Sat Sep 6 13:09:34 2008

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Setzer grabs pole for truck race at Gateway

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Madison, IL (Sports Network) - Dennis Setzer captured his first pole in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in seven years by winning Saturday's qualifying for the Camping World 200 at the Gateway International Raceway just outside St. Louis. The No.18 Toyota driver circled the 1.25-mile oval in 33.927 seconds (132.638 m.p.h.).

The pole victory was Setzer's fourth career in the series, but his first since 2001 at Richmond.

"It is unusual for me to be up front coming to the green," Setzer said. "We've made a lot of gains these past few weeks. (Crew chief) Marcus Richmond put some new touches on this truck yesterday in practice."

Setzer's pole is a big boost for Bobby Hamilton Racing-Virginia after the racing organization recently announced they had ceased operations of it's No.4 team with Stacy Compton as their driver. Setzer is currently 10th in the point standings, while Compton is 19th.

Starting alongside Setzer will be defending series champion Ron Hornaday, Jr., who posted a time of 33.988 seconds.

Rookies Brian Scott (33.989) and Colin Braun (34.061) will start on the second row.

Other drivers of note and their starting positions include: Todd Bodine (fifth), Jack Sprague (10th), Johnny Benson (14th) and Ted Musgrave (19th).

Benson enters the race with a 119-point lead over Hornaday. Benson won three races in a row before finishing fourth at Bristol two weeks ago. He is also the defending winner at Gateway.

Bodine, Sprague and Musgrave have won both a series championship and a race at Gateway. Hornaday captured the title last year but would like to add a Gateway victory to his resume. He finished second there last year.

The green flag for this afternoon's race is scheduled to drop around 2:30 p.m. (et).