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The combination of NASCAR's safety developments over the past decade likely saved another driver from serious injury or worse Friday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

On lap 34, Mike Skinner dove to the low side of Johnny Sauter, caught the infield grass and spun a complete 360 before plowing head first into the third dogleg of the LMS frontstretch during a Camping World Truck Series event. Another truck collided simulaneously with Skinner, flipping the black No. 5 truck on its side.

It's not exactly a major story, but we wouldn't be doing NASCAR Camping World Truck Series owner Billy Ballew justice without at least giving mention to the fact that a DUI charged against him has been dropped.

As you'll probably remember, Ballew was nabbed inside Atlanta Motor Speedway's infield -- come to think of it, it wasn't a good weekend in that infield -- after an 'irate' off-duty police officer working track security stopped his vehicle after seeing a cocktail.

This week, the Henry County Sheriff's Office gave notice that the charge was 'dismissed administratively'.

For for the first time in 2009, Kyle Busch left a race weekend without a race-winning trophy in hand and didn't appear a bit pleased with the way that happened.

Kevin Harvick nudged Busch's No. 51 in turn four at Martinsville Speedway and passed him for the lead with 10 laps to go in the rain-postponed Camping World Truck Series Kroger 250 to win the event, but not before Busch fell deep in the field.

While trying to straighten out a fender by brushing the infield wall under caution, Busch crossed the pit road commitment line and earned a penalty for not pitting. Busch was relegated to a 17th-place finish in the Kroger 250, and afterwards, dashed directly towards the track's exit to the motor home lot.

Don't say we didn't warn you.

Monday afternoon will be the right time for race time after rain halted plans to run Saturday's Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway.

The rain set in over the speedway just as CWTS qualifying was ending, but the session was completed with Rick Crawford earning the pole. Instead of taking his truck to the green flag for the Kroger 250 later in the day, he'll instead get that opportunity Monday at 12 p.m./EDT.

Friday afternoon, the skies over Martinsville, Va., didn't cooperate with NASCAR officials.

In town for the sixth race of the still young 2009 season, both the Sprint Cup Series and the Camping World Truck Series got in some needed practice time before rain showers halted activities at the 0.526-mile short track later in the afternoon -- scrubbing both Sprint Cup qualifying and a full CWTS final practice.

Thanks to the rain, point leader Jeff Gordon will start on Sunday's pole but Saturday activities might also be slowed by more precipitation.

Billy Ballew -- the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team owner who Sprint Cup star Kyle Busch often drives for -- was arrested Wednesday evening at Hampton, Ga.'s, Atlanta Motor Speedway on a charge of driving under the influence.

The story, first picked up by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said Ballew was arrested by a sargeant in the Henry County Sherriff's office after Ballew was flagged down while transporting a sponsor from his at-track condominium to a motorhome in the infield.

Ballew confirmed the story to the paper, but claimed that he was simply carrying a mixed drink and "was not drunk" at the time of arrest.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Todd Bodine became the first driver to win multiple NASCAR Camping World Truck Series events at Daytona International Speedway Friday night, but a 20-year-old Canadian driver nearly stole the show.

J.R. Fitzpatrick -- a contender for 2009 Rookie of the Year in the Truck Series -- led 17 laps late in the event before finishing fourth in his first ever NASCAR restrictor plate race after making just three starts in 2008.

He might have even led the most important one had the race been scheduled for a few more miles.

In what has to be one of the more unusual -- or, at least, unexpected -- way to save costs for NASCAR's third-tier Camping World Truck Series, one driver acknowledged competitive pit stops might be gone for 2009.

According to an article over at SceneDaily, NASCAR is expected to announce a few more initiatives this week in a bid to help Truck teams stay solvent among one of the toughest sponsorship climates the sport has ever seen.

Pit stops, three-time Truck Series champ Ron Hornaday Jr., says, might be one of the key elements on NASCAR's cost containment chopping block, though the sanctioning body has yet to acknowledge such a possibility.

Jack Roush, co-owner of NASCAR's Roush Fenway Racing, can sleep a little better these days.

Toyota Racing Development -- long the rotten apple in the eye of Roush -- acknowledged this week in a conference call that it too expects budgetary cuts in the coming year thanks to an automobile market that's having a problem or two selling cars.

One of these days we'll have a story about something growing or getting better in the NASCAR world, but that's not happening today.

Earlier in the week, Mansfield Motorsports Park in middle Ohio canceled its Camping World Truck Series race scheduled for May at short track, and in its place, NASCAR shifted the schedule of the third-tier series to include a race at the nearly-brand-spankin'-new Iowa Speedway in September.

(I suppose if you're an Iowan, your NASCAR life just improved two-fold with the deal thanks to the track landing a Nationwide Series race date over the summer when the 2009 schedules were announced, so that's something positive, I guess?)

Unfortunately for Mansfield, the news got worse on Friday as track owner Mike Dzurilla announced he was closing the speedway for the 2009 season. The half-mile track was the shortest distance on the truck schedule and had become somewhat of a Memorial Day tradition for the truck series to race on Sunday afternoon ahead of the Sprint Cup's Coca-Cola 600.

It wasn't the most well-known track on the schedule nor the largest, but as with any good short tracks, it produced its share of controversy among the always-rowdy truck series drivers. (Want proof? stay tuned for the video.)