Todd Bodine is looking for his first win in the NC Education Lottery 200 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. (Stephen Dunn/Getty Images Photo) » More Photos

Another driver who loves the 1.5-mile tracks is 2006 series champ Todd Bodine, pilot of the No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota Tundra, the winning truck in the season-opener at Daytona. Of the seven intermediate tracks on the NCTS circuit, Bodine and Hornaday each have won at five of them, though Hornaday has won at Lowe’s, while “The Onion” hasn’t.

While he’s not enjoyed as much success this season as he’d like to in the No. 59 Team ASE/Harris Trucking Toyota, Ted Musgrave has a strong track record at Lowe’s, where in his last five NCTS starts, he has one victory and four top-five finishes, including a fifth-place run here a year ago.

Don’t count out Dennis Setzer, either. Setzer has had a somewhat erratic season in the No. 18 Journey-Melling Dodge, scoring a tremendously emotional victory at Martinsville Speedway, the team’s first win since the death of founder Bobby Hamilton. But he hasn’t better than 10th anywhere else this season, although he is a past LMS winner and as such cannot be discounted.

Last but not least among the contenders are a trio of youngsters who’ve yet to win this season, but have shown tremendous speed at times: Colin Braun, Matt Crafton and Chad McCumbee. Though Braun is just a rookie, he drove the No. 6 Con-Way Freight Ford F-150 to a runner-up finish at Kansas last month, while McCumbee has two outside poles and three finishes of seventh or better in the Malcolmson Construction Ford. And Crafton is long overdue for a first NCTS victory in the No. 88 Menard’s Chevrolet.

As far as other drivers in the top 10 in points, Rick Crawford has used consistency to get to second in points in the Power Stroke Diesel By International Ford, but he only has one finish better than fifth this season and hasn’t had a top five here since 2003.

Johnny Benson has three top-five finishes this season in the Exide Toyota Tundra, but he’s only led a total of six laps in five races this season, while for Jack Sprague, LMS has been a house of horrors: In four career NCTS races here, his average finish is 30.25, which doesn’t bode well for the No. 2 American Commercial Lines Chevrolet.

The bottom line? Expect a hard, fast 200-miler on Friday night, and expect it to be the Rowdy & Ronnie show. It should be one of the best battles of the season as the titans of Trucks duke it out once again under the lights. See you there.

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

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