Notes: ORP action-packed in heart of Indy

There have been many big moments since 1995 when the Truck Series became part of NASCAR's mid-summer celebration of speed at O'Reilly Raceway Park and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Mike Skinner won the former track's first two races leading all 350 laps -- proof enough to then owner Richard Childress that the California native deserved promotion to the Cup Series, his destination the following year.

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The 1998 race was a slugfest between champions Jack Sprague and Ron Hornaday. Sprague's victory, after his rival wound up in the wall, remains among the series' most controversial.

A 16-year-old high school student from Las Vegas made his NASCAR national-series debut at ORP in 2001. Kyle Busch finished ninth.

Check the record books for the rest of the story.

In 2004, the improbable appeared ready to happen. Johnny Sauter led nearly 150 laps in a backyard-built truck. The lap that counted -- No. 200 -- however, belonged to Chad Chaffin. It was the only lap Chaffin led.

Last year's race found two from ORP's inaugural race battling for the victory once again. Hornaday and Skinner went nose-to-tailgate and occasionally side-by-side in a tense, final-laps duel that culminated in Hornaday's record-breaking fourth consecutive victory.

This year's 16th edition of the Truck race at O'Reilly Raceway Park figures to be equally distinguished. Hornaday and Skinner, the series' top two short-track winners, will match up yet again. Sauter, a winner earlier this spring at Kansas -- and at Hornaday's expense -- has unfinished business. Busch is after his third victory of the season locked in a tight, three-way owners' championship struggle with Germain Racing and Kevin Harvick Inc.

In the Loop: Position key to victory

Nowhere is qualifying as vital as it is at ORP in the Truck Series. The proof is in the numbers. In 15 series races there, five race winners started on the pole. Three more came from the outside pole. Another three started third, one from fourth and two from fifth. Add that all up, and 14 of the 15 race winners started in the top five.

Only one winner has started outside the top five -- Johnny Benson in 2008. That race made the above stat even more telling. Quite possibly, Benson knew the secret was early track position. On the first lap, he drove like it was the last lap. Starting eighth that event, Benson passed three trucks on the very first lap. So though he started Lap No. 1 in eighth, he started Lap No. 2 in fifth.

Since the inception of Loop Data in 2005, the eventual winner vaulted to -- or near -- the lead early. Two of the past five winners (Dennis Setzer in '05 and Rick Crawford in '06) were first at the race's midpoint. All others were in the top four.

With 20 laps to go in the past five ORP races, four eventual race winners were in the lead. Only Setzer in 2005 came from behind to win with 20 laps to go. He was second beginning the race's final 20 laps.

Chad Chaffin's last-lap pass of Johnny Sauter took place in 2004, the year before the inception of the Loop Scoring Data system. From a competitive standpoint, however, it remains the gold standard of Truck racing at ORP.

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Cobb chases Truck Series history

Three female drivers hope to take the green flag in Friday night's AAA Insurance 200 -- two of them veterans of the series and a third making her first start. Jennifer Jo Cobb is bidding to become the highest-ranked female in the point standings in the series' 16-year history.

Michelle Theriault has competed in four previous races. She most recently finished 36th at Iowa in 2009. Friday's race is the first of six the Connecticut native plans to run for Andy Hillenburg's Fast Track Racing.

Johanna Long will be making her series debut and at age 18 become the youngest of her sex to compete in a Truck event. Caitlin Shaw, then 19, finished 24th in last year's ORP race to set the mark.

Cobb, who posted her first top-15 finish earlier this season at Texas, ranks 17th following her 20th-place finish at Gateway. That matches the ranking achieved by Tammy Jo Kirk during the 1997 season.

Long, from Pensacola, Fla., enters the series with multiple late-model victories, championships in Blizzard and Gulf Coast series and a pole position for the Snow Ball Derby, one of late-model racing's preeminent post-season special events. She follows Kelly Sutton into the cockpit of the Billy Ballew Motorsports truck. Sutton, the series' female leader with 54 starts, campaigned a Ballew truck three times in 2007 with a best finish of 20th at Milwaukee.

"She's extremely talented and has been very successful to this point," owner Billy Ballew said of Long. "The series is a great venue for her to grow as a driver."

Long recently tested at Georgia's Gresham Motorsports Park and logged some of the fastest laps turned by a number of Camping World Truck teams.

"This is a great opportunity," Long said. "Billy Ballew Motorsports has great people and great equipment. Billy's guys have been very successful helping other up-and-coming drivers transition into NASCAR." (Continued)