After racing at NASCAR's largest track Talladega, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series returned to Martinsville, NASCAR's smallest track. Aerodynamics don't matter on this half mile short track and Saturday's Kroger 200 was very typical of Martinsville, plenty of cautions and with the race being 200 laps, it was a possibility that someone would try to run without a pit stop because it's difficult to pass. Jack Sprague won the pole.
Jack Sprague-#60 Con-Way Freight Toyota leads the first part of the race and Ted Musgrave-#9 ASE Toyota settles into second. David Ragan-#06 Ford cuts a tire and spins out on lap 31 to bring out the caution. Everyone pits except Musgrave & Mike Bliss-#16 Strutmasters Chevy. It appears that Musgrave doesn't intend to pit.
Ted Musgrave continues to lead but Jack Sprague has moved up to second. The general thinking is that Musgrave can't make it on fuel. Kerry Earnhardt-#13 Chevy blows his engine on lap 129 to bring out a caution. On the lap 138 restart, Musgrave is black flagged for jumping the restart. The replay showed that he brake checked Sprague before the restart. He slowed down so Sprague would have to slow down and then Musgrave immediately accelerated to get a good jump on the restart. NASCAR had warned Musgrave about brake checking when he did it on a previous restart so when he did it again, he was penalized. Erin Crocker-#98 Cheerios Dodge spins on lap 139 to bring out the caution so Musgrave's penalty was to go to the back of the longest line. He finished 15th.
Jack Sprague leads with Erik Darnell-#99 Northern Tool & Equipment Ford second and David Star-#11 Toyota Forklift Toyota third. Starr gets around Darnell for second but no one has anything for Sprague and he wins the race. Points leader Todd Bodine-#30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota has a flat tire and finishes 14th. Second place Johnny Benson-#23 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota finishes fifth and cuts Bodine's lead to 79 points. Next week the Craftsman Trucks are in Atlanta.
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