Rockingham, N.C. (April 15,
2012) - Kasey Kahne snatched the lead from Matt Crafton with 46 laps
remaining in Sunday's inaugural Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200 presented by
Cheerwine at Rockingham Speedway and led the rest of the way to win his fourth
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in five career starts.
Second went to Turner Motorsports
teammate James Buescher, who finished 1.478 seconds behind Kahne, who had flown
in from Texas less than 12 hours earlier where he had placed seventh in the
Samsung Mobile 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
"I got about 4 ½ hours of
sleep last night and that was plenty," said Kahne, who led only once in
the 200-lap race at the 1-mile track. "Coming to The Rock, I was so
excited that I woke up early. My alarm was supposed to go off at nine this
morning and I woke up at 7:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. I had tons of
energy, but I'll sleep good tonight when I finally decide to go back to
bed."
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Kasey Kahne (No. 4) celebrates his victory
in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Good Sam Roadside Assistance 200
presented by Cheerwine at Rockingham Speedway.
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Brad Sweet practiced and qualified
Kahne's Chevrolet fifth while the 32-year-old driver took care of his duties
with Hendrick Motorsports in Texas. When Kahne stepped into his Chevrolet at
Rockingham he had to go to the rear of the field. The same rule applied to
David Reutimann, who took over the Chevrolet Sunday that was practiced and
qualified by Chad McCumbee. Reutimann finished 19th after being rear ended by
Bryan Silas and spinning off turn 2 on lap 121.
Kahne, like several drivers who
raced at Rockingham before it closed after the 2004 Cup race, was excited when
it was announced NASCAR would return to the historical track with the truck
series in 2012.
"As soon as I heard about it,
I was trying to figure out whom I would race for and how I would make it
here," said Kahne, who averaged 107.239 mph in the race that was slowed by
four caution flags for 25 laps. "There is a lot of people who put a big
effort in to make this happen and Steve Turner was one of them, so it was
pretty awesome to be able to do that and have an awesome truck like we had here
today."
Pole winner Nelson Piquet Jr.
had a dominant truck, leading three times for 107 laps, but a pit road speeding
penalty during the race's final caution flag cost him a chance at victory. When
the race returned to green-flag conditions with 20 laps remaining, Piquet found
himself outside the top 10.
While the final pit stops proved to
be Piquet's undoing, they provided Buescher with an opportunity at victory.
"We had an excellent last pit
stop and that got us out in front of Matt (Crafton) and the (No.) 17 [Timothy
Peters]," Buescher said. "That put us up on the front row for the
last restart and gave us a chance to go for the win. We just didn't have enough
clean air at the end and Kasey (Kahne) was able to pull away from us
there."
Crafton, who led three times for 40
laps, finished third, while Johnny Sauter took fourth, both in Toyotas. Peters,
also in a Toyota, assumed the point lead with his fifth-place finish.
"It's pretty good when you can
come away and feel disappointed about a fifth-place finish," said Peters,
who led once for seven laps in the race that had seven lead changes among four
drivers. "We just got a little too loose there towards the end of the
run."
Rockingham Speedway President Andy
Hillenburg said he was "very proud of the day" in which the legendary
track hosted a NASCAR race for the first time in eight years.
"Obviously, we will need a week or two to digest
it because we don't really have any fancy systems here," said Hillenburg,
a former driver. "I think it will take a week or two to even figure out
what happened. We have a wonderful staff here and it is also a very small
staff. As a promoter, I still want to go and do better, but I am very proud of
our efforts. It was a team effort and I feel like we did the best that we could
do based on the knowledge that we had. I also feel confident in saying that if
I get a second chance from NASCAR, I can do even better."