekend at Iowa Speedway, the Truck Series now starts into a summer stretch of races that will go nine straight weeks.  With only ten races currently in the books, a lot can and will change over the next nine weekends.  While you can never count the veterans out, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Truck Series had a first time champion in 2010.

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As NASCAR has struggled through the last year, and teams have closed up shop leaving drivers without a ride, I had to ask myself why more out of work drivers  didn’t make the jump to a lower series?

At the risk of alienating people, I’ll refrain from specifically naming any drivers I think could stand to make a move, but I think the situation poses some real questions.

Is it demeaning to move down? Is it really better to run a start a park in the Cup Series? Is it better to run in the back? Is it better to not make races? I think the answer to all of those is no.

As diverse as the driver list could potentially be I think they easily fall into two categories: (1) the older driver who just isn’t as strong as he used to be; and (2) the younger guy who was rushed into the top series. Both are clinging to what remains of their moment in the sun, not realizing there could be better opportunities elsewhere.

Look at the cases of the drivers who have made a move back to a lower series and been successful. Ron Hornaday spent one full season in the Cup Series and several more in the Nationwide Series. Since returning to the truck series full time in 2005 Hornaday has won 19 races and one championship. He’s revitalized his career.

Or how about Mike Skinner? He spent seven-ish full time seasons in the Cup Series, five with Richard Childress. In 2004 Skinner returned to the truck series with Bang! Racing (which eventually became part of Bill Davis Racing). Since that time Skinner has won 12 races.

The two above aren’t alone either. How about Ted Musgrave, Jack Sprague, Brendan Gaughan, or Johnny Benson? Does anyone find anything shameful in them stepping away from the Cup Series? Absolutely not.

Even this season we saw Johnny Sauter and Aric Almirola find opportunities in the Truck Series.

Sauter, after five full seasons in the Nationwide Series made his move to the Cup Series with Haas CNC in 2007. After a tough year, Sauter was dropped at the end of the season and spent 2008 bouncing around NASCAR. He found a permanent home this season at ThorSport Racing. And you know what? Johnny looks like a guy who’s undergone a rebirth. He’s consistently running upfront now, and even captured his first ever Truck Series win a couple of weeks ago at Las Vegas.

When #8 team ran out of money earlier this year, Almirola was out of a ride. Committed to finding something he was in the garage every weekend. Billy Ballew gave Almirola a part time schedule in one of his trucks and he’s run well.

I guess what I’m saying is, there is no shame in admitting your career has run its course somewhere. When that happens find something new and adapt to your situation. And you never know, that move could just catapult back to the top.

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What started out as a tension filled weekend between the likes of Kevin Harvick Inc. and Thorsport Racing ended up turning into a bizarre display of teammate on teammate crime.  Hey Harvick, if there is one driver that you can be damn sure isn’t going to pull over for you, it’s Ron Hornaday.

After Thorsport driver Matt Crafton was involved in an incident at Gateway the weekend before that ended with point leader Hornaday in the garage with a destroyed truck, rumors began to circulate about possible payback at New Hampshire.  Harvick entered himself into the race in a third truck and proceeded to harass Crafton in both practice and the race.  But the big hit never came. 

Instead, Harvick and Hornaday battled over the final laps while Kyle Busch ran away with the win.  After the race, Harvick expressed his anger over Hornaday not letting him by.  Harvick’s rationale was that his truck was faster, as he was on fresher tires, and if he could get by Hornaday he might have something for Busch.  But Hornaday stood his ground and Harvick was not able to complete the pass.  Harvick couldn’t understand why Hornaday’s spotter (Rick Carelli) and crew chief (Rick Ren) didn’t inform the veteran driver that Harvick wanted by.

You want to know why they didn’t say anything Kevin?  Because Hornaday is racing for a championship.  Isn’t that what you hired him to do?  Win championships?  You certainly don’t do that by letting people by.

Team orders don’t normally bear their ugly head in NASCAR, and are more often seen as part of the strategy in series such as Formula One (see Renault).  In those cases though, teams have a clear number one driver.  In this case, one would think that Hornaday is the number one driver for KHI.  Apparently Harvick doesn’t see things that way.

What really shocks me about this whole situation though, is that Harvick really thought Hornaday should pull over for him.  But if you know anything about Hornaday, you know that isn’t going to happen.  This is a guy that has built his career on rootin’ and gougin’ his way to the front.  He would just as soon wreck you as let you pass.  He came up on the short tracks of the west and isn’t the most successful Truck Series driver ever for nothing.  And Harvick, who followed a very similar path, should understand that better then anyone.

I’m sure the weekend recap meeting at KHI this week was probably an interesting affair.  Hopefully though Harvick realized his error in judgement and apologized to Hornaday.  But if he didn’t, and I was Ron Hornaday, I would politely (or not so politely) tell my boss to go pound sand.