NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

If the progression of Brian Scott's finishes keep to the established pattern, he should win his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race...well, any time soon.

Scratch a bad day at Fontana, where he smacked the wall 25 laps in after a coming together with Mike Skinner, from the equation and Scott's finishes in the Xpress Motorsports No. 16 Albertson's Toyota Tundra are a steady climb up the results sheet. Starting at Daytona with 12th, 10th at Atlanta, eighth at Martinsville and third at Kansas, Scott's having a strong start to his second full season in the Truck Series.

"If you look at our year, we've been capable of running in the top five all season, although we haven't always ended up with that result," he says. "To be that good and contending for wins, we're pretty happy. We're climbing out of the California hole and I think everybody else will have a bad day at some point, too.

Scott has the unique perspective of driving for the family team; Xpress Motorsports is owned by his father, Joe, who bought the two-time-championship-winning team in 2007. While that may be added pressure on some drivers, for Brian Scott, it's just one more little thing when there's already so much pressure on each and every driver in NASCAR. In addition, he gets to "see a lot of things you might not see driving for somebody else. I get to see how the management works and how we've surrounded ourselves with the best people," he explains.

Pressure or not, Scott is posting the results. After that third at Kansas, where he led three laps, he's seventh in the points, 142 behind leader Skinner, and a handful behind Kyle Busch, who won't be running the full season. He just needs that first win, to top the second he scored at Homestead last season, for all the pieces to start falling into place.

"Getting the elusive first win is at the top of our list," he says. "But I don't want to stop there. I want to be in the Winner's Circle a couple of times...five, 10, heck, as many as I can."

Helping along the way will be more experience, garnered behind the wheel of the No. 10 Braun Racing Camry in the Nationwide Series. Scott's debut in that series came at Nashville, where he finished a respectable 25th, before following it up with a solid 15th-place finish at Phoenix International Raceway.

"Surprisingly, I don't think a Nationwide car is that different from the truck," he explains. "They have the same motor package, you drive them the same way. You've got to keep it wound up. It's really, really similar to a truck. Just a couple of thing are different aerodynamically, the way the car reacts to the other cars around you. It's nice to go in there and not be completely foreign to the equipment."

The Nationwide Series has the bonus of having a gaggle of visiting Cup drivers to race against, something the CWTS provides, too, but in smaller numbers. "It's another opportunity for me to learn something. In NASCAR's top three series, it's not so much about learning how to drive the equipment - that's relatively easy - it's more about learning how other drivers race, how to race people, about running side by side with other drivers. The Cup drivers bring the level of competition up."

All the more reason to lighten things up a bit and have a little fun. And the team's way of doing that? You'll see it every pit stop the No. 16 Truck makes. While other teams have sponsor logos or car numbers on their pit boards - the "lollipops" the teams dangle over the wall to help their driver find the right pit stall - Brian's has a picture of Brian. No, he's not that conceited - it's a picture of Brian Griffin, the dog from the popular cartoon Family Guy.

"I'm glad people are noticing the pit board because we think it's a funny, cool thing. It makes me smile," says Scott. "I think it takes the edge off and keeps people from getting too stressed out. You have to keep your eyes on the prize, but I like having it around."

Keeping his eyes on the prize in the Truck Series, that means heading to Lowe's Motor Speedway May 10 for the chance to go a couple places better than that Kansas result. And bigger picture, Scott isn't ruling out a serious run for the championship.

"I would be pretty disappointed if we didn't get a couple of wins this season," he says. "If we keep bringing good equipment to the track and I keep my end of the deal, the championship should be a real possibility."