The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series returned to action this weekend for race #2 of this young 2012 Season at Martinsville Speedway for the Kroger 250. Just a quick recap of the season so far, rookie John King who was practically unheard of won the first race of the season at Daytona. Many favorites to win that race were taken out of action early, and if fact just half of the field was listed as running at the end of the race.
Kevin Harvick led the field to the green along side teammate Ty Dillon after posting a quick lap of 19.69 seconds. Now the key to the RCR’s & Kevin Harvick’s domination today was the start and the restarts. Harvick choose the outside, meaning Dillon would start on the inside. Once they took the green Dillon would allow Harvick to take the lead so both could run the lower groove and keep others from passing them. Dillon fought a loose car early on, having to gain a position out of the pits after teammate Joey Coulter brought out the caution for cutting a right front tire sending his 22 truck into the wall. Just before that Justin Loften tangled with Ron Hornaday, spinning Hornaday and sending him down a long path of a long race. The Coulter caution was a break for Matt Crafton who lost battery power, he would go down a lap, but was able to get a new battery put in.
The race continued with the restart and saw some good racing behind the leaders for 4th, 5th, and 6th which would end quickly after some hard racing in the back of the field caused a chain reaction that spun the 60 of Fitzgerald out, and cars behind that checked up. Agnew’s #70 truck suffered severe damage to the front nose, ending his day early after checking up with the truck in front of him. Dakota Armstrong suffered some front-end damage, but would continue the race. This caution would be lucky for another driver, one who needed a break, Ron Hornaday who also would have to go replace a battery and would go down a lap. It was also reported that Paulie Harraka had battery problems, and would go down an additional lap under that caution as well.
Two favorites to win the race were now racing each other for the Lucky Dog to get a lap back from battery issues and raced hard, but Hornaday could not catch Crafton by the time Dusty Davis’ truck stopped on the front stretch to bring out the caution.
With 102 laps to go, the 39 trucks of Sieg would have a right rear gear catch on fire via the grease. Creating some chaos on pit road. But shortly after that pit road incident, the caution would come out, this time for series veteran David Starr who spun out after cutting a right rear tire. This time Hornaday would be the beneficiary of this caution getting himself back on the lead lap. After the pit stops; Harvick, Dillon, Buescher, Lofton, and Bodine would lead the field to the green flag. In the final stages of the race there would be a small series of cautions including Joey Coulter smacking the wall shortly before David Reutimann cut a tire and spun out (which actually brought out the caution). A few cautions later, Kevin Harvick would hold off teammate Ty Dillon to win the race he dominated. Points leader coming into the race, John King finished 9th!
Point Standings after the Kroger 250.
| 1 | John King | 82 | |
| 2 | Timothy Peters | 81 | -1 |
| 3 | Justin Loftin | 81 | -1 |
| 4 | Ty Dillon | 78 | -4 |
| 5 | Jason White | 74 | -8 |
Kroger 250 Unofficial Results
FIN |
CAR
DRIVER
MAKE
SPONSOR
LAPS
12Kevin HarvickChevroletTide / Kroger25023Ty Dillon *ChevroletBass Pro Shops / Tracker Boats250331James BuescherChevroletAccuDoc Solutions25046Justin LoftonChevroletCollegeComple
te.com250517Timothy PetersToyotaNTB / Service Central250