2001 Kroger 200

most ferocious battle tonight this area will once again be under siege at 36 of nascar's finest from the craftsman truck series prepare for a 200 lap war the inaugural truck series event here produced a photo finish terry labonte just edged out jeffrey beaudine for the second closest finish in truck series history rain shortened out two races but it didn't dilute the victories for mike skinner and greg biffle his first and bob win in 97 craig won in 98 and rick corelli last year there were six different races with six different bases in victory lane and the number six might be important again tonight here at richmond because the driver of truck number six is none other than kevin harvick and he hopes to make it seven different winners tonight here at richmond as a matter of fact harvick will be driving in all three divisions this weekend why well because he's already a superstar in winston cup with two victories and he's well on his way to his first bushrand national championship but guess how many victories he has in the nascar craftsman truck series zero and tonight is the 70th start so harvick hopes to get to victory lane in all three divisions at richmond but especially in the coveted truck series how many races are left in the season championship chase well guess what that number is also six and there's a championship battle [Music] the list of nascar craftsman truck series champions reads like a who's who of stock car success stories he may rise to winston cup move to the bush series or continue truck series dominance but as the champion he has proven that he is the best many drivers desire that title but tonight one man will move closer to that trophy and his place in racing history in this the tightest points battle in all of nascar so tight the top three rottman rigs and strike are separated by only 20 points scott riggs starts third last year he started 30th and finished an impressive fifth jack sprague he starts from the outside front row and hopes to be the only two-time winner here at the action track if both drivers continue their richmond success they may have a chance to knock joe ruttman out of the point series championship race because he's all the way back intense hey but don't count him out because this race has been won not once but twice from that tenth starting [Music] position espn the worldwide leader in sports presents nascar tonight live under the lights from richmond international raceway we present the seventh running of the craftsman truck series poker 200. after 18 races the points battle is getting even closer if that is possible that is it's 161 points separate the top seven joe ruttman is back on top just 13 points ahead of scott riggs and 20 up on jack spray hello everyone i'm jerry punch along with busch jerry's and winston cup veteran phil parsons we're glad to have you with us and phil it is hard to believe with just six races remaining we still have seven drivers not just mathematically but realistically with a chance of being our craftsman truck series champion doc this is an exciting racetrack but there's going to be beating and banging and bashing and sparks flying and thrashing about but excitement is the last thing these guys want to see they want a nice smooth race because points are at stake they not only have to beat the piers in the nascar craftsman truck they're going to run every week but they've got five winston cup guys in the field we're talking about harvick hamilton sadler schrader compton and these guys would like to play a spoiler role they have one thing and one thing only on their mind and that's the win this race they could care less about points winning is the only thing they care about remember short crash can lead to short tempers that can lead to short nights stay tuned we'll heat it up from here at the action track next our live espn coverage of the exciting craftsman truck series is being brought to you by gateway where you've got a friend in the business by mopar park for chrysler plymouth dodge and jeep vehicles for the leadership that sell and install them that's the mopar difference and by the autovent shade company maker of the original vet visor and other quality products auto vent shade you're only as cool as your shades take a look at our mopar starting grid dennis sutter's third career pole second of the year he will lead him down there is reigning her current bush series points leader kevin harvick back in fourth spot his first start since october of 99 how about our craftsman truck series points leader joe ruttman back in 10th spot and defending race winner rick corelli's first star since martinville back in april in the penny brothers racing dodge corelli back in 14 starting spot starting 16th bobby hamilton winner earlier this year at burlington 17th and 18th rauch youngsters kyle busch and john wood 3019 bailey and sadler also going to try to do that triple thing here with kevin harvick and 27 the 28th jd gibbs and his younger brother coy and back 31st and 36 vince woodmare making his very first nascar craftsman truck series start driving for ed renzi and donnie newenberger brings the international house of pancake sponsorship back into 34 starting spot donnie had trouble in late practice section now let's meet the three drivers who will carry our onboard cameras here tonight hi i'm kenny schrader and you're riding along with me in the number 52 federated auto porch chevrolet silverado hi i'm ted mustard driver the number one mopar dodge sit back in that lazy boy chair throw away the remote hang on your popcorn hey you're riding with me scott riggs driving the number two team ase car quest dodge glad to have you board and we're glad to have you with us taking a look at the nascar craftsman truck series news harvard for the hat trick he's gonna win all three races trying to run 800 laps 200 tonight 250 on friday night in the bush series and 400 on saturday night going for the triple the hat trick rick corelli's gonna make his comeback here got emotional victory last year in this race uh his team fell out earlier this year carly's back and how about a baby bushback kyle bush 16 years of age making his third ever nascar craftsman truck start came within 12 laps of winning in a chicago run out of cast because of an incident on the racetrack didn't have enough gas back in the pickup area and we mentioned ed renzi returns um they have randy tulsa running in the bush series now full time and they got a driver making his first ever start vince whitmire let's check in the pitch quickly right well jerry most of the practice today was out in the hot sun but right now it's cool out here the big question is going to be what will these chassis do well would they be tight or they'd be loose crew teams are telling me could be both out of turn four dennis setzer brings him down for the green flag in the kroger 200 and just that quickly we've got a challenge in third one on the inside that's harvey he's not going to waste any time he wants to win this race and he's going to start from last one as you heard ray dunlap say it's his 70th career start he has not won a race since october of 99 at california rick really making a move on the inside it's got riggs and kevin harvey he said his truck is really really good it's within a half a round of being too tight or too loose right now it's perfect and with those first two laps led jack sprig has now led a thousand laps this season and breaks the all-time record here for mike skinner with laps and miles lead in a nascar craftsman truck at richard international raceway had a good look at rick crawford out of uh scott wreck's on board camera scott had a good truck in half here he was actually the quickest truck in half you know there's kenny schroeder trying to make a move on the inside of bailey bigly schweitzer's federated auto parts chevrolet kitty making his seventh start of the year penny actually blew an engine at happy hour so the guys had to jump in there and change engines with a very very little amount of time to do it so the guys did a great job led by kevin buster four consecutive top ten finishes for kenny schroeder including second at ballington you will hear a lot of spotter chatter here spotted pretty critical at a pretty tight uh three-quarter mile d-shaped like richmond a lot of traffic need a lot of extra eyes without a doubt here this spotter is invaluable here bobby hamilton moving up to the inside of kenny schroeder good luck out of kenny schroeder's on board good move for the dana dodge driver hamilton lost an engine just in four laps to practice hey that forgot to put water in water that'll uh that'll do it about every time hamilton coming up early on he's running right behind the other truck he owns with joe ruffin a pair of dana dodges last time bobby hamilton raced the truck series he finished right behind this team truck of joe uh rubber they finished third fourth at irp back up front the guy they're chasing early is our winner here back in 1998 two-time series champion jack sprague the net zero chevrolet and the last time spreck drove this truck well indianapolis raceway park and you might not want to hear this if your competitor but he led 149 of 200 laps that night and won it from the outside front row extremely dominating performance that night by jack sprague and uh as you mentioned the competitors don't want to hear that they don't want him to do that again tonight and tonight he started from the outside of the front row good omen for jack sprague not for everybody else we are in the early laps of the kroger 200 nascar craftsman truck series race under the lights at richmond international raceway back in just a moment our nascar action on the worldwide leader espn exclusive nascar craftsman truck series home we're glad to have you with us for race number 19 of 24 6 to go five after tonight and taking a look at nascar's bush series points leader and current points leader in the very bestest rookie of the year standings kevin harvick he started back in fourth spot has lost a couple of spots and looks to be uh battling that truck a little bit he before the race is crew chief actually has crew chief on both series the bush series and the uh truck series he said they had a pretty good truck but he's backing up a little bit right now battle heating up a little bit here crawford has just gone by dennis setzer talking about rick crawford the milwaukee electric pools ford crawford coming off some pretty impressive runs in the past four weeks he has been a sixth third fifth and fourth at irp nashville chicago robert ray stonkus has that truck working right now rocket rick in rock and ray we call him rock and ray by the way staunches is 61 years of age and runs that pitch like he's 31. works hard works real hard and showing up right now as here comes crawford moving in on another truck that is the jd kids machine jd by the way making his second start this year that's where our goal sitter being showing back in third position actually on chevrolet dennis said they really struggled in happy hour he said we had a our truck was a little bit loose and practiced earlier before qualifying then hit it just right for qualifying but he said man will we tight and happy hour he said the thing will not turn but uh he said hopefully it'll it'll stay good on some good tires because i don't know about after the tires get hot but they've run almost 20 laps that's long enough for the tires to get out and he's really doing a pretty good job indeed he is if you're not familiar with bristol international raceway it's a essentially flat make this 14 degrees as we have a auction being shown and the 48 of jd gibbs and jv uh is coy gibbs older brother oldest son of joe and pat gibbs and apparently he's had some contact with the wall and the 48 the hot rod magazine chevrolet caution here on lap number 19. boys gonna be mad at jd if he tears up one of his trucks here now jd will head back to the garage area he hits some damage on the left front as well as the right side we'll show you what happened here to him just a moment ago ted muzzer looked like it's a lot of damage to lance north we didn't catch that early but there's a lot of damage between lance norik and jd gibbs we saw jd get laughed a little bit earlier so probably lance norco was running about the sixth seventh position was pulling up beside him to lap him and obviously they made some contact and they are black flagging the 90 truck the adventist bearing truck up lance north there you see it coming the av choice in the middle of your spring there right front damage some of that sheet metal being peeled away and they uh dioninsky the nascar craftsman trucks here in flagman will bring him down pit road john monson company will need to peel some of that jeep metal away here is john wood in the pits in front of you amy well john wood was not happy with how his truck was handling so they decided to come down give him left side tires and some fuel he's down the way john of course the youngest son of eddie and carol wood grandson of glenn wood making his 11th start this year his best finish of fourth and kansas city for the 19 year old undercover richmond back with a green flag in just a moment who could forget the truck series first visit to the lone star state when scott rick championship train got derailed with this vicious crash two part-time craftsman cowboys put on spectacular performances when brendan gone battled jack spread defending second and local favorite david starr not the third sprague scored the victory now can he do it again check it out next saturday 4pm eastern time only on espn and we're looking forward to heading out to eddie gossage and all the folks at texas motor speedway in fort worth fort worth texas next saturday afternoon four o'clock eastern time the silverado 350 love going to texas motor speedway always great action out there we've had a little bit action here on the track and on pit road with the 90 truck there's the 90 truck and a little bit of a heated discussion and ray they had another stop and go yeah jerry they had to come back down pit road because when they came in to work on the truck the very first time the guys went over the wall too soon they can't go over the wall before the truck is two stalls away and the guys were already out on pit road so nascar held him here for a lap and lance wasn't very happy about that and he took off and sped out of the pit so the officials said come on back in we'll hold you one more time so one lap to go now before we go back to green lance norrick one of the drivers it's hot already tonight at richmond well here's what happened a moment ago to bring out the caution flag the incident involving jd gibbs from the ted musgrave on board camera that looks like uh looked like lance kind of slid up into we saw the damage on jd's truck on the left front looks like lance maybe got into the left front of jd and that turned him around and so both of them got sideways coming off the corner tough break for last snork had a great qualifying run and was really doing well all right we're 25 laps in and jack sprague has left 24 of them dennis setzer was our fault if he just joined us he led the very first lap and then uh he's pregnant in that zero chevy just soon brought on by the next 24 in a row sprinkles chevrolet leading then we got a fourth and second spot then a chevy then a dodge that's the front four eric back in fifth spot coming off that pole win at nazareth two weeks ago and there is kevin harvick back in sixth position let's check in his pits amy yeah jerry we saw him charge it to the front there at the beginning of this race and now he's settled back in stick touched base with the crew and it seems as though he had a loose condition they didn't want a pit like we saw john wood do to try to help his loose condition but they're just going to ride it out and on their first round of pit stops they're going to try to fix that loose condition for kevin hartman kevin's showing the sonic colors and twizzlers trying he will apparently have a nascar craftsman truck series team full time in 2002 a lot of rumors as to who will drive for it possibly rick corelli maybe some others you know a lot of times after we get a lot of rubber down on this race dragon the racetrack could actually come to kevin hart before he has to make his first pit stop and great camera work guys giving us a closer personal shot of dion hints to three waving the green flag kevin hartman make an outside move on terry cook on the restart there they are right there side by side in the chevy cook in the number 29 now looking back from team afc clark west dodge just scott riggs rich now being shown in four spot at the battle for fifth it's a great thing about this racetrack you saw that run side by side almost dead even through that corner that's the thing about richmond you can run side by side and the guy on the outside can keep up with a guy on the inside that's why the fans love coming here you see two wide even three wide racing but uh and if somebody doesn't like you they can punch it a lot of times doc wait in the race the outside group will actually be the preferred group you see kevin harvick was able to make the pass on the outside this early in the race and here's a spin by kyle busch the 16 year old down across the grass no caution flag he's trying to get it going and it's smoking and it just stalls and will not bring fire apparently and now the caution will come out here on lap 31. kyle busch the youngster making only his third ever start this is actually the truck that kurt bush's brother set on the pole with in this race a year ago and led a bunch of laps and almost won it back finished third see cal on the inside right he runs across the apron a little bit there actually tries to dodge donnie newenberg in the 81 truck and gets the truck a little bit loose and sideways and i don't think he made much any contact uh if any a little bit of contact but he stalled the truck and before he could get it re-fired he end up losing a lap so tough tough deal for kyle busch but uh he came back from almost a lap down at irp to finish in the top tens though his night's not over yet absolutely not this young man has got a lot of talent he heads for pit road we weren't cautioned for the second time of night the second of possibly many more to come stay with us and we're back in richmond about a half a half ago going green has heavy traffic down the back there is frank sipping by he and crawford and center the top three then comes uh riggs and harvick that's the top five thus far at 34 laps 35 of 200. bobby hamilton trying to get a look underneath terry cook in turn number one hamilton only got four laps of practice because of the blown engine during this morning and before qualifying that's why he qualified for the first time out of the top four this year and that's our craftsman truck competition he started back in 16th position as you ride along with ted mustrave bobby got underneath jerry cook was able to make the pass moved him up into the sixth position bobby hamilton's got an awfully good truck right now because all the way back as you mentioned the 16th and all the way up to sixth and scott bridge is able to move by our pole center dennis center for position that's for third spot so the dodge now moving up there is cetera chevy as you mentioned he wasn't very good in happy hour obviously not very good here in the early laps well a moment ago we had a caution when the 99 trucks spawned in the grass and had to come on the pit run let's check in there to see what happened what happened with kyle bush well because of the spin he came down and took four tires but at the completion of that stop he had pushed one of his tires out on the pit lane that's a big no-no so after the exit pit lady had to come back down for a stop and go which was just prior to the restart he's only about a half a lap right now ahead of jack sprague our leader so he's within a half a straight away of being two laps down great side by side action here between bobby hamilton a couple of winston cup veterans and kevin harvick and harvey come here back i think inside hartman liked what he felt when he got in the outside there earlier so i think kevin harbor is trying to work in that outside group and hamilton is trying to work in that left rear fender quarter panel i think bobby said i'm not going to lean on them so i'm just going to let you know i'm here dana dodge and sonic twizzler chevy and how about ted musgrave trying to work to the outside get a nice shot of the power stroke diesel forward of terry cook that's back in the 8th 7th and eighth spot the ted and this potter can see kevin harvick making some pretty good time on the outside so that's i think that's why ted probably tried the outside trying to see if he could use the outside to get by cherry coke now ted's gonna look on the inside terry shuts the door on him now bobby hamilton called harvick and musgrave caught cook pretty easily but they're having trouble passing how tough is it to pass this place well it really is but but again we talked earlier at least you can run side by side here so it's not so like some of the race tracks you go to that it's almost impossible to pass so right now bobby hamilton does probably have a better truck than kevin hart but kevin harvick's been able to find an outside group that works well for him so kevin harris actually i think made his truck better by moving to the outside here comes hamilton may have a run on the inside carving jumps in the throttle at the end of the back straightaway and pulls him by half a truck lane here comes hamilton back on the inside see kevin harvick's able to drive in the corner harder because he can he could use some more racetrack to get up and not have to worry about sliding up into bobby hamilton whereas valve hamilton's got to get in the corner a little bit easier so he doesn't slide up into kevin hart two of the five winston cup veterans in this field tonight battling door to door right behind him is cooking musgrave watching this battle bobby hamilton not careful terry cook will be up there or muskrat will be on the inside terry took a look but now you see ted musgrave we're looking out of ted musgraves on board and terry cook terry opened the door for teddy jumped in on the inside of it ed musgrave 19 winston cup starts here best finished third back in 1996 the pontiac 400 driving for jack brown at the time he used dana white and 86 took for a pick was able to make the pass on terry cook that's that spirit she's talking about he's got a lot of poll experience here what's the cup series here at this range right absolutely two of his western cup polls have come here at richmond here we go tightening up for second spot a ford is the 14 at crawford the dodge is the two of riggs and looks like the two is getting better as the night goes on let's check in their pits well jerry that's just what scott riggs is saying on the radio to his crew chief timmy kahoot is that they are getting a lot better early on in this run he was very loose off of the corners but he said as we burn fuel off a little bit it just gets a lot lot better he said when we come in for the next pit stop i wouldn't change anything on this truck scott riggs ran here last year driving for david hopson the impact motorsports tech team and started 30th finish fifth and it was this race a year ago that really got in the second pass for jack roush but most but more importantly got timico and jimmy smith to notice him and give him this ride that's right he does he's done a great job in it here's another guy on the move travis waffle starts way back passing kenny schroeder out now for the 10th position average quaffle with a disappointing run at nazareth if you watch rutman now trying to get by schroeder quaffle pulls down the points leader right behind him there's the 18 truck of joe ruttman they've been leading the points by 13 over scott range with six events remaining including tonight they're looking on the inside we'll see if joe's able to make this inside pass work you can see kenny's able to get in the throttle a little bit quicker than joe being on the outside like that got a fourth of the way through 51 of 200 laps are in the books here at richmond international raceway i'm jerry parks along with phil parsons ray done laughing amy east glad to have you with us for the seventh run into the kroger 200 nascar craftsman truck series event we're watching our points leader joe rudman try to get beneath kenny schrader as these two for 11th position and meanwhile back up front together chasing no surprise whatsoever jack sprague is our leader here with 149 to go rick corelli was a fixture in the nascar craftsman truck series until suffering serious injuries in this 1999 memphis crash but he never gave up probably the goal setting on my return is you know just get back to where i was when i left i've learned new patients i've had a lot of time off and i've had a lot of time to think about what i want to do and to me it's uh i think i'll come back as a better race car driver a race truck driver he certainly did and his career came full circle here at richmond just a year ago when he scored his first win since the accident it was an emotional night for rick and his family and offered a chance to say thanks it's incredible you know i mean what we went through memphis last year and all the rehab and everything we did and i just want to thank everybody involved them gave me an opportunity this year and believed in me to drive the truck corelli continued to race for dale phil until the team closed his doors earlier this year but with the help of friend and fellow driver kevin harvick we may see rick back full time in the trucks in 2002 [Music] and there's a look at 45 year old rick corelli glad to have him back he's not run since early in the year in martinsville back on april 7th you see rick starts 132 four wins he won here a year ago and afford he won three times in a chevy owned by marshall chesron and for the first time tonight he's driving a dodge and this dodge is owned by maurice petty and associates it's called penny brothers racing the three boys of a richie mark and timmy and he is doing a great job strong dodge engine in there from the petty brothers and he's being shown in 16th position uh right behind that battle with schroeder in this moment he's really doing a great job here rick pirelli said uh i asked him earlier how this dodge truck was he said well it's a little bit different but he said it's a lot of fun so he's having a good time out there good one for corelli great to have him back great to have the petty boys back for maurice and company and then teddy blue dodge they are showing in the top 16 and word is that maybe rick corelli will be next year full time back in the nascar craftsman truck series driving for kevin harvick and the truck that harvick is driving tonight starting his own truck team full-time in 2002. now let's check in with our leader jack sprague he has led 61 of 62 laps so far there's a net zero chevrolet driver has pulled away by about three seconds over uh the 14 truck of rick crawford getting into some heavy traffic right now they're laughing a lot of the trucks a lot of the uh back markers there but uh jack's looking awfully smooth right now he doesn't look like he spun a wheel since the race started just joined our coverage we had a caution flag at lap 19. jd gibson bob in an incident not of his own doing on lap 31 another caution flag kyle busch spun in the grass those are the only two yellows thus far we have been green for the remainder we are showing 64 of 200 laps in it looking out of scott rick's onboard you know as ray was talking earlier scott said once they burned off a little fuel that actually made their truck a little bit tighter and the reason that is as you burn off fuel that actually adds front weight percentage to the truck because obviously you burn to burn the fuel off which weighs something in the back of the truck behind the rear axle so when you actually put more front weight in the truck it'll make it tighter so that's why scott's truck is actually coming around basically you're taking 120 or more pounds of weight off the rear 22 gallon fuel cell and allowing it to move toward the front percentage right exactly you're not actually you're not actually physically taking the weight from behind the axle obviously you're burning the fuel off but percentage-wise you'll get actually more weight on the front tires and that actually will make a truck a little bit tighter that's the words of phil parsons our expert analyst bush series and winston cup driver as you watch uh scott riggs jimmy and marlene smith owns car quest team ultra dodge we told you how close the points were at the top of the show here with just six events remaining five take a look now and rutman has gone from the points leader if we were award points as of now he would be in third spot and jack sprague would be back on top of the points that's how much of a shuffle we have had here this year i mean pretty remarkable you're keeping count at home the points race has gone riggs to sprague to rutman to riggs to rutman in the last five weeks rick really up high turns one and two and something may be a miss apparently something has broken on the right side and that will indeed bring out the cautions like a lap 68. and he may have a flat right front tire that allows the square bar to drag the race track so uh see if we can see right now yeah his right front tire is definitely flat so that's why uh that's why you're seeing the sparks all the suspension is dragging the racetrack good pickup bill a tough break for rick corelli but uh good to have him back and it's a truck that was running so well maurice petty and associates dodge and that will bring out the caution for the third time and bring the high plane drifter to pit road for for an unscheduled stop i think we're gonna see all the guys up here right now we're about we'll be about 70 laps in the end of the race i think all the guys are going to hit pit road right now and corelli knowing that he's going to have a lot of lead lamp trucks trying to make it the pit road you see the pistons here's some of the crew chiefs talking to their drivers here spread the leader already on paper that was a differential he was three and a half seconds ahead of crawford they come down at 45 miles per hour and kevin harvick is heading to you amy thanks jerry so far on the radio kevin's been screaming luke he said you guys this thing is way too loose but they made an air pressure adjustment on the right side right that left blaming jack sprague was just a little bit tight in the center so they did make a wedge adjustment they put right side tires on the number 24 and he'll easily be the first truck off of pit road scott rick will then be second off a pit road down here and a great improvement for travis quaffel as he will leave pit road in fourth position each and every week you've got to give a call to rick round and that cap rental team they do an outstanding job not that everyone else does but they just they just stand out in the pits without a doubt and travis they struggle you didn't have a very good qualifying run and uh travis it almost seems like when we qualify bad we run better so i'm not so disappointed travis cloth will start in 20 seconds these folks these fans enjoy it back with a green flag in a moment and here's a reminder that rpm tonight is your nightly source for motorsports news on television since 1996 for a recap of all the latest motorsports headlines it's rpm tonight nightly of course john kern will be on at six o'clock eastern time three pacific tomorrow night on espn2 rpm tonight with john kernan and the game perfect timing lap 74 after the caution was out for five laps into the cut tire for rick corelli who has been on an off pit road and corelli being shown a lap down now in 27th position tough break from borelli and the petty team now it's interesting to see if some of the adjustments these guys made on the pit stop will let them stay a little bit closer to jack sprague right now scott riggs is staying right up away with him but we'll see as the tires get hot get a few laps on the tires get the tires air pressure build up see what happens we'll watch travis quaffle and again there's something here in the middle another one down there another one down there on the bottom there's still a lot of sparks from rick corelli's truck right now he probably might have drove the sway bar arm into that holds the arm up that arm actually may be dragging the racetrack right now so probably going to necessitate some pretty good repairs and a tough break for rick corelli making his first start since back uh april 7th in martinsville as you watch this battle tightening up a little bit here setzer who was the pole sitter having made some adjustments travis quattro started making a moment ago qualified in 22nd position he is the leading rookie of the year contender and ray best rookie of the year standing show him up by five points over ricky henry and check out travis he's been awesome so far what started off as a bad day for him here at richmond is now turning around you can never count out this cat crew and travis they've gone like that he started 18 and he finished fifth they were hoping for those same results here at richmond and he may just do it from 22nd to a win we'll keep our eye on that that is a great point amy last week or two weeks ago at nazareth they had a problem we were in the garage 35 laps finishing back in 24th position with the rear end gearing problem so uh hoping to make up for it here tonight looks like harvard getting a little racy here they must have made some adjustments uh todd barrier and company on his number six he's pulling it on the one truck of ted muskrat yeah i think rick rother was able to get by ted monster here just to laugh ago they were side by side as they came by our position and kevin is going to look on the inside of ted mustard they mentioned mentioned harvick four poles five wins in bush series competition this year at the 316 point lead in the bush standings over jason keller has two wins in winston cup those wins come again atlanta motors feedback chicago see kevin dragged the left front wheels across the apron now that's trying to keep the truck right on the bottom of the racetrack got a good run off turn number two here hold on the inside of ted musgrave got a great run through that corner now he will make the pass and open the door for stacey compton yeah that knows a lot about stacy compton but he's doing a great job here he's been in the top ten just about the whole race now he's up into the seventh position making only his third start in nascar craftsman truck competition this year he'll run one more that'll be in pete's he finished sixth picked over he's running second at loud and run out of gas stacey from nearby hurt virginia about two hours west of richmond a lot of stacy compton fans here to watch you run for the weekend here at richmond international raceway that must have got a little sideways off chart number two they're right in front of bobby hamilton that allowed slow 10 down enough to allow bobby to get on the inside of him and bobby will make the pass for position that's for eight spot and speaking of muskrate let's check in his pits right well jerry in that first round uh ted musgrave had been on the radio talking to fred wanker's crew chief quite a bit saying this truck is extremely extremely tight so they went up two rounds on the track bar put right side tires and made an air pressure adjustment on that truck so pretty radical changes down here to try to make it better for ted you know that's interesting ray because we heard kevin uh harvick talk about how loose he was at that muscular talk about how tight he was a lot of times you know usually the racetracks will be very similar but those are two opposite ends of the spectrum right there taking a look at kevin hart we mentioned there are five winston cup regulars in the field tonight how about some of the outsiders that are coming around greg biffle has had three starts he dominated led 192 laps at nazareth two weeks ago kurt busch finished up milwaukee stacy compton's best road on six to dover having a good one tonight bobby hamilton won back in may at darlington to track two tough to tame and kenny schrader seven starts including tonight his best finish at second and throwing into the outsiders not doing too poorly when they come right here in the nascar crash from truck not at all what they lack what they lack of truck experience this year they make up an overall experience so they do a great job and kevin harvick right now is right in the sixth position and by the way this is the same tire that these guys will run in the bush series and in winston cup on saturday night so they get a lot of valuable experience not only on the racetrack but with the tire as you watch harvick with a handful of steering wheel as we close it on the 100 lap mark we have 87 laps complete they are still chasing at guiding spray for the seventh second of year we come to richmond international raceway one of the original homes of the nascar craftspring truck series glad to be here in the tidewater area of virginia all these great virginia nascar fans and craftsman truck followers take a look at jack sprague who has led 91 laps he's led twice for 91 left and a sensor atlanta lap and bobby donner has led a lap during the caution flag a moment ago our second place truck there is scott riggs he's the winningest driver this year a five-time winner one back-to-back at nashville and chicago in this very truck you know this is the very same truck that scott ran at nazareth a couple weeks ago and you know how you know how uh really poor all the dodgers actually ran in nazareth but he has the same truck that musgrave has the same truck and i think joe rubin has the same truck and they're all running well but just a different kind of racetrack makes a big difference and they they took that truck of riggs back and cut the front snout off and put a whole new front flip on it so it made a big difference but they were pretty uh we stuck it up with nasa we weren't doing very well they finished back in 13th position some guy's working pretty well tonight is stacy compton in the 92. good run for stacy uh in the uh learn frame harris trucking dodge this is the truck that's owned uh it's actually a co-owned by jim harris who owns harris trucking and mark melling the truck is maintained out of the milling shop chad canales and corey stocks coach crew chiefs there for stacey cumps harris trucking was actually the guys that owned the winston cup car that stacey drove back at marsville several years ago which was really when he got first got noticed so uh he's been a benefactor of uh of stacy compton for a long time actually now being shown up in seventh position so all those native virginians here pulling for stacy and battle for four spot and assessor has fourth and travis popple wants it we saw travis restart the race in court so it's been a good battle right now he's now in the fifth position but uh both of those guys are dennis such a really struggling happy hour danny gill and all the guys have made some great changes to that truck and he's really awfully competitive right now and we documented travis's trouble all day long and they rick ren and his guys have made some terrific changes to that truck and he's now he's got a very competitive piece if you're sitting in dennis that's your spot or travis waffle spot you got a guy like sprague up there i mean what do you have to hope for he has trouble or you have to hope that maybe as the night progresses the track changes his truck will go away well i think you're going to continue to work on your truck right now then assess this truck i'm sure it's not perfect it's either going to be a little bit too loose we'll be too tight and danny gill is going to make some changes to try to get that truck you never give up you're not going to give this race to jack sprague they're going to keep working on this thing say hey we're going to beat him that great jimmy v line don't give up don't ever give up that's being their motto here in nascar let's check in the pits well jerry's talking about dennis setzer his condition was tight coming off of three and four so they did put right side tires on there and made a little air pressure adjustment to make it better but they also had to pull some tape off the front grill because this truck was running a little bit too hot and when you make any change that of course changes the handling on the truck and phil maybe you can address that but they pulled off about three inches of tape off the front drill so that'll change his handling too right you're exactly right that will actually compound the tight problem he has all the tape you can put on the front that that's actually front down force and that's what you have to have to keep a truck from being tight so he's actually he made some adjustments to try to free the truck up but then when he had to take take the tape off that's going to make it tighter yet so i'm sure danny will make some more adjustments on that truck talking about danny gill crew chief for dennis setzer and there is setzer who won the last time we raced on a three-quarter mile racetrack at memphis motorsports park setzer was the winner winning from ford's starting spot you remember how good a truck jack sprague had at memphis tennessee and actually actually rubbed a hole in an oil line and ended up hitting the wall but he had a great truck and was leading the race when that happened he smacked it awfully hard up there back in fact he was leading with about 26 laps to go so uh greg having a great night here tonight he is a former winner we've had six different races here six different poll centers i've seen seven poll centers been set for tonight and six different winners including jack sprague who won it back in 1998 and he continues to lead here tonight and we welcome you back to our nascar craftsman truck series coverage live from richmond international raceway the seventh running of the kroger 200. i'd have you with us i'm jerry punch along with phil parsons amy easton ray dunlap covering the action on pit road and folks you're seeing a record being broken right now here at lap 111 just a moment ago jack sprague set an all-time record for a season here in nascar passport truck competition frank skinner held the old record of 1134 miles lead in a season and uh jack sprague just broke that record and is adding to that total which with each and every half and every turn of the wheel he adds on and now the three-time winner this year is a record holder as far as miles lead per season while one guy who hoped to be able to lead some miles tonight but it's great to have him back is standing by with amy yeah it sure was jerry good to see you back rick what eventually took you out tonight well what happened you know first i want to say thanks for rick betty and jimmy richie and mark but uh something we cut a right front tire would have cut that right front tire wore the sway bar two in half and then right then after that we're pretty much done so uh you know it was fun well it lasted we had a decent truck and then unfortunately we didn't get to run all night but uh hey i'm looking forward next year we put everything together uh kevin harvard and myself so we're gonna run next year for the title and we're pretty close you can see the sponsor and uh we've got a couple in mind and a couple people talking real positive so i'm looking forward to that maybe the next three or four races three races on down the road this year i'll be able to get to run in all right you guys you just heard it from rick we may see him at the end of the year yet and we're definitely gonna see him in 2002. and that is great news to have rick corelli back on board full-time next year driving with kevin harvick the young man who helped who he helped was as rick as kevin was coming up through the ranks watch joe robin right there doc he's having some sort of a prop he looks like he's having an engine problem he gets through the corner okay but watch when they get to straightaway there's elliot taylor on outside just driving away from him so undoubtedly he's got an engine we'll have to check on that check in with danny rollins and company here yeah they're running right up on him in the corner billy bigly running right up behind the 18 of joe rutler now and how about elliot sadler elliott billy at sadler in the charlie and robert long motorcraft four for elliot sadler from emporia virginia of course he won early in the year in a whistling cup car for driving for the wood buzz in bristol tennessee and he'll be pulling a double duty this weekend running this race as well as the winston cup event the monte carlo 400 on saturday night he ran this race last year finished 29th winning 179 laps hey how about this news for elliott center this past week he became engaged to miss tennessee 2001 lisa thompson congratulations elliott and lisa absolutely actually i said an opening the show that he was going to try triple duty also he actually did that last year he did triple duty uh he's not doing it he's not running the bush race tomorrow night but he did do that last year and the 17 showed smoke suddenly up across the racetrack and was that what was that possibly brakes looks like you just maybe locked the front wheels up going down on the corner dock and uh when he did obviously we saw the smoke and he slid the front wheel so that didn't allow the truck to turn that's why he went high because he looked okay going down on that end of the racetrack a scary moment for ricky hendrick the rookie driver who wanted kansas city and the gmac truck now seems to be none the worse for wear so with that settling back down we're going to find out what's going on with joe ruffin and the dana dodge let's check in with ray well jay it appears that it's a engine problem as you guys talked about uh danny rollins just got on the radio and said joe make sure you switch the box and be sure that it's not an ignition problem he said i already did that and uh running on seven cylinders so an engine problem in the dana dodge we talked about how important each race is every week here with these next six races being so important ruffin comes in with the point lead and this could be a big tough break for them tonight if uh they do end up having engine problems indeed rubbing a four-time pole winner this year two-time winner wanted daytona the season opener as you see uh the team meets there goes sprague by ricky hendrick and hendrick down will go a lap down you can see what happened to rookie here just a moment ago he's gonna go down and turn number three here he's actually he's already in three four looks like he looked like he just locked the brakes up there but he was in the center of the corner that wouldn't be a position on the racetrack where you would actually lock the brakes up but i don't maybe uh whatever he might have put might have slipped off the throttle onto the brake and locked him up there matt crafton going behind the 88 truck the xenon headlamps exciting systems uh chevrolet for crafton he's making his way up through the pack now being shown in 14th position while 123 laps in the books and they're chasing jack sprague back with more from richmond in just a moment [Music] the first oil filter ever made back in 1923 wasn't called an oil filter it was called a pure later today every car on the road relies on technology pioneered by pure later and the same company that invented the oil filter just keeps reinventing it so that for anyone who cares enough to change their own oil pure later continues to mean pure oil then pure oil now pure oil later the 60s were a time of social unrest and powerful emotions and the music spoke eastern world [Music] now cornerstone promotions brings back the spirit of the 60s with the greatest songs of an unforgettable era spirit of the 60s brings you 34 great songs which remain as a lasting message for all generations to follow [Applause] come on spirit of the 60s on two cassettes or two cds here's how to order call this toll-free number for spirit of the 60s cassettes 1998 cds 26.98 plus 550 shipping have your credit card ready and call now back in richmond international raceway nascar action here on the worldwide leader espn glad to have you with us i'm jerry punch phil parsons uh ray dunlap and amy east here watching jack spread go by carlos contreros in the hot wheels dodge for petty enterprises carlos showed a lot of courage last two weeks ago at nazareth playing hurt coming home with the top 20 finishing that dodge after uh basically falling in the garage here and hurting his back should he fella actually fell over on the jack uh truck was up on jack stands and he got out of the truck kind of fell over on the on the jack and he actually had to take him to the hospital but he came back and ran that whole race battle for second spot here inside is uh the milwaukee electric field sport and we're waiting for that clear i'll give a fish clear i'll give it to him if we don't hear a spider saying i'll say it for him a spotter cheering auto parts uh onboard camera for kenny schrader now looking back at uh the 14 truck that's the rear of rick crawford what a month's crawford has had he made an engine change went to ernie elliott power and folks uh he finished six at irp third in nashville fifth and chicago and fourth of nazareth has not finished worse than sixth since the engine change but they've done a great job you know they felt like they really had a pretty good handle on on the handling of the truck and uh and they've really done a great job right now and i tell you rick crawford is getting and there's knocking on the door of a win well let's check it in the rings pits and see if timmy kahoot has some magic up his sleeve right that left but jay we got to find out if these guys got anything for jack sprague can you make that truck better and go after him oh we can go after we really could use a caution to get some left side tires but it's been pretty accident-free so except see what happens there will be one more pit stop for sure right if it's under green we'll just go okay that's finna kahoot trying to make it better for riggs so they can do something with spray spray has just been that good uh sometimes i guess you get a car or a truck in your career that you know that they sit there and say man how can i be this good how can i be this much better than anybody on the racetrack a lot of the things that have happened to jack sprague over the course of this season he's probably sensitive boy i hope we don't screw this thing up but he actually he put a lot of that stuff behind him because he was awfully good he won back-to-back races at rnp and allowed we've got terry cook on pit road right now terry cook with less than 70 to go about 65 left to go he has down the pits in front of you amy well terry cook coming off that good run at nazareth a couple of weeks ago had an extremely loose truck they've made heart adjustment team getting him out in about 18 and a half seconds left side tires for cook that should be his final stop you know it's really unusual because the old rule of thumb here's bobby hamilton on bit road the only rule of thumb was when you practice during the day and you go to night time the racetrack's going to get tight but on these tires that could you brought that's no longer the case bobby hamilton headed down the top low seeing the crew today carol bush team pitting bobby hamilton in front of you amy that's right the dr pepper crew is going to give bobby hamilton right side tires man bobby hamilton has been best for this poor qualifying effort he's really working through the field he gets fuel and right side tires look like a terrific pit stop for those guys great pit stop for the bush team the dave carroll motor sports bush team todd losey and company getting bobby on and off and word is that we made that this team may be looking for a sponsor for next year that uh they've had dana for a number of years in fact this team couldn't win the championship wouldn't that be a shame to have a championship and then be looking for a sponsor here for the following season but it sure would be but this is such a strong team right now it's if they do lose dana we hope that's not the case somebody would be well advised to jump on board this team in five of the last six years a driver leading the points on labor day has won the title rutman leads the points for as of right now spray leads the race back in a moment lap 142 caution on the racetrack three leaders on pit road top of your screen sprague middle is rich byron crawford dodge chevy dodge at ford let's check in down with ray but jerry sprague was a little bit tight in the center and slightly loose off so they're going to do left sides here he wanted two cans of fuel but they said only one can we don't want to have too much in it now rick crawford at the bottom of your screen taking right side tires nice smooth for the milwaukee heavy duty crew pretty tight pit stops there nine six ten five and eleven nine and you watch dennis setzer's axiom crew and ray what's the problem well jerry dennis setzer was coming into pin and he had to slide into his lips he'll do right sides there but there was big confusion and scott riggs almost ran into the middle of that pile there sprague make it out no problem but riggs just about had damage there very heavy driving for riggs to be aware that sether was sliding across in front of him dennis setzer dodges a bullet as well he was our pole sitter and has led one lap tonight the very first one of the race and there is scott rich we saw scott leaving a moment ago against a great tough break for the short track ace rodney sawyers in the dodge number 68 a lot of smoke out of sawyer's truck they can only get fifth start this year that brought out caution number four on the night back with the green in just a moment [Music] the action-packed usac stoops freightliner sprint car series hits the cedar rapids iowa and the half-mile hawkeye down speedway with only six races to go everyone is gunning for points leader dave darling and catch all the action as bob jenkins larry rice and our own ray dunlap have the call sunday afternoon september 9th at 8 30 p.m eastern time at sunday evening 8 30 p.m eastern the usac stoops freelancer sprint car series from hawkeye downs speedway for more log on to espn.com we told you a moment ago a near miss for scott riggs and dennis setzer leaving the pits here's what happened he's got riggs pulling out of his pits you see him have to stop right there to avoid dennis setzer that allowed rick crawford to beat him out of the pits scott rick's victory did a good enough job to get him out in front of rick crawford but he had to wait for dennis to get in this pit that cost him a position back onto the racetrack there are some unsung heroes down there in fact in tonight's craftsman pit profile we take a look at the real heroes of this [Music] while the series are the visible heroes in nascar it's often the pit crew members that get the praise these guys done a great job this truck's been awesome for a long time you know my hat's off to all the guys team afc car questions they always do a good job the alden ford f-150 is awesome today and these guys did some great pit stops and they made my job so easy sometimes a mistake that would seem very minor at most jobs can turn out to be a real disaster for a member of the over-the-wall game we see a lot of times on pit road where there are loose lug nuts out there and these guys get into a lot of trouble for it so one guy came up with a little bit better idea and his name is jeff mckinney now all of the crew members carry a couple of extra lug nuts right here on their belt in case one was to fall off of the wheel but jeff said it takes too much time to get that and get it back up on the wheel so he came up with what he calls the whiz and the idea here is that the lug nuts are right up here on top of his glove jeff how did you come up with this idea uh we just lost a lot of lug nuts we just come over the idea of just putting them close to the hand the ice that if you look at this right here guys you see the lug nuts sit on this little thing and he can pull it right off with his other hand get it on the wheel real quickly we're about ready to go back to green but these guys down here in the pits make the difference thanks ray that's ingenious and having those lug nuts right on the back of your hand how many times have you seen guys fumble around on the ground for lug nuts and stuff like that even though they have them on their belt like the traditional way they fumble around in the ground looking for lug nuts and stuff that's a great idea what a great idea thank you ray that's our craftsman pit profile about some of the unsung heroes behind the wall as we are getting set for the restart i'm jerry punch along with phil parsons that was ray dunlap a moment ago and amy's covered the accident on pit road we are showing 150 laps complete jack sprague has dominated leading 148 laps then a ceteris little lap and bobby dotter has led a lap and eight trucks on the lead left jack sprague is our leader we have a chevy ford and dodge the first second and third pretty good parity here in nascar craftsman trucks as we await the green flag this would have jumped jack sprague gets down there gets he beats rick crawford down into turn number one rick's not able to clear elliot sadly the laptop on the inside so look what a gap jack spray comes out of that corner with red blocking down the back strike there's elliott sapper on the inside he's in the 84 the motorcraft board elliott being shown the first lap down back in ninth position kevin harvick the sixth truck the twizzlers chevy right in front of bobby hamilton they are battling for position that is for fifth spot actually hamilton is being shown two left down in 19th position bobby hamilton was one of the trucks that put it in the green there and that just just just about killed his chances it would take a major miracle oh got it got trouble and trouble for the 88 trucks come on that's some trouble you see some damage on the right side jax breaks slowing down and letting a lot of guys get back on the lead left all right you see matt trying to get his truck going right there take a look at what happened here a lot of smoke i don't know if there was an engine problem or another situation where the brakes locked the brakes up it looked more like an engine problem right there some hard contact with the outside wall or something and he hit somebody till they get up to you okay probably trying to catch his breath here you can hit even though it's a three-quarter mile track you could hit here in a ton i think soon i tell you you can hit any wall in any racetrack car but you're going to probably 150 miles an hour at the end of the straightaway here so you heard matt say that he hit some oil or whatever got his left front tire right front tire in some oil and uh and then when he when he tries to stop and locks the brakes up that even compounds the situation so there's a lot of a lot of hard contact matt was hoping he told me today he was hoping to have a good run tonight dedicate his great run to one of his crew members frank and nelly allen frank has had a heart attack and are going to undergo heart surgery tomorrow morning and they're going to let him watch the race tonight and have some surgery in the morning he wanted to prank and everyone know they're thinking about him matt having a tough night here in the exciting systems of xenon performance headlamps chevy for duke thorson safety cruiser there on the scene for the 25 year old [Music] and we're hearing about some possible pit strategy now that maybe uh if you're second third fourth of fifty you gotta do something to catch spray well exactly you know unless you're going to conceive the race and just try to try to keep your second but right now there's only nine trucks in the league lap so the guys won't go back very far it's been a long time since i had the opposite side tires on so uh it'll be interesting to see if any of the guys come in kevin harvick's coming in so here comes dennis setzer there's matt crafton thankfully getting out of that truck and walking away here comes some of the lead trucks to outfit road here under the fifth caution flag of the night 45 miles an hour harvick is it let's go down to amy well kevin's excited to come down and get left side tires also complaining about a brake pedal problem so they're gonna try to check that out for him real quick yeah they came in to put left side tires on ted's truck and make a big air pressure adjustment because believe it or not now ted was loose in the first round of pit stops they made a big track bar adjustment because he was too tight this time he was too loose so ted comes in and now as we said we had a flat tire on harvick's truck so a couple of these guys will have a little bit pressure rubber don't know phil will that make any kind of difference it sure might rain typically this racetrack tires help but uh the tire that goodyear come with this year that has come with its uh you know tires have not mean that much so it'll be interesting to see what these guys can do with the guys the four or five guys that stayed out well laps are wanting yeah well then our onboard cameras carried a commercial how about scott riggs in the ultra wheels dodge and how about kenny schrader in the federated chevrolet it's up to speed on all the action here tonight lap 19 jd gets involved in an incident lap 31 kyle busch spins and then comes on bent road and pushes the tire down which necessitates a stop and go gas man falling down just as the dodge mopar dodge leaves near miss on pit road for ridge and in the latest one lap 153 matt trappen smacks the wall in the 88 truck that's what's happened they call it the action track richmond international race win and hasn't disappointed the fans at all and they're just getting started they got bush racing and winston cup coming throughout the weekend here we start off the weekend great nascar action with the trucks there's a green flag again kevin harvick making a move on the outside of travis poplar now it gets exciting doc we've got some guys with pressure tires to the leaders we'll see what happens final 40 laps it made a difference a year ago and corelli made a pit stop with 40 to go put on some used tires and came in the front like a rocket let's see what happens tonight sprake has been the man he is still the leader there is crawford in second spot rick's in third then comes harvick then comes club harlick on the inside of travis wobble going down there number one we see some smoke out of terry cook's truck the 29 truck he's absolutely having some sort of an engine problem doesn't seem to be slowing him down right now arvik trying to get on the inside but there's a slower truck there that's carlos contreras here's musgrave following harvick in the sonic chevy it may take a few laps for these guys tires to get the air pressure built up then and then we should see him go moving on forward if tires are going to matter here another puff of smoke out of the 29 truck a moment ago you can see it from the onboard camera from kevin harvey so there's more smoke uh at the left side exhaust terry's being shown in 19th position right now you know he made that uh green flag pit stop so he's being shown in the 19th position about two laps down a little bit of contact there quaffle uh there's terry cook started in fifth now mid 19th is the move being made on the inside of travis quapoula that is kevin harvick parish chevy's battling 60 is quaffle the six is harvick the one is much greatest waiting in the wings been working on uh travis bobble since the very drop of this green flag on a restart he's not been able to put him down though ted musgrave saying one of you go on so i can go with you and so does the 92 back there stacy compton is right behind this group there's compton who is the back truck in 92 truck in your picture they are fourth fifth sixth and seventh on your screen 35 laps to go make it 34 this time by we haven't seen the major push yet by the guys with the pressure tires just as we somewhat suspected here with the retire that the figure has brought this year it has not made that much difference to put fresh tires on these trucks we saw what it did last year to rick and one truck in the wall that's a two of scott ridge has come off the concrete and riggs i'll bring out caution number six [Music] she's got a flat right front tire there i don't know if that what's this might have been what caused the accident if we can see what happened a moment ago here on lap 167 with scott riggs in the turn you definitely something happened to the truck right there in the center of the corner i wouldn't doubt if he ran over something the right front tire went down and made some pretty hard contact with the wall you could hear scott trying to get the truck slowed down he was on the brakes and slowing down and he still made hard contact with the wall and right there right in front of you but i got the jack up that was no problem so they will get those right side tires on and they put a big patch on the left front because in that earlier incident he did make contact with dennis setzer so they had a hole on the front headlight bucket there so they put a little bit of tape on there but you can see that definitely had a flat uh right front tire was the problem what put him into the wall now riggs came in tonight 13 points behind joe ruttman and this is a huge hit for him now rudman actually being shown back in 17th position one lap down rage now having his trouble so we can have a big big jumble in the tightest race in all of nascar here in the final laps in richmond back again [Music] back at richford international raceway less than 30 laps to go make it 28 to go they are scrambling toward the truck bobby hamilton on the inside there he got one of his laps back at an earlier caution now he's desperately trying to get his other life back he said it would take a miracle for him to get back in contention at least half the miracles done bobby is driving the wheels on that dana dodge if you take a look at the ted musgrave and the mopar dodge in his current fifth position sprague is the leader in the chevy the board of crawford is second the chevy of quaffle the rookie is third then comes kevin harvick and the chevrolet in the dodge of muskrat that's a top five stacy compton is sixth in a dodge then a center the last truck on the lead lap and seven that's looks like he might have made some contact with the outside wall they brought out the second caution flag tonight on lap 31 when he spawned here is the action that is crawford the second place truck the ford truck as you mentioned a moment ago is a lap down that is bobby hamilton but he is fighting for roastly to get back on the lead left he's got an awfully good truck right now bobby hamilton actually has better tires on there rick crawford we saw him make a green flag pit stop back in life 136 and then he made a caution bike pitch up with everybody else battle for third spot here's kevin harvick getting on the inside of quaffle waffles bobbles a little bit out of turn two harvard will take the spot away just enough to let harvick get the spot and cut musgrave to pull on the inside of travis cuomo musgrave kicks the door open as you look at the cap reynolds chevrolet being passed by must race claire eddie thrap telling teddy that he's clear now the 17 of hendrick is a lap down he's in ninth position after gmac chevy he's also now on the inside of fellow rookie travis now back in fifth position good side-by-side battle right there behind him stacy compton on the inside wasn't quite enough room there for dennis setzer on the outside now three wide going down to turn number one there's the rookie points the left side of your screen quaffle hendrick very tight race crafton already has had his troubles tonight bigly and ribs the top five in rookie standings closing in on 20 laps to go there's billy bigly right there at the 75 truck dock he's racing the 17 trucker ricky hendrick for the ninth position so he's having another good run we haven't talked about him a whole lot but he's having a good run wayne and connie spears on number 75 for billy bigly reigning gatorade all pro series champion stacy compton able to make the pass right there and uh venice cetera now was trying to get by travis papa looks like he's going to be able to make that pass also at the line showing you quickly right now is musgrave with kevin harvick and then crawford and bobby hamilton has gotten by the leader jack sprague to put himself in the tail into the lead left there is hamilton in the fore truck he is flying in the dana dodge and we get a caution flight this could be very very interesting i put my foot in my mouth and said it would take a miracle tonight if you get another caution but he may be very close to that a few years ago your big brother benny said that martin's gonna let harry get could never win from the back of the back with a torn up price percent i'll eat my hat he's still chewing all right let's check in the pits and terry cook has had to call it a night right amy he sure has jerry terry what happened we saw you guys go under the hood trouble with the radiator we must have went over some debris out on the track somewhere knocked the hole just got real loose and you know we're pedaling we're trying to get a decent finish out of it and probably knock it in here so it's gonna end our chance of having to do some run today he came into this race seventh and points just 161 markers out all right tough right for terry severson points a little smoke a moment ago on a crawford's truck but he's right on the back of our later jacks craig's rear bumper looks like he went down in turn number three we saw some smoke look like another situation he's trying to get in the corner so hard to make up ground on jack sprague he may have locked the brakes up but this is the best battle we've had all night and waffle up high slowing on the race as trucks go by on the inside he's made some contact with the outside wall you can see the damage to the right side of the truck and a lot of smoke as he gets some tire up now right in front of koi gibbs and pull it up in front of carlos contreras tough break the leading rookie of the year contender travis quagmire with only about 17 laps to go he's probably going to like to stay out there and try to ride around and to reduce pace but not sure he's going to be able to maintain the minimum speed that nascar requires he's still on the lead left the leaders are coming toward him in a hurry let me show you what happened to travis here a moment ago already up into the concrete right there got high there turns one and two and got into the outside wall it makes a pretty good contact he flat sided her pretty good uh but i think the right front tire is still up so i don't think it's a situation where the right front tire went flat travis still on the racetrack 14 laps to go got a little bit of a tire up when he unloads the chassis in the corner goes way up across the racetrack there's morgan shepard going by he's got a tow in situation too here's a battle per second right now kevin harvick on the inside of rick crawford and maybe now it's the time for the tires to show up the guys that got pressure tires doc harvey making a move inside of crawford let's check in crawford's pit well speaking of fires you guys let's think about this rick crawford is still on the stage left side tires that he started this race on he's changed right by tires twice and never changed those left phil do you think this is going to hurt him here at the end of this break amy i think it is it took a while for these guys that changed left side tires for them to move towards the front but here they come now they're able to kevin harvick was able to get by rick crawford and now it looks like ted muscat is going to be well on his way to get by so we'll now it matters it depends on whether kevin hart can get up to jack sprague and put those new tires to use there's gator and buddy and the guys watching their driver just drive his heart out we're talking about rick crawford with with those same left side tires give a call to cookie or left side power's going 200 laps at richmond but they're taking a beating right now as mushroom looks to the inside saw rick wiggle a little bit off the corner then allow the ted to get right up beside him rick working that wheel awfully hard they're trying to trying to stay ahead of ted musgrave down there great side by side battle for third position here 10 laps to go at brisbane international raceway and the seventh running of the kroger 200. now take a look at the front two as you watch these go by there's mustard made to pass spring is the leader harvick in second spot kevin harvick has never won a nascar craftsman truck series race strike is going by harkin's second position it is kevin harvick's 70th career start he has five bush series victories two winston cup wins he says what's missing i have never won in a nascar crashed truck folks he's running second he's finished second three times he's got nine laps to beat spread to the checkered flag and he's caught jack spring look he's looking on the inside he was actually a tenth and a half faster than jack's break that last lap that's all he's talked about is i want to sweep i want to win thursday i want to win friday i want to win saturdays you watch this battle here censor goes by crawford and that is for fourth position there you see the five-lap interval roger he gained six tenths of a second over five laps all he needs right now is about a half a tenth because that that's much right there will put him in the 70 lead he has been a nascar craftsman truck competition third three different times he has not won a truck race since october of 99 for almost two years you know kevin harvick has bumped his weight to some bush series wins now we'll see if he's going to lay the bumper to jack spray this could have championship implications remember harvick is coming on the outside he just wants to win sprague wants the points and the win and a championship six to go heavy traffic here comes harvard on the inside and lap truck there side by side right at the start finish line and they push and shove that inside look at 10 bus on the inside are going to be horse 5 to go to center right there in the fourth position in this battle great racing nascar gas trucks here restock look at ted must be about the inside of jack sprague musgrave going for the lead and the win here with four left to go where did he come from where in the world did ted musgrave come from we said it was going to be exciting doc and it sure is look at all the damage on the left side of jax brakes truck and a dodge on the inside a chevy up high there's two chevrolets some more contact kevin muskraven jack straight side by side together and look at kevin harvick back in the inside a crowd of over 30 000 on their feet cheering and screaming in nascar action here at richmond international raceway now you know why they call it the action track three to go spring holds on harvey consecutively are side by side rubbing fenders for third dennis center was able to get by tech mustard we thought he was going to get blocked behind morgan sheppard but he moved 10 months up into the third line and went by him in the second lane jax craig next time bye gets the white flag as he flashes beneath the start finish line three quarters of a mile away from his fourth career win this year kevin harvick three quarters away from his first ever win look he's looking on the inside harvick on the inside final laugh he wants it can he get it here comes harvey there's sprague will there be contact harvick turns less to the inside at a turn four can he get there they are side by side and spray will get it by six feet how about that what a finish what a finish nascar crash with trucks what an outstanding race we said it was going to be exciting it was got to get off my stool here get back out on the ground what an outstanding effort by all these drivers great run by jack spreck what an effort by kevin harvick to come back and a clean finish a great great finish among these drivers they celebrate that on the pitch there are some of the gmac group for ricky hendrick down to congratulate jack spreck and the obligatory donuts and this crowd of appreciative nascar faithful stand and cheer they have seen the first of what should be three great races here at richmond international raceway in the same weekend they're celebrating in the pitch we'll come back and talk to jack in a moment [Music] back in richmond international raceway you think jack sprague was hot take a look he lights it up here flames and fire from beneath his net zero chevrolet and listen to these fans he has basically set the rear of the truck on fire he's trying to get the victory lane doc i call that a burnout now that that my friends you get the scorching from the back of the truck and spread on top of all that had gone to the wrong victory lanes the only thing to get wrong all night long it is the fifth closest finish in all of nascar craftsman truck series history six one hundredths of a second what a great finish that amy is checking in now with our second place finish with kevin hart man is this kid exciting or what kevin that was awesome this is what the truck is about this is what you came back to do but one position short of that win wow that's okay i mean that was an awesome run for this twizzler sonic chevrolet and we had fun tonight that's what we came here to do we came up you know a few inches short of the win but uh i probably could have turned right up there and dumped jack but i mean he's racing for a championship and we're trying to win a race so uh we had a run on him and we just tried to beat him back he beat us by a little bit but uh he deserved when he had it he had a fast track all night long uh these guys did a heck of a job in the pits and uh we came up a little short that's the most fun i've had to race for a long time what about those tires was it those fresh tires that gave you that run there at the end yeah i really think so uh those left left side tires really picked us up quite a bit and um you know before that the truck was really loose and we didn't know what to do with it we were sitting in fifth and didn't have a chance to win the race so we decided to come in give ourselves a shot at winning the race and paid off for us we had fun watching you we know you had fun come run with us some more often ray dunlap well emia this crew from hendrick motorsports has come down here an entire group of people to congratulate jack sprague in one of the best victories i'm sure in his career here comes the gatorade frank gets victory number 23 driving truck number 24 and i'll tell you what the burnout may be one of the best we've seen and the race the race one of the best races i've ever seen how was it from the cockpit it was a little ugly at the end but that's how you win these guys gave me a great net zero chevrolet this thing was unbelievable all night i wasn't that good in happy hour so we changed about 10 things like we always do and it was awesome but i just had about probably 130 laps on the right sides and the last 20 laps i was tight i couldn't turn it to 40 acre field and they caught me and you know kevin harvick tried to make me not pin him behind that lap truck and beat me up pretty good so i figured well that's fair game and hell i think he was kind of proud of me those last three or four laps were wild huh well you know you're gonna you're gonna you want to race and beat then every then you got to be able to take it and i think he took it because he come up beside me and give me a thumbs up but that was an awesome race you're the first guy to get a repeat win here at richmond the six previous winners here did not go on to win the championship you ready to do something about that well we're going to try you know the guy's done a great job we've had a lot of trouble this year a lot of it out of our control but this thing's been fast man that's all i can say you know everybody hendrick motorsports chassis shop all our guys back at home and all our guys here everybody does a great job and this truck's been fast we just had uncharacteristic problems with this team but maybe it's over man maybe we can cruise on the rest for the last five races and not have any trouble how about that burnout got pretty hot out there didn't it i think i won didn't i yeah you won jack sprague the winner of the race and the winner of the burnout contest here at richmond well i'm just still trying to catch my breath here take a look at the unofficial results frank led the most laps 196 to be exact harvick in second sets her third must create fourth crawford fifth compton and bobby hamilton the last truck on the lead left coming home in seventh position jimmy hensley soldiered on for a good run 16th only one lap down land super 10th is last time out good running 17. factory 30th position and our final six finishers here as the kroger 200 is history and they continue to celebrate in victory lane back in just a moment well a gorgeous night here in richmond virginia and with five to go the points they just keep on coming spread our new points leader six different name atop the points and six minutes six of the last six events rubbing back in second spot riggs then travis quaffle musgrave ricky hendrick terry cook dennis setzer rick crawford and coy gibbs hangs on the 10th that's a top ten with just five to go here in a very tight nascar craftsman truck series race for the title let's go down and talk with dennis setzer amy well our pulse sitter finishes third and dennis all year we've been talking about goodyear tires not really being an issue did you think those new tires at the end would make you help you finish so well well you know we need to be a little better we got a little off in the center part of the race on some older tires and uh you know it came back pretty good at the end we started pretty far back seventh or eighth after that restart had to clear some lap traffic and then got a good run at it so it was pretty good for us we weren't expecting you to sit on the pole you weren't too good in morning practice and you weren't really good in happy hour so what did you guys change to finish so well well we don't know you know the pole run was kind of a unbelievable deal for us we weren't that great like you say and in the race the truck came around yeah danny gill made a few adjustments right there and so we weren't quite expecting the pole and a little better run the race what we thought maybe earlier you know this is a surprise because rob morgan he's usually our good luck charm he's our owner he's at home on baby watch he's got a wife pregnant home so uh we missed you rob but we'll see you in a couple weeks okay good luck to rob morgan and now let's talk to radon lap ted musgrave had a good battle there right at the end uh you got under sprague but then with just two to go he got back by you yeah i was pretty loose you know like i said the truck really wasn't that good all night and you know jack and i all year long we've run side by side i haven't touched each other and that's the way i'm going to remain it so i didn't do nothing dirty to him i just got underneath and we we raced for about a full lap and as i went back into one he had a good pretty good jump on me going down straight away and i go back underneath him and i got a little loose and he might have known he cut down i mean we hit a little bit which turned my truck a little looser yeah i was either there to take each other out harvick was going to win and i didn't want that to happen so i had to check up a little bit and off he went harvick got a run on me and like i said it was a good battle i mean it's you know tv ought to love that one that was pretty exciting and i got some shots for it but uh the truck really wasn't that good the guys worked hard don't get me wrong but uh next week we're bringing our good truck back out okay that's bad news for the competition muskrat is saying next week he's going to go out and get the victory and ray that means next saturday night at texas motor speedway eddie goshens in the company welcome in the nascar craftsman truck series back out to fort worth texas we'll come back and wrap it up from richmond here in just a moment [Music] our live coverage of exciting nascar craftsman truck series racing has been brought to you by chevy trucks the most dependable longest lasting trucks on the road by tide it's got to be time and by car quest auto parts you'll find it at car quest and next saturday at 4 o'clock eastern time we're headed out to texas motor speedway for the silverado 350 nascar craftsman truck series event and we have been told they've repaid the racetrack and it is absolutely extraordinary the smoothest glass ted musgrave told me we'll be out for the silverado 350 texas motor speedway next saturday on espn now let's check in with amy in the pits well the big loser per se was rick crawford rick you were a threat to win this thing but why did you guys decide not to change left side tires that's a gamble i mean uh we've lost this thing before by not taking left side tires and i've seen people beat me by not taking left side tires so we didn't we didn't take them and it worked out for a little while i had him in my sights had jack in my sights there after the pit crew rebounded from the first pit stop the milwaukee electric two ford race team did a heck of a job and put me out second right behind jack had him in my sights and i lost him and so uh we were just trying hard there at the end with about 15 to go and lost some positions but uh you know my hat's off to ray stonker's whole milwaukee lecture two accord race team for for a great truck tonight and we'll just keep clicking off these top fives and one night maybe texas next week will be our night all right we'll look for rick crawford to be strong in texas absolutely what a night fifth closest finish in nascar craftsman truck series history and folks take a look they're already working on the wall they're gonna repaint them for the bush cars coming up tomorrow night and the big winston cup cars coming up with the monte carlo 400 getting it nice and pretty against all these guys can bounce off the concrete for the next two nights outstanding effort that may be one of the best truck races i've seen in a long time i think it was the very best race we've seen this year and any one of four or five trucks could win this race within the last 10 laps well jack sprague picks up his 23rd career victory his fourth of the year and he not only is the winner tonight he becomes our new points leader what a night for nascar craftsman truck series action at richmond international raceway now you know why they call it the action track for ray dunlap amy easton phil parson tom jerry punch once again congratulating jack sprague he dods all these bullets tonight here at the action track to pick up the win at richmond international raceway remember next saturday we're at texas motor speedway on saturday afternoon coming up next college football a m at wyoming in laramie wyoming this has been a presentation of espn the worldwide leader in sports for more log on to espn.com once again congratulations to jack spread now let's go out to pam ward in laramie wyoming for college football

Channel: SMIFF TV

Views: 2,171

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: FZ9HGrqr9kA

Length: 90min 43sec (5443 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 16 2021