Ricky Carmichael endured significant growing pains last season as a rookie in the Camping World Truck Series.

Carmichael, a 15-time American Motorcyclist Association champion nicknamed GOAT or "Greatest Of All Time," admittedly still doesn't have this whole truckin' thing completely figured out. Slowly but surely, however, his growing pains are being replaced by steady gains.

“

I'll never be happy until I'm winning, but it definitely has, I think, validated in some people's mind that I can do this and that we can make it happen.

”

-- RICKY CARMICHAEL

A look at Carmichael's 2010 results vs. 2009 is enough proof he's moving in the right direction. His season has included more top-10 finishes (four) and top-fives (one) in 11 races than he recorded in 18 starts last year.

Being in the seat full time for Turner Motorsports this season after a partial schedule with Kevin Harvick Inc., last year has been instrumental to Carmichael's success.

"It's been very crucial and very beneficial to be in the seat every single weekend," said Carmichael, 30, who had two top-10s as a rookie. "For the guys who aren't racing when the Trucks aren't racing, they're not getting in extra seat time on me that I'm already lacking. So it definitely is a big help -- there's no doubt -- and it just gets me more and more experience and gets me more and more comfortable."

Despite competing for an organization in its first full season, Carmichael isn't surprised by his 2010 results -- which include a career-best, fourth-place finish at Dover in May. Carmichael enters Friday's AAA Insurance 200 (7:30 p.m. ET on SPEED) at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis 11th in the standings after a crash last weekend at Gateway ruined a promising run.

"I knew we were going to be pretty good just with my whole program, and I knew the team that we had, so I expected to do better just with the experience alone that I had, and I'm a little more familiar with it," said Carmichael, who debuted with Turner this past November at Phoenix. "And I knew that our equipment would be really good, so I expected to do what we're doing. I expected to be in the top 10 and at the best, inside the top five, and we're right there.

"I'm not surprised at all. I wanted to be where we're at in this day in the game."

With his illustrious motorcycling career that also included 150 AMA Pro Racing wins and a victory in the prestigious Motocross of Nations, Carmichael certainly isn't used to struggling in racing.

Based on the first 11 races of 2010, it appears his biggest struggles may be behind him in the Truck Series.

"I'll never be happy until I'm winning, but it definitely has, I think, validated in some people's mind that I can do this and that we can make it happen," Carmichael said. "I didn't quit motocross just to drive NASCAR. All this came at a perfect time. I was at the end of my road in motocross and I was retiring [in 2007] and at the same time got a chance to try stock-car racing. So it's all unfolded, and if I made it, I made it. If not, there was nothing gained, nothing lost. So for me this is all a plus.

"I think this year I've showed everybody that I can make this happen, and I think that I'll get better and better with seat time. And that's what the results are showing -- that the more that I'm in the seat behind the wheel, the better my results get and the more comfortable I get."

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