When it comes to a Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville, Kevin Harvick is always one to watch as he had won and dominated previously. Though this time, he took it to a new level as he led 248 of 250 laps on his way to winning the Kroger 250.
"I wanna thank everybody from Kroger, Tide, Rheem, everybody who is a part of this program for being a part of it,” Harvick says. “These guys just did a great job preparing for this race. This truck was great right off the trailer. When Richard leaned in the window, I asked, ‘why did I ever start a race team? Could you imagine how many wins we would've had?’”
The win marked Harvick’s 14th truck win and the fourth time he’s started from the pole and went on to win the race.
“I don't get to do many things first, but it’s nice to win our first truck race together, Richard,” he says. “This is the truck that myself and Hornaday ran last year and they took the truck to their shop and made it better. It’s been a great start to the season."
The only laps Harvick didn’t lead during the afternoon were when he let teammate Ty Dillon led two laps, who finished second for an RCR sweep of the top two.
“These guys are awesome,” Dillon says. “They did a great job. Flash and I were up all last night putting things together; I didn't get much sleep. We came out with the adjustments for qualifying and did well. We definitely have a championship caliber team here.
Turner Motorsports driver James Buescher finished third after consistently running in the top five throughout the day.
"Definatley was a solid day for us,” he says. “All the guys at Turner Motorsports did a great job building this truck. We did a lot of testing a couple weeks ago; we thought it would help us. When we showed up, we were off but we worked on it through practice. It was a good clean day for us. We started in the top 10 and just worked for it all day long. Just a little dint in the grill, but we brought it back clean."
Justin Lofton also ran solid today in the top five, coming home in the fourth position.
“Our guys in the pits were tremendous,” he says. “Every pit stop we picked up spots and that definitely helps. Looking forward to going to Rockingham.”
Timothy Peters rounded out the top five. Nelson Piquet Jr. finished sixth, followed by Ross Chastain, Jason Leftler, Daytona winner John King and Jason White. King remains the points leader, one point over Peters and Lofton.
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