Truck Series has a history of dramatic championships (cont'd)

Hornaday confessed that he was focused more on keeping Sprague in sight at that point.

"All I know is that Jack tried to get in front of [Biffle] and he hit him and they both lost momentum and I about won the race," Hornaday said.

Hornaday's crew chief, Fred Graves, said the strategy was a simple one.

Numbers: Truck

Three -- that's all that separates Johnny Benson and Ron Hornaday heading to the season finale at Homestead.

• Complete story, click here
• Rodman: Trucks take lead
• Head2Head: Who will win?

"We told him if Jack got by Biffle, he had to go with him," Graves said. "Ron did what he had to do and so did Jack, and it just worked out for us."

In 2003, it was Gaughan who came into the season finale with the points lead -- albeit a narrow one -- as Ted Musgrave, Travis Kvapil and Dennis Setzer all were within 40 points of the leader.

Two blown engines in practice forced Gaughan to the tail end of the field for the start but he steadily worked his way into contention and seemed to have things going his way with the race winding down. But Marty Houston, driving as a teammate for Musgrave in one of Jim Smith's five Ultra Motorsports trucks, lost control on Lap 101, hit the wall and ricocheted into Gaughan's truck. Bryan Reffner piled into the wreck, effectively ending Gaughan's day, and his championship hopes (watch video).

"I just ran out of talent," Houston said, who said he was pushed up into some oil dry that caused his truck to lose traction.

Gaughan exited his wrecked truck and bowed to the fans. But after being released from the infield care center, Gaughan made his opinions clear on live television: "Jimmy Smith can kiss my [butt]!"

Smith's fortunes would take a huge turn shortly thereafter. A final caution bunched the field for a restart with two laps remaining -- with Kvapil in sixth, Setzer seventh and Musgrave eighth. At that point, Kvapil and Musgrave were tied for the championship, with Musgrave holding the tiebreaker.

But as the line of trucks headed for the start-finish line, Musgrave suddently darted to the left of Setzer -- a big no-no -- and the next time by, Musgrave was shown the black flag. He crossed the finish line in sixth, but after a few minutes of consultation, NASCAR officials placed him 13th, the last truck on the lead lap (watch video).

Musgrave was livid with what he felt was dirty driving by Kvapil.

"Travis must not be good at restarts, or he's the smartest [expletive] in the world," Musgrave said."He nailed the brakes, and I had to turn left to avoid him, knowing it's going to draw a penalty.

"All I can say is next year you're going to see a whole new Ted Musgrave. He's going to be the dirtiest son of a gun out there on the racetrack. You might as well throw that rulebook away. I ain't going by it no more."

NASCAR spokesman Jim Hunter said the decision to black-flag Musgrave was based on precedent.

"It was a clear-cut, easy decision based on what happened in Texas earlier in the year with Brian Vickers [in a Busch Series race]," Hunter said. "We didn't have any other choice. It was cut and dry."

Bobby Hamilton won the race, but the championship went to a surprised Kvapil, who held off Setzer by nine points.

"This is crazy," Kvapil said. "I know if that caution hadn't come out, we'd have had it in our hands for sure. We were going to finish two spots ahead of Ted. Things just went our way.

"Ted was desperate. He had to make up two spots to beat me. It wasn't going to happen. He took a chance and it just didn't pay off for him."

Kvapil had to wait nervously in his truck for 10 minutes before getting the official word.

"It's like you're sitting on death row to see if your time's up," Kvapil said.

If past performance is any indication, engine temperatures won't be the only thing near the boiling point at the end of Friday night's Ford 200.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer