Although the first four races of the year might have suggested otherwise, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series rivals shouldn't write off almost-2003 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Brendan Gaughan.

Gaughan, a back-to-back non-qualifier at Atlanta and Martinsville, returned to his old self with a slashing, come-from the rear performance in Saturday's MBNA RacePoints 200.

Gaughan didn't get the finish he earned - a late tangle with Dennis Setzer dropped the Las Vegas native from a sure top 10 to 16th - but the driver of the Jasper Engines & Transmissions Dodge had made a point.

And that should make the field a bit uneasy as Gaughan returns to Texas Motor Speedway this Friday with every intention of winning his fifth consecutive start at the 1.5-mile track.

Gaughan, a season-best eighth on May 20 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, was back to cracking wise after the race. He took a couple of days off to play  pickup basketball with some his Georgetown University buddies and - along the way - got his shoulder length hair braided into corn rows.

Needless to say, the "do" attracted attention.

"You don't show up with hair like this and expect not to run well," he said afterwards.

There were no hard feelings after the Turn 3 accident which came on lap 192 as Gaughan and Setzer sought to overhaul Timothy Peters, the latter running anything like a rookie on old tires.

"The good thing about that is you if you get in a wreck with Setzer it's a racing deal," he explained. "He got crossed up. I saw an opening. I got to the outside of him and he tried to close the door and I was already there."

Setzer, after making repairs, salvaged a 13th as the final truck on the lead lap.

"By missing wrecks, we gained positions," said Setzer, whose Chevrolet Silverado went a lap behind leader Ron Hornaday Jr. but was the recipient of the free pass when Robert Pressley stalled in Turn 4 to bring out the fifth caution. "We were going to take a truck that was off a little and get a decent finish but there was another crash there and we didn't miss that one."

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Bill Lester was among the day's innocent bystanders but he still came away with the proverbial feathers instead of a hot chicken dinner. Lester, who ran as high as third, wound up in the garage after Todd Bodine and Tony Stewart tangled on the backstretch at lap 167 - and caromed Lester's Levi Strauss Signature Toyota into the outside wall.

Instead of scoring back-to-back top 10 finishes for the first time in his career - he was sixth at Lowe's - Lester was a disappointed DNF.

"We minded out own business and we were running in the top-five and we then dropped a couple of spots because other guys had fresher tires," he said. "Going into Turn 3 I know that the No. 66 (Bodine) was looking and the next thing I know I'm in the fence. I was told the No. 47 (Stewart) tried to get under the No. 66 and there was nothing I could do."

Still, the fourth year driver figured the runs at Lowe's and Dover had made a point.

"We're showing that we're no joke out there," he said.

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The news was much, much better for Deborah Renshaw who would have won a bounce-back award had there been such a laurel. Renshaw, who failed to qualify her EasyCare Vehicle Service Contracts Dodge last month in Charlotte, recorded a 12th-place, best-of-career finish in a very solid performance.

She also came within a position of matching Tammy Jo Kirk's series best by a female driver. The lead lap effort was the second of the season for the 27-year-old college graduate.

Kelly Sutton, meanwhile, erased Kirk's female winnings record despite finishing 31st. Her winnings of $9,790 upped Sutton's career total to $259,452. Kirk's previous mark was $257,545. Sutton will match Kirk's total start record of 32 by qualifying for the Chex 400K.

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Matt Crafton is quietly giving longtime series owner Duke Thorson reason to smile. Crafton's ninth-place finish in Thorson's Menards Chevrolet was Crafton's third top 10 of the season allowing the Tulare, Calif. native to maintain a seventh-place ranking in the championship standings - higher than many rivals with resources far greater than those of Thorsport Racing.

Crafton will be after his 50th career top-10 finish at Texas Motor Speedway.

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Jimmy Kite can make a little NASCAR Camping World Truck Series history this weekend in Ft. Worth. Kite, a Raybestos Rookie of the Year contender, can become the first series driver to compete in truck and Indy Racing League events on the same weekend. Kite qualified and finished 32nd in last month's Indianapolis 500 but failed by one truck of making the Lowe's/Indy races a double.

With the first leg of this year's Raybestos rookie chase complete, Todd Kluever holds a 102 to 66 point lead over Sean Murphy. Timothy Peters, whose sixth-place finish at Dover was a career best - and tops by a Bobby Hamilton Racing-prepared entry by the way - is third.

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The No. 99 hasn't been a lucky number at Dover - at least in practice and qualifying. Ricky Craven joined Roush Racing mates Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards in being forced into backup trucks after a cut tire in Thursday's initial practice severely damaged his primary mount.

Craven didn't quite equal Busch's 2000 run from the rear to victory but his seventh-place finish did put smiles back on the faces of his Mike Beam-led crew. The Maine veteran got zero laps in the truck, which didn't even receive a final inspection sticker until a soggy Friday morning.

Ironically, Craven suffered another flat in Saturday's race when a portion of the valance broke off the Ford's nose.

"We're going to have to work on our Ford a little bit because what you see there with the front-end damage isn't going to get it done," he said. "That nosepiece busted up like that. It's not that we ran into anybody; we just wore it out."

Craven moved up a notch in the standings to second, 20 points behind of Ted Musgrave. He's the only driver to complete all 1,335 laps run in the year's eight races.

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Todd Berrier and Kevin Harvick - with an assist from spotter and KHI general manager Rick Carelli - subbed in a group effort for crew chief Wally Rogers, whose wife delivered twins on Friday evening.

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Saturday's victory by Kyle Busch was the first for Chevrolet after four consecutive wins by Dodge and Busch's inaugural triumph in a Ford. The GM nameplate went to the top of the manufacturer point list by a count of 55 to 52 over previous leader Dodge. Ford and Toyota remain winless in 2005.

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The MBNA RacePoints 200 was the series' 250th race and marked just the sixth time - seventh if you want to count an Infineon Raceway date postponed a month before it was to be held in 1995 - an event was run on a day other than scheduled.

Dover joined Martinsville Speedway in the dubious category of having two dates scrubbed by inclement weather. The 2001 race also was scheduled for a Friday but slopped over into Saturday.