By the Numbers: Truck

Texas Motor Speedway is the last venue of the season at which the Craftsman Truck Series has raced earlier this year, giving drivers a more recent idea of how things might shake out the second time around.

If the June race is any barometer -- this week's Chevy Silverado 350K (8:30 p.m. ET, SPEED) will start at roughly the same time although the fall temperatures may alter track conditions to a varying degree -- the back-and-forth points battle between Johnny Benson and Ron Hornaday could tighten even more or even flip again.

Fast facts

What	Chevy Silverado 350K
When	9 p.m. ET Friday
TV	SPEED, 8:30 p.m. ET
Radio	MRN (Sirius Ch. 128), 9 ET

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Benson leads Hornaday by 31 points, but Hornaday was dominant in winning the Sam's Town 400 in June. Benson finished third, but Hornaday scored 25 more points.

The two leaders at the track in top-10s -- Dennis Setzer and Rick Crawford each have 12 -- did not finish among the 10 best in June. Setzer wasn't far behind in 11th place, but it marked the fourth consecutive race at Texas in which he has failed to post a top-10. Crawford, one of only two drivers to make all 21 starts at TMS -- Terry Cook is the other -- finished 21, his fourth-worst result at the track. He finished fifth in this race last year, at the time his third top-five in a four-race span.

Cook has yet to post a top-five at Texas and has six top-10s, the last coming in November 2006. After dominating TMS to begin his career with a runner-up finish followed by four consecutive victories, tied for most in the series, Brendan Gaughan has only two top-15s since -- a runner-up finish last November and a 15th-place finish this past June.

Speaking of the aforementioned 21 starts for the Trucks at Texas, it's the most starts of any of NASCAR top touring series at the track. The Truck Series debuted at TMS in 1999 and have been racing twice a year there since 1999.