Champ Hornaday selected Truck Series Driver of Year

NASCAR.COM staff members have chosen their driver of the year for the three national series as well as NASCAR Driver of the Year. The four-part series begins with the Camping World Truck Series:

Mark Aumann
Ron Hornaday had some unfinished business to take care of after losing the 2008 championship by seven points to Johnny Benson. He did that -- and more -- by winning five consecutive races on his way to his fourth Truck Series title. Starting at Milwaukee in June, Hornaday was unstoppable for most of the summer, dominating race after race on his way to an insurmountable advantage in the standings. Even though he didn't win another race after Nashville, Hornaday scored top-10 finishes in six of the last seven events to become the oldest driver to win a championship in NASCAR's national touring series. And he vowed that he's not close to hanging up his helmet any time soon.

Ron Hornaday, left, and Kyle Busch

Driver of the Year

NASCAR.COM staff votes

	Busch	Crafton	Hornaday
Mark Aumann			x
Jarrod Breeze	x
David Caraviello	x
Duane Cross	x
Bill Kimm		x
Joe Menzer			x
Dave Rodman			x
Chris Stanfield			x
TOTAL	3	1	4

Jarrod Breeze
It's hard to argue against a history-making champion who won six races, including five in a row, and finished in the top 10 in 20 of 25 races, but with all due respect to Ron Hornaday, Kyle Busch was the best "pure" driver in the Truck Series in 2009. True, Hornaday had as many top-fives as Busch had starts (15), but the latter won seven of them, tops in the series, and finished with 11 top-fives and 13 top-10s. Busch also won five consecutive races in which he was entered. (It should be noted, that in the six races Hornaday won, Busch did not drive in four of them.) But Busch's biggest contribution to Billy Ballew's operation never was more evident than the season's final race. Ballew's No. 51 truck trailed the Hornaday-driven No. 33 of Kevin Harvick Inc. by 60 points in the owners' standings. After starting from the rear for an engine change, Busch charged to the front and by mid-race the two trucks were even in points. A cut tire and subsequent pit-road penalty during that stop put a second rally out of reach as Busch finished off the lead lap for the only time in 2009.

David Caraviello
OK, this is meant as absolutely no offense to Ron Hornaday, who more than deserved the Truck Series championship this year. What he did at 51 years old, winning six races -- five of them consecutively -- and claiming the title in a runaway stands as a testament to experience. And yet, had Busch run the series full-time, there might have been no catching him. Busch won seven races (one more than even Hornaday) in his 15 starts, and finished inside the top five all but four times. He was a factor in every race he was in. Had he run the full season, it would have been easy to envision Rowdy dominating the series just as Hornaday did. Now that his Truck team is a reality, maybe that will happen one day.

Duane Cross
Kyle Busch was the driver of the year. This isn't "full-time" or "part-time" driver; it's who was the best driver in the series in 2009. Busch was the one to beat each time he entered a Truck Series race, and 67 percent of the time he finished what he started in Victory Lane. The Truck Series remains NASCAR's most competitive national series, and Busch made it his playground (even more so than running away with the Nationwide Series championship). In only 15 starts, Busch led 868 laps -- only 223 less than series leader Hornaday, who ran 1,544 more laps than Busch. And keep in mind, when Busch and Hornaday went head-to-head, Busch won seven of the 15 races; Hornaday won two. Now that Busch has a Truck team of his own it only underlines that we may never know how great he could be; he's never focused on only one series for an entire season. However, it is safe to assume if that time comes that Busch will not only win but dominate, just as he did on his terms in the Truck Series this year.

Matt Crafton

Voice of Dissent

Bill Kimm on Matt Crafton

It's easy to pick Ron Hornaday or Kyle Busch as the Truck Series driver of the year and both drivers have earned the honor. For me, however, the Truck Series is about development. I went a little deeper, and no one was more impressive than Matt Crafton. A Truck Series regular since 2001, Crafton had been a good driver, but never a championship contender -- until this season. Crafton wasn't fortunate enough to visit Victory Lane in '09, but his 11 top-five finishes were second to Hornaday (15) and Crafton led the series with 21 top-10s. Crafton finished every race this season, completed all but two laps and improved his average finish from 11.0 in 2008 to 6.7 in 2009, a career best, leading to a runner-up position in the final standings.

Joe Menzer
While some conceivable argument might be made for Kyle Busch, there really can be no other choice than Ron Hornaday. Not only did Hornaday win the series championship for a record fourth time -- putting him in a very rare class indeed in the storied combined histories of NASCAR's three national touring series -- but he also won a record five races in a row during one remarkable stretch of the season. That hadn't been done in any of NASCAR's top series since Richard Petty and Bobby Allison did it in the Cup Series in 1971. Plus, with his four championships, Hornaday joins only Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon on the short list of drivers who have won four championships in any of NASCAR's three national series. His six wins overall in 2009 that led to the championship trump Busch's own remarkable run that included a series-high seven wins despite making only 15 of 25 starts.

Dave Rodman
In the 2009 Truck Series, Ron Hornaday was the dominant choice for driver of the year. Hornaday, the series' first four-time champion, was truly super when it came to being competitive, marked by a modern record five consecutive victories scored at the mid-point of the season. And he was truly fluid when it came to rolling with the flow of ups and downs that are part of any season, but particularly in a venue as competitive as the Truck Series is. In the closing stages of the season, veteran Mike Skinner came close to challenging Hornaday for the title. But in the end, Hornaday was head and shoulders above the rest when tallying this campaign.

Chris Stanfield
One might argue that Kyle Busch deserves the nod for Driver of the Year in the Truck Series. With 10 fewer races than Ron Hornaday this season, Busch can lay claim to one more win (7) than Hornaday (6) and has led almost as many laps. Plenty of 'what if' questions could easily be asked had Kyle Busch decided to race a full Truck season. Problem is -- he didn't. And Ron Hornaday got it done for an unprecedented fourth time. Hornaday is more than a fierce competitor. He's also a consistent one and well deserving of the Driver of the Year honor.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

Staff writer Raygan Swan is on maternity leave and did not participate in the voting.

Driver of the Year Schedule
• Dec. 12: Truck | Dec. 19: Nationwide | Dec. 26: Cup | Dec. 28: NASCAR