Silverados 1-2-3 in Richmond: Sprague, Harvick, Setzer
SILVERADO RACING NOTES AND QUOTES KROGER 200 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES -- ROUND 19 OF 24 RICHMOND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY RICHMOND, VA. THURSDAY, SEPT. 6, 2001 BATTLE OF THE TITANS: SPRAGUE EDGES OUT HARVICK TO WIN RICHMOND; SETZER MAKES IT 1-2-3 SWEEP FOR SILVERADO; SPRAGUE TAKES OVER POINTS LEAD It was a battle of the titans in the closing laps of the 200-lap Kroger 200 at Richmond International Raceway. Former truck series' driver turned Winston Cup star Kevin Harvick and series' veteran and two-time champion Jack Sprague were doorhandle to doorhandle (if there were doorhandles on these trucks), nose to tailgate, as they fought for the win in the last 15 laps. Ford's Rick Crawford, Dodge's Ted Musgrave and Chevy's Dennis Setzer were also in the mix in one of the more exciting races of the season. It was anyone's race from lap 195 to the finish as Harvick led lap 195, Sprague lap 196 and Ted Musgrave lap 197. Sprague prevailed to lead the final three laps, winning his fourth race of the year, his 23rd career and Chevy's sixth of 2001, edging out Harvick by a margin of .062 of a second, the third closest margin of victory in the series' history. Setzer moved into third with two laps to go, as Musgrave dropped to fifth for the finish. Sprague's victory moves him into the points lead by 27 over Dodge driver Joe Ruttman, and 57 over third-place Scott Riggs, also in a Dodge. Sprague dominated the event, leading all but four laps. Polesitter Setzer, Bobby Dotter, Harvick and Musgrave led each of the other four. This was Harvick's first truck race all year, and the 70th of his truck-racing career. JACK SPRAGUE, NO. 24 NETZERO PLATINUM SILVERADO (winner): "The last 20 laps were rather ugly. Our truck was unbelievable all night. I was on cruise control. The thing was awesome. The last 40 laps I had no right front (tire rubber) left. Ted (Musgrave) got under me, and when I was forced to the outside it turned better So, I thought that maybe I can hold my own out there. (Kevin) Harvick got alongside of me and tried knocking me up so he could get by the lapped truck. He succeeded at that. So, we played a little bumper tag out there and we got him back. The guys did a great job. I know Kevin wanted to win it awful bad, but when you bump you gotta take it too. He pulled beside me afterwards and congratulated me. It was a great race. The guys gave me a great truck. Man, in Happy Hour I wasn't real proud of what I had. I knew it was hot and slippery and Dennis (Connor, crew chief) and myself and Rex (Stump), our engineer, got together, and we changed about six, seven, eight, 10 things and not big things but little things and, man, they got it close. It was a little tight in the center, a little loose off. The first stop we adjusted on it, it got better. Second stop we put left sides on. We got it a little better. We made a mistake. We should have come in when the caution came out on lap 150-something and got rights. The way it worked out we ended up with 130 laps on the right side tires and when we changed lefts at lap 140 -- there was 140 laps on lefts -- the left front was completely gone and the left rear was well on its way to being gone. I should have. He (Connor) asked me if I wanted to. And I should have come in and got rights and I didn't. The truck was that good; I never dreamed it would go away. But with 20 to go, man, it was a handful. I didn't think I was going to be able to pull it off. We got beaten and banged up on. I knew Kevin wanted to win this thing extremely bad. That was his number one goal. I also knew he wasn't going to knock me out 'cause I'm running for a championship. I thank him for that. He was roughing me up pretty good down the straightaway. I guess he figured I could hold on to it. That wasn't any big deal. And I roughed him up a little bit in 1 and 2, and got back by him. And Teddy got under me. Actually, that's probably what won me the race is when Ted Musgrave got under me and put me in the second lane. It was a lot better up there than it was at the bottom, with the wore out tires. So I got back in front of Teddy and just kind of ran in between lane 1 and lane 2 and got the last two laps out of the way. Man, I'm glad that's over." ON THE CHAMPIONSHIP: "We led the points three or four weeks ago and lo and behold we went to Nashville with the point lead and didn't even get the green flag. The truck has been unbelievably fast all year. Even when we were at big deficits or little ones they've done a great job. We've had some weird stuff going on, some breakage we don't normally have. Most of it is stuff we can't control. Some of it we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit. To be in the points lead with five races to go after the year we've had is just amazing. I can't believe it. It seems like it's been win or break. In fact, we figured out last week after Nazareth -- we ran third -- our worst finish non-wounded, not wrecked or on seven cyinders is a third place all year. How we're leading this thing I have no clue, but I'm happy we are." KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 6 TWIZZLERS/PAYDAY/SONIC SILVERADO (second in his first race of 200, his 70th career): "Jack was doing everything he had to do to do what he had to do to win. We beat and banged and had a heck of a time out there. This Twizzlers/Payday/Sonic Chevrolet was pretty awesome tonight. Now I know why I miss the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. It's a lot of fun. You can beat and bang and do whatever you want to and it would keep going. That's the most fun I've had in a race car all year. I probably could have turned up and dumped (Sprague), but Jack's racing for a championship. We were all the way up beside him. So we just gave it what we had and tried to beat him back all fair and square. It was an awesome night." TROUBLE WITH THE TRUCK MIDWAY? "The brake pedal started sticking to the floor when I'd go in the corners. It just took me a while to get in the rhythm of letting it stick on the floor and pulling it back up with my foot. Then with about 40 laps to go they handed me a bungee cord and I tied that to the brake pedal under caution and it worked for a while until it ripped the tach off and that's what I had it tied to. Then I had to get back into the rhythm of having to hold it back up off the floor. It was an eventful night." ARE YOU GOING TO DO THIS AGAIN? "Right now we're just trying to lock something down for (Rick) Carelli next year, but as much fun as tonight was we might run it at Phoenix." DENNIS SETZER, NO. 46 ACXIOM/COMPUTER ASSOCIATES SILVERADO (third): "It's pretty exciting. We had some new tires, and came from the back on the restart and just ran out of time right there at the end. We caught those cats, ran some pretty good lap times. That was a lot of fun. Jack did a pretty good job protecting what he had. Kevin came back and raced him good. They did a little rubbing, but that's what truck racing is all about. It was a good race for Chevrolet; Silverados 1-2-3. It would have been nice to have been out front. I congratulate Jack (Sprague) and all his crowd. They did a good job. They finished well, and started well. Our truck was pretty good all night. It got a little tight in the center part of the racetrack. We made some good adjustments at the end there. We were pretty fast at the end. We ran the leaders down from quite a ways back. It's just unfortunate that we didn't have two more laps." RICKY HENDRICK, NO. 17 GMAC SILVERADO (eighth, first rookie): "It was a tough day. We struggled right from the beginning. We were locking up some brakes and had three big flat spots on the tires. I was kind of going around like Fred Flintstone. You can hear every rotation of the tires. It was pretty bad and obviously at that point in time I couldn't do anything with it. I was just hoping the tire wasn't going to blow out so we wouldn't hit the wall. We came in and fixed it, started picking up some positions. We went back out and ended up eighth. That's kind of the way the storybook went. I think Richmond is a place where it doesn't treat rookies very well. People who run really well here have a lot of experience. I guess we'll head on to Texas and see what we got there. (This is a) great race track. Hopefully we'll come back here and run better than we did today." ON HOPES FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP? "Hopefully it closed it up and hopefully we're gaining a lot on the rookie deal. Because the Raybestos Rookie of the Year is one of those deals I'd really like to accomplish this year, along with another win." TRAVIS KVAPIL, NO. 60 CAT RENTAL STORES SILVERADO (11th, ran as high as third; still holds on to Raybestos Rookie of the Year standings, but by only one point over Ricky Hendrick): "Basically it came down to eight of us on the lead lap and we wanted to stay out because we thought we had a pretty good truck. We didn't want to come in and pit. All the guys behind us did. I got to racing real hard trying to stay up there in the top five. We just burned the right rear tire off because we had a bunch of laps on it. I was racing them guys real hard and got down into turn 1 a little too hard one corner and got up in the marbles and just slid up into the wall. Driver's fault, I guess. I was trying to get a little more out of the truck than was there and it ended up biting me tonight. Something got bent in the truck it didn't want to steer real well after I got in the wall. Pretty disappointing. We qualified 22nd, drove ourselves right up to the top five in the first half of the race. I kind of gave it all away with about 15 to go. That's all right. We had a decent run going and they definitely knew we were here." ON THE DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP? "We needed a good run tonight. I see the 18 (Joe Ruttman) and 2 (Scott Riggs) had problems. It would have been nice if we could have kept it up in the top five and we would gained points on them guys. I'm sure we slipped back a little bit more. We just need to run strong for these last five races and I think we still have a shot at it." POINT STANDINGS: 1. Jack Sprague, Chevy 2910 2. Joe Ruttman, Dodge 2883 3. Scott Riggs, Dodge 2853 4. Travis Kvapil, Chevy 2771 5. Ted Musgrave, Dodge 2758 6. Ricky Hendrick, Chevy 2757 7. Terry Cook, Ford 2654 8. Dennis Setzer, Chevy 2616 9. Rick Crawford, Ford 2549 10. Coy Gibbs, Chevy 2284 MANUFACTURER STANDINGS: 1. Dodge 146 2. Chevy 128 3. Ford 87 ###