#14-Rick Crawford, still nursing broken bones in his left foot from an accident in the March 13 race at Atlanta, withstood a fierce challenge from short-track ace #46-Dennis Setzer in a two-lap shootout to win Saturday’s Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway. Under series rules the race must end under green, so a caution on Lap 247 of 250 caused the race to be extended to Lap 254. Crawford got a jump on Setzer on the restart and held him off by 0.365 seconds at the finish. Saturday’s is the third NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win of Crawford’s career. His previous two wins came at Homestead (1998), and Daytona Beach (2003). “I just steered it and did my job. I didn’t have much brake because the foot was giving me trouble but the Roush engine kept me going fast down the straightaway,” Crawford said. “I’ve been racing a long time, but today we were on a mission.” Crawford pit his second and final time on Lap 147, one of eight drivers to try a strategy to pit as early as possible when they could make the distance on fuel. The rest of the leaders pit on Lap 164, moving the eight who pitted early to the front of the pack. Crawford passed then-leader #42-Mike Skinner for the lead on Lap 202 and led the final 53 laps. “When you see the leaders not pit, that bothers you as a driver,” Crawford said. “Knowing the guys up front running the way they were, I knew they had to pit.” Setzer, who had won the past two spring Martinsville races, moved into second on Lap 223 and trailed Crawford by 1.308 seconds. But he couldn’t make up significant ground. “We finally got in position on that long run,” Setzer said. “I had one last shot at him on that green-white-checkered, but we got a little tight up off Turn 2.” Pole-winner #16-Jack Sprague finished third, #50-Jon Wood fourth and #42-Mike Skinner completed the top five. #99-Carl Edwards leads the points, 22 over #24-Travis Kvapil.(ThatsRacin.com)
AND DW? “The green-white-checkered kind of did me in. Andy Houston got into somebody off of Turn 2, and they got hung together. I got a run on Houston for 11th place and then we got down there in Turn 3. Other drivers had gone three-wide a couple of times, but it wasn’t going to work that time. Houston and I got together, and I spun all the way around. I finished 24th, the last car on the lead lap. That’s Martinsville. That’s Bristol. When you go to these bullrings, you’ve got to play like a bull.”(see full story at FoxSports)
See results at:
ThatsRacin.com
MotorsportsOne
Truckseries.com
NASCAR.com.(4-17-2004)
