Speed Finds Speed at Dover
For the third consecutive week, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series crowned a first-time winner, and this time in came in the form of former F1 Series driver, Scott Speed. In only his sixth career start in the Truck Series, Speed drove away from the field after a late restart in the race, and cruised on into Victory Lane to win the AAA Insurance 200 at Dover, topping his best previous finish, which was 8th at Kansas.
Jack Sprague held off his Kevin Harvick Inc. racing teammate, Ron Hornaday, to finish second, while Travis Kvapil finished fourth, and last week’s race winner, Matt Crafton, finished fifth. Kyle Busch had the dominant car all night long, but transmission troubles sidelined him late in the race, and he went onto finish 27th. Todd Bodine came into the race as the series points leader, but a blown tire that sent him hard into the Turn 3 wall on lap 170 relegated him to a 27th place finish, dropping him four spots in the standings. The points lead was handed over to Rick Crawford after putting together a solid 9th place run.
Speed took the lead of the race when he passed Bodine for the position on lap 150, and opened up a lead of more than 3.5 seconds before the lap 170 caution saw that lead disappear. After the restart on lap 179, Speed ran away from the field, leaving Sprague trailing by more than four seconds before he finally slowed it down on the final lap as he made his way towards Winner’s Circle.
Following the race, Speed, who later revealed that he’d had his toenails painted blue prior to the race, stated, “Today we had a good strategy and an awesome truck, and we got everything we could out of it. The learning curve I’ve had has been amazing. Everytime I go out on the track, I feel I come away with a lot of knowledge. I’m just having an awesome time trying to learn this sport.”
Speed’s victory is the first on the season for Bill Davis Racing, whose camp also consists of veteran drivers, Johnny Benson and Mike Skinner.
Craftsman Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):
| RANK |
+/- |
DRIVER |
POINTS |
BEHIND |
STARTS |
POLES |
WINS |
TOP 5 |
TOP 10 |
| 1 |
+1 |
Rick Crawford |
1131 |
Leader |
8 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
5 |
| 2 |
+1 |
Matt Crafton |
1111 |
-20 |
8 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
4 |
| 3 |
+2 |
Ron Hornaday |
1107 |
-24 |
8 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
5 |
| 4 |
-3 |
Todd Bodine |
1082 |
-49 |
8 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
4 |
| 5 |
-1 |
Johnny Benson |
1077 |
-54 |
8 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
5 |
| 6 |
+5 |
Jack Sprague |
1066 |
-65 |
8 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
4 |
| 7 |
– |
Mike Skinner |
1064 |
-67 |
8 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
6 |
| 8 |
– |
David Starr |
1063 |
-68 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
4 |
| 9 |
-3 |
Terry Cook |
1049 |
-82 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
4 |
| 10 |
– |
Chad McCumbee |
1026 |
-105 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
4 |
| 11 |
+1 |
Dennis Setzer |
992 |
-139 |
8 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
| 12 |
-3 |
Erik Darnell |
989 |
-142 |
8 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
| 13 |
– |
Ted Musgrave |
971 |
-160 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
| 14 |
+1 |
Colin Braun* |
953 |
-178 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
| 15 |
-1 |
Brendan Gaughan |
927 |
-204 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| 16 |
– |
Kyle Busch |
889 |
-242 |
6 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
| 17 |
– |
Justin Marks* |
851 |
-280 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| 18 |
+1 |
Shelby Howard |
831 |
-300 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
| 19 |
-1 |
Stacy Compton |
824 |
-307 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
| 20 |
– |
Donny Lia* |
816 |
-315 |
7 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
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