NASCAR Camping World Trucks Series
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TRUCKS: Hamlin Wins; Buescher New No. 1
Denny Hamlin wins at Martinsville, while James Buescher takes point lead...
Mike Hembree  |  Posted October 27, 2012   Martinsville, VA
Denny Hamlin surged near the end of the race to win Saturday’s Kroger 200 Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville Speedway, while the series’ championship battle was scrambled.

James Buescher finished sixth, while Ty Dillon, who had the point lead entering the race, had a tire go down, slapped the wall and finished 28th. Buescher thus rolled into the point lead and has a 21-point edge over Dillon with three races remaining. Timothy Peters is third, 25 back.

Hamlin was second to Matt Crafton as a green flag ended a caution period with seven laps left. Hamlin nudged past Crafton to take first and wasn’t successfully challenged the rest of the way.

Nelson Piquet Jr., who raced very aggressively over the closing 20 laps, gunned his way to second at the finish, ahead of Joey Coulter, Crafton and Scott Riggs.

Crafton was upset by Hamlin’s aggressiveness near the end of the race and ran into Hamlin’s truck on the cool-down lap. Brian Scott had the same truck-to-truck message for Piquet.

Crafton walked to Hamlin’s truck after the race, and they had an animated discussion.

Hamlin took no blame. “I gave the 88 (Crafton) room on the outside,” he said. “I didn’t wreck him or anything like that. It’s contact at Martinsville. I would expect the same thing from anyone else.”

Hamlin qualified fifth for the race but started at the back after missing the pre-race drivers meeting because he was concentrating on the day’s final Sprint Cup practice. Hamlin later said he didn’t want to miss the last 15 minutes of Cup practice in order to make the start of the truck meeting.

Sprint Cup invader Kevin Harvick was the big gun of the day for much of the race, and it appeared he might sweep the series’ 2012 events at the track. In the spring, Harvick led 248 of 250 laps in breezing to a victory in the Kroger 250.

Harvick wasn’t quite that dominant Saturday, but he was out front most of the way. He took the lead from pole winner Peters on lap 59 and led the next 36.

Harvick led 101 laps but fell back in the closing miles after a tire issue and finished 12th.

While Harvick was having a mostly fun afternoon, Dillon wasn’t. He slapped the wall with 50 laps to go and lost six laps in the pits for repairs, scrambling the standings with only three races remaining.

Buescher, who rallied from a lap down to score a top 10 and take the point lead, was elated.

“This team knows to never give up,” he said. “You can’t give up. Checkered flag is not out until 200 laps.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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