CIA Stock Photo, Inc.
Speed made it three straight first-time winners in the Craftsman Truck Series, pulling away to win his first career race Friday night at Dover International Speedway. Speed won in only his sixth career start.
Speed had nearly as much fun celebrating the victory as he did driving in the AAA Insurance 200.
When told there was never a repeat winner at Dover, he quipped, “I haven’t been back yet.” Then he plopped his cap on the head of the Monster trophy.
Later, Speed revealed he had his toenails painted blue on the plane ride to Delaware.
“You’ve obviously never experienced the joy of having someone take care of your feet,” he said, laughing. “My feet were very, very soft, very beautiful for my standards.”
Jack Sprague held off Chevrolet teammate Ron Hornaday for second position, as Sprague crossed the finish line 3.379 seconds behind Speed. Travis Kvapil finished fourth and Crafton fifth. David Starr, Mike Skinner, Colin Braun, Rick Crawford and Johnny Benson completed the top 10.
“The learning curve I’ve had has been amazing. Every time I go out on the track, I feel I come away with a lot of knowledge.
“We had a good strategy and an awesome truck, and we got everything we could out of it,” Speed said of his No. 22 Bill Davis Racing Toyota. “The learning curve I’ve had has been amazing. Every time I go out on the track, I feel I come away with a lot of knowledge.
“I’m just having an awesome time trying to learn this sport.”
With a two-tire stop on Lap 133, Speed improved his track position dramatically, restarting third behind Todd Bodine and Shane Sieg on Lap 136. After picking off Sieg, Speed passed Bodine for the lead on Lap 150 and opened a lead of more than 3.5 seconds over Hornaday (who gained three positions to second).
Speed’s lead disappeared, however, when Bodine’s No. 30 Toyota blew a right-front tire and slapped the Turn 3 wall on Lap 170.
But Speed said his truck was quicker on two tires, and after taking the green flag for a restart on Lap 179, he stretched his advantage to nearly 4 seconds over Sprague before backing off on the final circuit.
“It was time to get a little aggressive,” Speed said of the restart.
In becoming the ninth different winner in as many Craftsman Truck races at Dover, Speed became the series’ third straight first-time winner, following Matt Crafton and Donny Lia.
“He is a winner now in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series,” Hornaday said. “He’ll fit in quite well.”
Hornaday suspected his Chevrolet suffered a broken header or lost a plug wire late in the race. “It had no power,” he said.
His teammate, Sprague, said he barely had enough to get past Hornaday, let alone challenge him.
“Second’s great,” Sprague said, “but ... I want to win.”
Todd Bodine, who entered the race with an eight-point lead over Rick Crawford in the series standings, was running second until grazing the wall and being forced to retire with 30 laps left. Bodine finished 29th.
Kyle Busch, with two wins and a second in his previous five Craftsman Truck starts this year, had the fastest truck, leading the race’s first 95 laps. At that point, Busch’s transmission began smoking. The transmission change cost him 19 laps and NASCAR’s Sprint Cup points leader settled for 27th.
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