MARTINSVILLE, Va. --On Lap 128, Kyle Busch ran into the back of Brent Raymer who spun in front of Busch, forcing him to slam on the binders and come to a halt. After the caution flew, Busch, Ron Hornaday and a number of other drivers came down pit road for gas and tires. That handed the lead to Dennis Setzer, ahead of Ron Hornaday, Brendan Gaughn, Johnny Benson, Mike Skinner and David Starr. Setzer then held on through numerous restarts and survived a green-white-checker finish to to win the Kroger 250 Craftsman Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway and put his Duck Head Footwear/Aquadock Dodge Ram into victory lane. The victory was the first for Dodge (and Bobby Hamilton Racing) since the late Hamilton won at Mansfield in 2005, and the truck Setzer won in is co-owned by Hamilton's widow, Lori.
"The emotions are running high right now," Lori Hamilton said. "We always said after Bobby passed away that if we could build it, then we'd do it in honor of him."
Setzer prevailed in a single-file restart. For him, winning at a track where he and Bobby Hamilton dueled also was special.
"I ran second to Bobby the year he won the championship," Setzer said. "We fought like heck all year as far as racing goes, but we were probably as good of friends off the track. We never had a harsh word with each other any time during the year."
The race, run on a cold, overcast day after the teams practiced in heat and sunshine Friday, was dominated by 15 cautions that slowed the pace for 82 laps, and caused the race to go three extra laps for a two-lap sprint to the checkered flag. It was Setzer's 18th career victory in the series and third at Martinsville.
Ten years ago this weekend Bobby Hamilton won The Winston Cup event at Martinsville in the Morgan McClure Motorsports Kodak sponsored Chevrolet. Perhaps Setzer's win today was written in the stars.
Text by The Associated Press, Tom Jensen of TruckSeries.com, Small Town Girl and 14Falcons
Earlier this year I was doing this fairly regularly. Then I began to blog other things. But recent discussions with JJ have brought this back to mind so I thought I might do it again.
Hey, this is simple. I am not going to make it complicated like JJ does. He can try to baffle you with ####. I just want to show you something that might make you go huh, interesting.
Let's update this a bit though. In order to be consistent with previously expressed views, let's say that NASCAR goes with 11 four-car Nextel Cup teams. Then let's ban the top 44 drivers from the Busch Series so young guns or old dogs can have those seats. So what do we have?
For now let's look at the current Busch standings and simply extricate the top 44 Cup drivers from the field. Then we can see what is left and consider it to be what a potential Busch field might look like if there were no Cup drivers allowed in it. I am going to call it "The Busch Class Standings."
Jason Leffler
Bobby Hamilton Jr.
Stephen Leicht
Mike Wallace
Marcos Ambrose
Scott Wimmer
Steve Wallace
Regan Smith
Kyle Krisiloff
Shane Huffman
Brent Sherman
Mike Bliss
Ward Burton
Todd Kluever
Aric Almirola
Eric McClure
Jon Wood
Brad Keselowski
Jason Keller
Brad Coleman
Robert Richardson II
Kelly Bires
Kevin Hamlin
Timothy Peters
Danny O'Quinn Jr.
Stanton Barrett
Cale Gale
Justin Diercks
Richard Johns
Morgan Shephard
Chase Miller
Brett Rowe
D. J. Kennington
Sam Hornish Jr.
Ron Hornaday
Bobby East
Curtis Davis
Derrike Cope
Kevin Conway
Timothy McCreadie
David Green
Todd Bodine
Mark Green
Guys, if you are real race fans, you have to admit, that would be a really cool field.
O.K., so it isn't pretty. It might not even be anything to brag about. But Bobby Hamilton Jr. is steady and he perseveres as he moves in to sixth place in the Busch Series standings this week. Bobby remains second in the Busch regular standings to Jason Leffler.
From bobbyhamiltonjr.com
The ability to overcome adversity allowed Bobby Hamilton, Jr., driver of the Eckrich Meats/Kroger/McDonald’s Ford, to finish in 13th place on Saturday Night. After a penalty for speeding on pit road dropped Hamilton back to 28th position with less than 100 laps to go, Hamilton began his charge back to the front. The determination allowed Hamilton to grab the 13th place finish and move to sixth in the NASCAR Busch Series Point’s Championship.
“The penalty hurt us, it kept us from probably finishing around sixth or seventh,” Hamilton said. “Our car was strong all night long, and we helped ourselves in the point’s race again.” “We really enjoyed driving this car for Eckrich Meats and Kroger. We got to meet a lot of their customers and employees this week and that’s always a lot of fun.”
Jason Leffler, a regular driver on the Busch Series, rocketed his way past Nextel Cup driver Greg Biffle for the win late in the race. The Busch Series will now head North of the border for a road course race in Montreal on Saturday. Check your local listings for broadcast times in your area.
HAMPTON, Ga. -- Mike Skinner bumped past Clint Bowyer to take the lead on a restart seven laps from the finish Friday night and raced away to his second consecutive victory in NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series. Todd Bodine, the defending series champion and last spring's winner at Atlanta Motor Speedway, followed Skinner past Bowyer to grab second place on Lap 124 of the 130-lap event, but the leader was just too strong, pulling away to a five-length victory, the 21st of his truck career. Matt Crafton had a big day, finishing third after starting the race 17th. Rick Crawford, making his 250th start in the Craftsman Truck Series brought home his No. 14 Ford in fourth. Bowyer held on for fifth.
Brendan Gaughan stayed out when the rest of the field pitted with 34 laps to go, but the lead was short lived as Bowyer was able to pass him for the lead just two laps later. The move still worked for Gaughan, who held on for a sixth-place finish. Dennis Setzer finished seventh in his Morgan Dollar Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado.
Next up for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is the Kroger 250 at the half-mile Martinsville Speedway on Saturday March 31.
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