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Thursday, September 6
Sprague takes over points lead
Associated Press
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RICHMOND, Va. -- Jack Sprague dominated until the end and then held on with all he had Thursday night to win the Kroger 200 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race and retake the points lead.
Sprague was unchallenged almost all night until Kevin Harvick pulled onto his rear bumper with about 10 laps to go, finally sliding underneath him for the lead in turn four on lap 196. Sprague then got aggressive, bumping Harvick out of the way in turns one and two to retake the lead.
"We played a little bumper tag," Sprague said. "Great race."
Ted Musgrave, sixth in the points race, then got under Sprague in turns three and four to take the lead with Harvick right behind him, but Sprague repassed Musgrave on the backstretch and held off Harvick.
"We had about 130 laps on the right sides. The last 20 laps, I had no right front left. I couldn't turn the truck and they caught me," Sprague said. "Then Teddy got under me and when I was forced to the outside, it turned better and I thought, 'Maybe I can hold my own out here."'
Sprague won by 0.062 seconds, the third-closest margin in series history. The closest, 0.001 seconds, came in 1995 at Colorado.
"Jack was doing everything he had to do to win," Harvick said. "We were beating and banging and having a heck of a time out there.
"That's the most fun I've had in a race car all year," Harvick said of his first truck race since 1999. "Those last 10 laps, I'm going to have to go back and really watch 'em to see how much fun they really were."
Sprague's victory moved him into the points lead by 27 points over Joe Ruttman, the leader going into the race. Scott Riggs is third, 57 back.
Sprague, the series champion in 1997 and 1999, drove like the most veteran racer in the series, taking the lead on the second lap around the three-quarter-mile oval and not getting challenged until the last 10 laps.
The race proved huge for Sprague in the points chase when Ruttman struggled all night to a ninth-place finish and Riggs, No. 2 going in, was bumped from contention after hitting the wall on lap 167.
The misfortunes gave Sprague some room in the points battle, and when the race went back to green on lap 172 after the caution caused by Riggs' accident, Sprague made more room until his right tires went bald.
It was Sprague's fourth victory of the season and 23rd in the series, where he's the only driver to have started all 164 events in history.
Sprague had opened a 7-second lead over Rick Crawford and Scott Riggs when Rodney Sawyer's truck started spewing smoke coming off turn four with 59 laps to go, bringing out a caution that erased the huge lead.
When the race went back to green for lap 152, Sprague pulled away again, only to have another caution fly. And when that yellow flag run ended, Sprague again shot off the line and took a comfortable lead.
He finished leading 196 of the 200 laps. No one else led more than one in a race slowed six times by cautions for a total of 35 laps.
Dennis Setzer finished third, followed by Musgrave and Rick Crawford. Virginia native Stacy Compton was sixth and Winston Cup driver Bobby Hamilton was seventh as the last car on the lead lap.
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