Matt Crafton does a burnout after winning the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. (Jason Smith/Getty Images Photo) » More Photos » More Photos

One driver who might be ready to break on through with a victory at Memphis on Saturday is Matt Crafton, who put the No. 88 Menard’s Chevrolet into victory lane for the first time at Lowe’s Motor Speedway last month. In seven NCTS starts at Memphis, Crafton has finished outside the top 10 just once, a tribute to his consistency.

What about the powerhouse Bill Davis Racing Toyotas? NCTS points leader Johnny Benson, driver of the No. 23 Toyota Certified Used Vehicles Tundra, has never finished better than seventh here, while teammate Mike Skinner had his best outing at Memphis last season, when finished fourth in the No. 5 Toyota Tundra-sponsored Toyota. Teammate Michael Annett will be in the third BDR entry this week.

Benson needs a good run this weekend, because while he leads the NCTS points, there are 12 other drivers within 302 points of him. “Usually by this time in the season, there are two or three front runners but with the competition this year, there are still 10 or 12 teams with a legitimate shot at winning the championship,” said Benson.

Todd Bodine, the 2006 series champion, is another driver who has struggled at Memphis, where he’s not finished higher than eighth. Like Benson, he said the title race is wide open. “When we won the championship, we opened with three top-three finishes,” said Bodine. “By race 10, we hadn’t finished worse than 15th,” said Bodine. “Nobody is above bad luck this season.”

Unfortunately for some title hopefuls, Memphis might prove challenging. Rick Crawford, who has driven the Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford F-150 to fifth in points, hasn’t had a top-10 finish at Memphis since 2002. Seventh-place points man Terry Cook, driver of the Wyler.com Toyota, has finished 15th or worse in three of the four most recent races here.

Two dark-horse choices: Ted Musgrave, driver of the Team ASE/Harris Trucking Toyota, has two third-place finishes and one victory here, while rookie Donny Lia has already put his TRG Motorsports Chevy in victory lane at a short-track this season.

And, as always, expect a fight to the finish. “Every year, it seems to come down to the last 10 laps,” said NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Director Wayne Auton. “It should this year as well.”

OFFICIAL ENTRY LIST: Memphis

Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to