Several hundred fans turned out to meet their favorite NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series drivers during the on-track autograph session between the rookie practice and the final practice for tomorrow's O'Reilly 200.  Mike Skinner, Bill Lester, Terry Cook, Jack Sprague, Ted Musgrave, Boston Reid, Aric Almirola, Johnny Benson, Kerry Earnhardt, Dennis Setzer, and Kraig Kinser all took seats on the frontstretch and signed autograph for the fans out braving the heat.

The different drivers looked to get up alongside the wall during practice yesterday. Ted Musgrave's No. 9 Team ASE Toyota looked like this:

Kevin Grubb had a close encounter after a tire went down going into turn one, leaving the right side of the No. 15 Spondivits Chevrolet looking like this:

Joey Miller also scuffed the right side of the No. 12 Curb Records Toyota up, but it was not significantly damaged.

The track temperature leading into Live! Bud Pole Qualifying - and we still have nearly 45 minutes to go - is a cool and comfortable 149 degrees.  Cockpit temperatures are in the same range, 140 to 145 degrees.

Sprague Starts Up Front in Memphis

Jack Sprague will lead the field to the green tonight after he earned his record-tying 28th career NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Bud Pole in qualifying for the O'Reilly 200 at Memphis Motorsports Park.  Sprague, driving the WYler Racing No. 60 Con-way Freight Toyota, turned a fast lap of 22.973 seconds/117.529 miles per hour to pick up his first pole of the season.  His previous best start was second, coming in the series' last short track race at Mansfield in May.

Sprague narrowly defeated Dennis Setzer for the pole, with Setzer's lap of 23.055/117.111 good enough for outside the front row.  Setzer has finished among the top-five in all seven races he's run at Memphis - and is the 2001 winner of this event - but the outside front row starter has never gone to victory in the eight-year history of the event.

Matt Crafton was third in the No. 88 Menards/Energizer Chevrolet with a 23.081/116.979 lap, Erik Darnell was fourth in the No. 99 Roush Racing Ford at 23.090/116.934, and Bobby Hamilton rounded out the top five qualifiers in the No. 18 Fastenal Dodge at 23.129/116.737.

Mike Bliss paced both practices yesterday, but the best the No. 16 Xpress Motorsports Chevrolet could do was sixth in qualifying with a 23.144/116.661 lap.  The surprise of the day was Brad Keselowski, who took over at the last minute for a still-recuperating Kelly Sutton, and qualified seventh in the No. 02 Sutton Motorsports Chevrolet with a 23.159/116.585 circuit.  Kevin Grubb in Billy Ballew's No. 15 Spondivits Chevrolet was eighth at 23.160/116.580, David Ragan ninth in the No. 6 Scott's Ford at 23.169/116.535, and Mike Skinner rounded out the top ten in the No. 5 Toyota Tundra Toyota at 23.171/116.525.

David Reutimann, who is third in the series standings, will start 15th, championship leader Todd Bodine will line up 19th, and current point runner-up Johnny Benson will start 22nd.  There were no incidents in qualifying, and all 36 teams that entered will start tonight's O'Reilly 200. 

How sweet is this victory?   "As you get older, you wonder if you are ever going to win again. So this win is very sweet. This is the first win for Wyler Racing, for Con-way Freight and for me in a long time I think there will be many more for this team. We're finding the consistency."

"We needed a win bad. I needed a win bad. We've been so close in this Con-way Freight Toyota three or four times but hadn't pulled it off."

"I'm just as or more happy for David and Jeff Wyler for Con-way Freight and the whole family because this is their first win. I've been here and done this before - don't get me wrong, it's still great. But to get their first pole and first win in the same day is really something special."

Talk about your first win with Wyler Racing...  "This is a brand new race team just at a year old. It's hard to get a group of guys together and get going in the right direction. This will give everyone the confidence we need and bring them closer together, continue this and win some more races this year."

"The guys did a great job. We had great pit stops tonight. It's a young team, and I think this will help us to build momentum for the rest of the year."

• This is Jack Sprague's first win in the 2006 season. His last win was at Texas Motor Speedway in June 2005.
• Sprague's win came from the pole.
• This is the first win for Wyler Racing since the organization started in June 2005.
• This is Jack Sprague's 26th career victory in NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competition.
• This is Toyota's 20th win and Sprague's first win in a Toyota.
• This is Sprague's second win at Memphis Motorsports Park. He is the first repeat winner at Memphis Motorsports Park. He won in 2000.
• The win moved Sprague up two spots in the overall point's standings to seventh - 42 out of fourth.

Sprague led the opening 43 laps in the Wyler Racing No. 60 Con-way Freight Toyota after starting from his record-tying 29th Bud Pole, but dropped back through the top ten as the handling characteristics of his truck changed.  After pit stop at lap 64, Sprague put it back out front and stayed there through lap 143, at which time Setzer flexed his muscles.  Setzer's No. 85 GM FlexFuel Chevrolet looked untouchable, building a 6.5 second advantage over the pack.

Setzer's advantage - built up as the field ran 89 consecutive laps under green flag conditions - evaporated when the fifth caution of the night came out for debris on the backstretch.  Setzer led the field down pit road for tires and fuel, but the signboard from Kevin Grubb's team was pinned underneath the jack post of his machine.  The signboard shifted, dropping Setzer's truck off the jack and eliminating any chance of his first victory of 2006.

"I was hoping (Setzer) would have a bad pit stop so we wouldn't have to race them," Sprague said following the race.  "I didn't want it to be that bad though.  They had some troubles but we were fortunate to capitalize.  We've been so close to winning one of these races for so long.  It's almost that our guys were trying too hard to win, and that's not a bad thing.  But I told them, we're close - I am bringing the trucks home in one piece, let's back it down and not try so hard and let one of them come to us."

Sprague was forced to deal with Raybestos Rookie contender Erik Darnell in the late stages. 

"I didn't want to move him late in the race to get the win," Sprague said.  "He passed me twice tonight and was clean both times.  I've only raced with him a couple of times this season, so I didn't know what to expect.  I am sure he was up on the wheel trying his hardest to keep me back behind him.  He did a great job here tonight, if he keeps it up he can have a long future in this sport."

Darnell, for his part, was pleasantly disappointed with his runner-up finish.

"I think the only guy better than us on long runs tonight was Dennis Setzer," Darnell said.  "Earlier in the race we could see that Jack was good on the long runs and we were worried about that after that last stop.  We knew he was going to be good on those fresh tires."

Darnell thought about maybe using the bumper late in the race to pick up his first career win, but decided against it.

"We thought about it," Darnell admitted.  "But as a rookie you are trying to race with these guys and earn respect.  I think you get a lot more from them racing them clean than hitting them.  I didn't want to win my first one by spinning someone out and wrecking them."

Matt Crafton stayed near the front all night long, bringing the No. 88 Menards Chevrolet home in third, tying his season best set earlier this season at Martinsville .  Crafton didn't want the last caution flag as he was quickly closing on the top two.

"We didn't want that last caution flag at all," Crafton said.  "We were better on the longer runs.  If we had 10 or 15 laps on that last run, they were going to have to deal with us.  We weren't good at all in the final practice yesterday, and I told my guys again to make big changes and not even tell me what they were doing.  I have all the faith in the world in these guys, and we'll get a win before the season is over, I can tell you that."

Setzer's misfortunes on pit road saddled him at the back of the lead lap on the restart with just 19 laps remaining.  Setzer was able to run from 14th on the restart up to tenth at the finish.  Still, Setzer was dejected with his team's continued bad fortune.

"We had such a good truck tonight, and to lose the race in the way we did is very disappointing to all of us," Setzer said.  "We have really hoped and expected to do better this year, and tonight could have been the turning point.  It's been a tough year for us.  We ran good all night, but the deal in the pits was just very unfortunate.

"I came in and the signboard for the 15 truck was down low and they dropped it down underneath my truck when I came by," Setzer explained.  "When they went to jack up the truck, it was caught up underneath there and when they tried to jack it up it slipped off. It's very unfortunate, but it is good to have our truck being competitive again."

Ron Hornaday, who won last week at Kentucky , picked up the fourth spot after an early race scrape that left second-place point man Johnny Benson's truck wounded.

"Johnny's going to have to look at the tape and see what happened there," Hornaday said.  "He's always raced me clean through the years, but I was outside of him at  least three times. When I got up alongside him he turned and hooked me in the right rear and that's what damaged his truck. I never doubt anything with Kevin Harvick and this team.  We didn't have the best truck tonight, we had about the 12th-best truck tonight, but we had great pit stops and good restarts.  We'll take our fourth-place and go home."

Mike Bliss was fifth in the No. 16 Xpress Motorsports Chevrolet was fifth, ahead of sixth-place David Ragan in the No. 6 Scott's Ford, David Reutimann in the No. 17 Team Tundra Toyota , Terry Cook in the No. 10 Ford Power Stroke Diesel by International Ford, Mike Skinner in the No. 5 Toyota Tundra Toyota, and Setzer.

Point leader Todd Bodine was 15th, while Benson was a season-worst 32nd and three laps off the pace at the finish.

There were seven cautions for 30 laps, and Sprague averaged 88.367 miles per hour en route to victory.  The only significant incidents on the night were Aric Almirola's turn one crash on lap 198 which set up the green-white-checkered finish, and Erin Crocker and Chad Chaffin's crash in turn four coming to the checkered flag.  There were no injuries in any of the incidents throughout the day. 

Todd Bodine continues to lead the championship standings with David Reutimann leapfrogging past Johnny Benson to take over second.  Rick Crawford picks up one position to fourth as defending series champion Ted Musgrave slips back to fifth.  Ron Hornaday is sixth, Jack Sprague now sits seventh, David Starr is eighth, Terry Cook ninth, and Dennis Setzer tenth.

Next up for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is the Power Stroke Diesel 200 at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis on Friday August 4.  TruckSeries.com will have complete event coverage, including practice, qualifying and race updates throughout the day.