FanHouse DavidStarr

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.)

I didn't get a chance to watch last weekend's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, but I certainly heard about the melee that took place after the race on pit road.

If you missed it, the tiff was a result of David Starr making contact with both Germain Racing Toyotas -- Todd Bodine and David Reutimann -- during the race. Tempers flared when Starr pulled to pit road after the event and both Germain pit crews surrounded his truck.

Bodine's crew chief Mike Hillman Sr. was apparently the ring leader of the whole brouhaha, and pulled Starr from his own truck which, naturally, got Starr -- a Texan -- pretty riled up. Starr started swinging (he appeared to connect on at least three shots) and everyone started scuffling. (Watch the video further down this post!)

In other words, it was an ending to a race that the Truck Series -- that's been somewhat struggling in 2008 due to a variety of reasons -- needed to gain some more exposure.

Unfortunately for the teams involved, it meant NASCAR penalties on Wednesday.