2005 Season
 The Power Gauge received an overhaul. This year, power points would be tracked throughout the whole season and a champion crowned at the end. The scoring system was also changed. Instead of teams having the points they earned in the race be their standings points, a system that used NASCAR points was implemented. The race winner would always receive 180 points no matter how many fantasy points were actually earned. This would eliminate negative points that some teams received during a race. One of the important new features of the league was the institution of a governing body to help aid the president in league matters. The Lucky Dog Racing Planning & Leadership Council was created in January 2005. Last year's champ, Jerry Jones Racing was appointed the league's Vice President. Three additional council members would be added to represent the league members. Those spots were filled by June Bug Racing, Dupont24 Racing and Zipperhead Racing. After a successful first season, word must have spread because new teams started signing up like crazy, especially after the first of the year. Because of the sudden rush of new teams, the council decided to cap the amount of teams that were allowed into the league. Too many teams would be too much for the president to handle each week, so it was decided that 43 teams be allowed in the league, the amount of a Nextel Cup field. By the start of the season, we had 43 teams with no problem. There were also a number of teams that were still on the waiting list. This year there would be 19 more teams in the field each week than the number we ended with in 2004. The Bud Shootout was designated our pre-season race. This would allow all the new teams to become familiar with the race setup before the points were used in the standings. One of the new teams that joined during the off season, Warpigs, won the non-points event. Finally after a long off season, the Daytona 500 had finally arrived. Jeff Gordon won the real event and rookie team High Octane burst out of the gate, not just winning the Daytona 500, but the following race as well. He would win 2 more in a row in the next couple of months. Big Country MotorSports won his first race in Vegas, and Oceanside Racing won her 2nd in Atlanta. In March of 2005, the President came up with the idea of running a second, smaller league that would cover the Busch Series. The Busch Series would be operated similar to the Cup league, however there would be no salaries; drivers would be divided into 4 classes. The Busch league would allow a number of teams who were not able to get into the main league, a chance to play. It would also allow for a number of Cup teams to be able to play in a Busch league as well. The third benefit is that it would serve as a base for extra members that could be called up if any Cup teams left. The first race was held on March 19th in Atlanta and won by the President's Intimidator Racing. The Busch league started out with 16 teams and grew to 27 by the end of May. A few weeks into the Busch season, the Truck bonus was added. The truck bonus was actually an abandoned idea for the Cup Series in which teams would try to guess the winner of the Busch race held that weekend. It never really took off because a number of people said they didn�t watch the Busch series. However, a lot of people who watch the Busch series most likely watch the Craftsman Truck Series races as well, so it worked better here. In April we had the first team change. BoomSooner Racing was deployed to Iraq, so Speed Demon Racing was quickly called up from the Busch league to replace him. In May, the President closed down his personal NASCAR website called The NASCAR Zone, so he moved the track information pages and race photos page that was on that site to the league site. Also added a little earlier in the year was a news section, where members could have their written works displayed for others to read. The second All Star Challenge was held in May. This year only teams who won races last year or this year would be in the race. All other teams would be in the All Star Open, with the winner advancing to the All Star Challenge. We had 19 teams in the All Star Challenge and 23 teams in the Open. With a surprise run by Denton Wolves, he won both the Open and the Challenge. The Cash challenge was a separate competition which was new this year. Members could fork over 5 bucks and have a chance to win the pot. June Bug Racing was the winner and took home 50 bucks. Pappy's Drivers held the lead in the standings for the month of May. Bump And Go Racing and Gasitnpassit traded the lead in June. It was a different look to the standings from last year. One team wasn't dominating the top of the standings all year long. Last year's winner, Jerry Jones Racing only held the top spot for one week in 2005 and fell in and out of the top 10 for awhile. We saw new race winners like CrazyAboutRusty2 at Martinsville, a surprised Galaxy Inc. at Texas, and Pappy's Drivers at Phoenix. Shawnda's Redneck Racing won her first race after the All Star Challenge. Boogity Boogity Boogity and Daniel Jack's Racing Team were first timers at Dover and Michigan. In June, a surprising Armchair Racing, Inc. went on a roll by winning 4 races out of the next 8. Much like Tony Stewart had gotten hot, Steven Cotter was too. However, it was more surprising for Steven since he was buried down in the standings after struggling the first half. Over in the Busch Series, Intimidator Racing was leading there, although the points lead switched a few weeks between Gasitnpassit and Intimidator. However, eventually IR pulled out ahead. A few teams switched in and out of the series but it was going strong with 28 teams. From that Series, in addition to Speed Demon Racing, Quebecois Fan and YatesFan were called up into the Cup Series. Lou and his wife went to the Pennsylvania 500 in July, causing an early deadline for picks to be submitted. A week later, a lot of pictures from the race were uploaded to the site. In August, the chase was just about here, with only a handful of races left. Some teams saw a resurgence like Rock Bottom Racing who won his first career race and eventually got up into the top 10 for the first time. On the flipside, his brother, 2004 Champ Jerry Jones Racing was struggling. The race for rookie of the year was added to the site in August. There, members could view what rookie teams were on the way to the title. Pappy's Drivers was the leading rookie of the year candidate. August saw new first time winners Speed Demon Racing and Diego Motorworks and finally a win by June Bug Racing. June Bug Racing had a good first year in the league after starting late, but struggled in 2005. He did get a win at Richmond, the final race before the chase, however he was already eliminated. In the weeks before Richmond, many teams were still in the hunt. There could have been a possible 18 teams in the first chase for the Championship. However, a good top 10 run by league leader Pappy�s Drivers shut a lot of them out. In the end, only 11 teams made the chase. The teams for the 2005 chase for the championship were Pappy's Drivers, Miller Motorsports, Bump And Go Racing, CrazyAboutRusty2, Intimidator Racing, Gasitnpassit, Diego Motorworks, Jeff Burton Racing, Top Dawgs, High Octane and Jerry Jones Racing just barely squeezing in. Race #1 of the chase was won by June Bug Racing who won back to back races for the first time in his career. A lot of the chase teams struggled at New Hampshire, but Jeff Burton Racing and Miller MotorSports had top 10 runs and snatched up a good opportunity from their fellow chasers. Miller MotorSports went to the standings lead but only held it for one week when Jeff Burton Racing won race #2 at Dover. The Dover race was also attended by the President and his wife as well. Many of the chase teams struggled at the unpredictable Talladega track for race #3. Shawnda's Redneck Racing won her 2nd career race while CrazyAboutRusty2 made up some points by coming in second place. Jeff Burton Racing gave up his lead after the fourth race at Kansas. CrazyAboutRusty2 took it but would relinquish it the next week. Zipperhead Racing finally won his first race after 61 starts. Lowe's Motor Speedway marked the end of the first half of the chase. Miller Motorsports reclaimed the lead again and would hold it for the next three weeks. The new team Puma won his first race after just six starts. A chase team would finally win a race again at Martinsville, the sixth race in the chase. After being behind, Jerry Jones Racing won his 5th career race and 2nd of the season. JJR would be back in the mix for one week. However, a bad finish at Atlanta pushed him back further. Atlanta was won by Jeffjoeracing who was trying to get that 12th spot. The following week, Greenhouse Racing won his first race of the season at Texas. Gasitnpassit would jump into the lead for the first time, but would relinquish it back to Miller Motorsports at Phoenix. After Jerry Jones Racing seemed to be slipping back, he surprised everyone and won at Phoenix for his 6th career win. Finally, Homestead had arrived; the final race of the season. In the real world, Tony Stewart was leading Jimmie Johnson by 52 points, Carl Edward by 87 points and Greg Biffle by 102 points. In The Busch Series, Martin Truex Jr. was trying to hold off Clint Bowyer who was behind by 64 points. In the Craftsman Truck Series, Ted Musgrave had a 58 point lead on Dennis Setzer. As close as all those races were, it was much closer in the league. Eight teams were still eligible to take the championship in that final race. Miller Motorsports had the lead over Intimidator Racing by 31 points. Closely behind was Pappy's Drivers who was 38 points behind. High Octane was 50 points behind, Jerry Jones Racing 58 points behind, Top Dawgs 67 points, Gasitnpassit 79 points, and CrazyAboutRusty2 100 points behind. In the Truck race, Ted Musgrave held off Dennis Setzer to win his first Craftsman Truck Series title. Martin Truex Jr. was also able to hold off Clint Bowyer to win back to back Busch titles, the first driver to do so since Dale Earnhardt Jr. In the Lucky Dog Racing: Busch Series, Intimidator Racing became the first series Champion there as he held off Gasitnpassit. The following day in the Cup Series, Tony Stewart won his 2nd title holding off Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle. Jimmie Johnson was out of it early in the race after he hit the wall. Greg Miller became the league's second champion by scoring a top 5 at Homestead. Intimidator Racing struggled in the final race and was passed by both High Octane and Top Dawgs who finished second and third in the standings. Pappy's Drivers fell back one spot to finish fourth and Intimidator Racing fell to fifth. Jeff Burton racing jumped 3 spots in the standings after finishing 4th in the race. He finished sixth for the year. Last year's champ, Jerry Jones Racing, finished seventh this year. CrazyAboutRusty2 finished 8th while Gasitnpassit dropped the last few races and finished 9th. Bump And Go Racing and Diego MotorWorks finished 10th and 11th. For the year end awards, Miller MotorSports took the Lucky Dog Cup as Cup Champion. Intimidator Racing won the Busch Series trophy as Busch Champion. Pappy's Drivers clinched rookie of the year a few weeks before from the amount of top 10's he earned throughout the year. He also became the first team to win the Heatseeker, for most points earned on the Power Gauge. Pappy's Drivers also won for the best race points average while Miller Motorsports won for best standings points average and best average finish. CrazyAboutRusty2 took best picks average this year. Overall, 2005 was a very good year for Lucky Dog Racing. 2006 should shape up to be an even better year for the league with some new changes that were discussed during the season.
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