Sat Mar 29 17:56:08 2008

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Setzer wins Kroger 250

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Martinsville, VA (Sports Network) - Dennis Setzer captured Saturday afternoon's Kroger 250 around the 0.526-mile short track. The No.18 Dodge driver crossed the finish line under caution flag ahead of Matt Crafton.

The victory was Setzer's first of the season and 18th of his Craftsman career.

Setzer took the lead on lap 128 and never gave it up en route to the relatively easy victory.

Pole winner Jack Sprague brought the field to the green flag for 250 laps of short track racing. He and teammate Ron Hornaday Jr. quickly took off opening up a big lead. So big that Sprague could let Hornaday Jr. lead a lap and grab the five-point bonus, then fall back in line behind Sprague. They were more than 2.6 seconds ahead of Denny Hamlin at the 25-lap mark.

But then the leaders caught the back end of the field and it allowed Hamlin to catch up. When Sprague got stuck behind a slower truck, Hamlin slid underneath both of them for the lead. Also moving up was points leader Kyle Busch, who started 11th, and was up to sixth at the first caution flag on lap 41.

Busch was following David Starr up the charts and at lap 75 they were fourth and fifth, respectively.

When Andy Lally slammed the outside wall on lap 79, it gave the leaders the opportunity to pit for the first and likely only time of the race. Both Sprague and Hornaday Jr. had long pit stops and on the restart it was Hamlin and Busch up front.

On lap 97, Busch had finally had enough of following and drove underneath Hamlin for the lead. On the next caution flag, Hamlin pitted, complaining of a tight truck. That put Setzer into second place behind Busch.

Then when Busch tried to pass backmarker Brent Raymer, they collided and Raymer spun. Setzer avoided the incident and inherited the lead with Brendan Gaughan second.

Meanwhile, Hamlin began to work his way back through the field. He was seventh at lap 144 when a multi-car crash caused the race to be red-flagged for cleanup. But he spun again on lap 101 and his chance at winning the race was over.

All the caution flags and spins allowed Busch to crack the top-10. He was seventh with 90 laps remaining. He popped the back of David Starr's bumper sending him up the track to take fifth place with still 58 laps remaining.

Still more caution flags disrupted the rhythm, but all through it Setzer and Gaughan maintained the top-two positions.

On the restart with 43 laps to go, Setzer got a great jump and began to pull away from Gaughan who had Johnny Benson on his rear bumper. Also close behind was Mike Skinner and Busch.

But caution flag No.12 (Ted Musgrave spin) brought Setzer back to the field for the next restart. Gaughan was forced to pit putting Benson up to second and Busch into fourth place. Nineteen laps remained when the next caution flag flew setting up a short 15-lap run to the checkered flag. More cautions made it impossible for anyone to make a run at Setzer and after two more restarts he collected the win.

Rick Crawford, Ken Schrader and Erik Darnell completed the top-five.

Chrissy Wallace, 19-year-old daughter of veteran NASCAR driver Mike Wallace, unofficially finished 17th in her Craftsman debut.

The next race in the series is scheduled for Saturday, April 26th at the Kansas Speedway.