[B]By Jared Turner
381-1643
MARTINSVILLE – Dennis Setzer hopes someone will call to offer him a ride for the Craftsman Truck Series’ visit to Martinsville Speedway later this month.
If the Bailey’s 300 at Martinsville has anything to do with it, Setzer’s phone may already be ringing.
On Sunday, he unequivocally had his competitors’ number.
Driving a car that ran virtually flawless for the second half of the 200-lap feature, Setzer torched an overworked field for his fourth career Martinsville win but first triumph in Late Model Stock’s biggest race.
Jamey Caudill placed second, followed by Davin Scites. Matt DiBenedetto, a 16-year-old from Hickory, N.C., placed fourth, followed by Matt McCall.
Motor Mile Speedway regulars Philip Morris and Jason Mitcham took sixth and seventh, respectively.
Restarting fourth after a mid-race inversion of the top six cars, Setzer needed only 11 laps to sweep past Caudill and into the lead. He was never seriously challenged again.
“Track position is very important at this place,” said Setzer, who earned $25,000 for the victory.
A flurry of cautions that tightened the field over the final laps wasn’t enough to help Caudill reel the leader in.
“I wasn’t going to turn him, but I was sure going to make him work for it and try to move him up the racetrack a little bit,” said Caudill, who bettered his third-place finish in last year’s Bailey’s 300. “But I just couldn’t get to him.”
Getting a full-time Craftsman Truck ride is the now the focus for Setzer. He is a 17-time winner in the truck series, in which he has competed on and off since 1995. But he also usually runs one Late Model Stock race each year – in the Bailey’s 300.
Setzer, 47, was relieved of his duties at Spears Motorsports last month and is currently a free agent on the circuit. In two races since his departure from his former team, Setzer has stepped in for other teams that needed a cameo driver.
But there are two dates left on the truck schedule – Oct. 20 at Martinsville and Nov. 9 at Phoenix International Raceway – when Setzer doesn’t have a job.
“I hope to be here at Martinsville in a competitive truck,” said Setzer, who led a race-high 95 laps Sunday. “That’s highest of my priorities right now.”
Catching Scites and Morris was the priority of Setzer and the rest of the field before the inversion at lap 100.
Starting on the front row, Scites and Morris combined to lead all but 21 of the first 100 laps, with Morris taking the top spot away on the 67th circuit. But the two Motor Mile regulars were unable to get back to the front after restarting fifth and sixth, respectively.
“I don’t know if it was so much the inversion, but the track changed,” Scites said. “There was a lot of rubber buildup, and you had to hit the line perfect.”
The other driver to spend time at the point during the opening segment – former Bailey’s 300 champion Frank Deiny Jr. – saw his hopes of victory dashed on lap 84 when he and C.E. Falk III tangled off turn 3 while dueling for third. Deiny recovered to place eighth while Faulk limped home 26th.
Both drivers had plenty of company where accidents were concerned. Seventeen cautions slowed the feature event – after 16 yellow flags did the same over four preliminary heat races.
Caudill was glad to spend most of the day ahead of the carnage.
“There seemed to be a lot of cautions today – a lot of torn-up race cars,” the Four Oaks, N.C., driver said. “It started there in the heat races. I’ve never known it to take as long to run the four heats as it did today.”
Drivers who had a long day included Roanoke’s Tink Reedy, who qualified 13th but fell from contention on lap 71 after bouncing off the machine of North Carolina’s David Triplett Jr. in turns 1 and 2.
Reedy remained on the lead lap but had to settle for an 18th-place finish. Triplett placed 22nd, 20 laps behind the leaders.
Fortunes were no better for two former Bailey’s 300 winners. Last year’s champion, Alex Yontz, finished behind the wall in 29th after crashing with North Carolina’s Matt Leicht on lap 127.
Two-time Bailey’s 300 kingpin Tony McGuire of Roanoke dropped out of the race even earlier – on lap 34 – following a hard encounter with the turn 1 wall.
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