Daytona Beach, Fla. ? Travis Kvapil is not the typical defending series champion.

After winning the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series title last year, Kvapil should enter 2004 as the favorite. Instead, he is back with a brand new team and an unproven truck.

Kvapil will drive the No. 24 LINE-X Toyota for Alex Meshkin’s Bang! Racing when the series kicks off Thursday with the Florida Dodge Dealers 250 at Daytona International Speedway.

While it’s Kvapil’s third team in three seasons, he will be in good hands with veteran crew chief Larry McReynolds.

“The team I’m with now, I believe we can do this,” Kvapil said. “Hopefully, we can all move up together.”

Kvapil, who won one race and had 13 top-five finishes last season, will be part of Toyota’s venture into NASCAR with its Tundra trucks.

He didn’t have a great testing session last month, having the 19th-fastest speed on the third day.

But the Tundras lagged across the board at testing with rookie David Reutimann’s Toyota, owned by Darrell Waltrip, being the only one to crack the top-15 speeds.

“We’ve come a long way in a short time,” said McReynolds. “We’re all new teams.”

Kvapil is the first defending champion to return the following year since Jack Sprague in 2000. But he won’t be the only former champion competing. Sprague and Mike Skinner, who won the inaugural Truck Series title in 1995, will make this the first time that three former champs will compete.

“I think we finally evolved back around where you’re going to see (a large amount) of talent back in the series again without the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series drivers having to come over and make it competitive,” Skinner said. “I’m excited; I think it’s going to be awesome.”

Skinner, who ran in four races last year, also will be in one of the seven Tundras. Sprague, who won the title three times, is back after trying his hand at Winston Cup.

Look for Ted Musgrave, Jon Wood and Carl Edwards each to contend. All three finished in the top 10 last year and were strong at testing.