Kluever finished second, tying his best finish in 21 career Craftsman Truck Series starts. He also placed second Aug. 5 at Indianapolis Raceway Park and July 2 at Kansas Speedway. He scored his sixth top-five and ninth top-10 of the season and has taken Raybestos Rookie of the Race honors 15 times in 21 races.

Today's Kroger 200 is the first race this season where two Raybestos Rookies finished inside the top-10: Kluever and Timothy Peters, who grabbed an eighth-place finish.

Peters led once for 46 laps, the first time he has led a lap in 14 career Craftsman Truck Series starts. He became the fifth Raybestos Rookie to lead a lap in the Craftsman Truck Series this season. The others:

• Regan Smith (three times in one race for four laps, 10 miles)
• Kluever (once in one race for two laps, three miles)
• Kerry Earnhardt (once in one race for one lap, 2.5 miles)
• Sean Murphy (once in one race for one lap, 1.54 miles)

A Raybestos® Rookie has now scored a top-10 finish in each of the three Craftsman Truck Series races held in the fall at Martinsville: Robert Huffman (10th in 2004) and Carl Edwards (second in 2003)

Kluever: "This is definitely a place that I'm not very good at so a second-place finish for our World Financial Group Ford is really good. We unloaded off the truck yesterday and we were terrible. I have to thank Mike Beam, Hal Ralston, and Steve McCain and all my guys that worked really hard on this thing. They never gave up. Mike had the right pit strategy and that's what it was, really. We were good enough to run at the front, we just weren't good enough to drive there like Ricky was. It's because of him that I got three second-place finishes and I'm having a ball. We're going to win our own yet here before the season is over. I'll almost bet on it. I came on the radio halfway through the race and said 'It's not so bad when you can actually run good here.' That's what we had. Ricky was better than us that was it. I had a shot at him, maybe, on restarts for one or two laps if I could get it done right away but that was it and he just drove away."

How did you keep those guys behind you there at the end? "I don't know, man. I just said that I'm going to park it on the bottom and I'm going to go slow enough so if they run into me it's not going to do anything to me. I was trying to get it for myself and once I knew I couldn't get it I was doing my best to hold everybody off so they weren't going to get a shot at Ricky. Our guys in our shop work so hard, man, and I just wanted them to win a race this year."

Did your truck get better the more laps you ran? "Yeah, we were really good all day. I told Mike Beam on our one pit stop 'Man, we're close Mike. I don't know how much you want to do but maybe just a little.' We're going to win one before the year is over."

How big is Roush Racing's one-two finish here today? "It's pretty big. Our truck program, obviously we haven't done quite as well as what history has showed that we should be doing. Hopefully this will make Jack [Roush, truck owner] happy. He came on the radio when Ricky took the lead and I was running second and I said man, this is a first for the season and everybody kind of thought that was cool. Ricky is a great guy and I'm glad he won. If it had been anybody else, I probably would have got them on the restart and worked them over a little bit. I want to win real badly, but I'm not going to do that to him. He's been so good to me. That's Jack's one big thing: you guys can race as hard as you want, but don't wreck each other. Like I said, he's been too good to me. I wasn't going to take his victory away."

Where was Craven better than you? "It's so hard. He's just a better driver here than I am. I'm man enough to admit it. This is not my number one place and I think he's got just a little more experience. He was a little bit better I think right through the center of the corner. He could pick up the gas just a little bit sooner than I could, I think. That was about it."

How much did you learn today? "I thought I learned a lot last time I was here, but I threw all that out the window yesterday when we switched the truck over in practice. It's good. At least the next time I can come here with a little confidence knowing that I can run in the front here."

Timothy Peters, No. 4 Bailey's Dodge
Notes: Peters finished eighth, his second top-10 finish in 14 Craftsman Truck Series starts. His other top-10 came June 4 at Dover, where he placed sixth. "This was awesome. The guys on this Bailey's Dodge gave me an awesome truck. Danny Gill came on board and helped us this weekend and helped Randy Seals and the whole team. I've got to say a big thanks to everybody who gave me this awesome opportunity and each track that we go to. I've got to thank all the local sponsors on our truck: Apple Market, Martinsville Speedway, Dodge, and Arrington Engines. It's just an awesome opportunity to be here and to be up there racing with the veterans beating and banging. To come home eighth after winning two weeks ago [late model race], I'll take it."

You ran over 100 laps on that first set of tires but the truck seemed really fast. "Our truck was real good all day long. This Raybestos Rookie driver went to school for 200 laps and found a line that suited the truck and suited my driving and we came home in eighth spot."

You had your own cheering section down in turn 1. "That was a lot of my family and friends. There's just a lot of support just being back here at home. I'm glad to be here and glad to run well."

You restarted 18th after the pit stop with 90 laps to go and finished eighth. You passed a lot of trucks under green. "I'm real happy about our performance today. We had a little trouble on pit road but we needed this run today. This really isn't a turnaround point; this is a momentum builder. We've got that going into Atlanta next week and we're looking forward to that and we'll see what goes from there."

What did you learn today that will help you the next time you come back to Martinsville? "I guess we just need to put this truck over in the corner and come back. I won't forget what line I run and we'll get us a win the spring."

You raced really clean all day and that must be important to you. "It's just hard racing. I got into a couple of people and I don't know if they're mad or not but I really don't care. We needed this today."

Kluever Press Conference

"It was a really good day for our World Financial Group Ford. It's no secret that our truck program hasn't been what it was in the previous years so it was really great to get Jack a one-two finish today. He's been really, really focused on his truck program. We're just starting to get our best stuff and he's been working really hard with that. I really excited for that and really excited for Ford. They haven't won too many races or have many one-two finishes yet this year and we took care of that for them. It was just a good day for us. I'm not the best driver at this place. This place, I haven't quite figured it out yet. Fortunately for me I have a teammate that's about a master here. It was a great weekend for us."

Do you remember any chance that you had to get around Ricky Craven at the end of the race? "The only chance that I had was on a restart, the first lap or two. After the first lap, after we got going he would just slowly pull away. He was definitely faster than us. The real mistake that I made was we came out of the pits ahead of him on lap 60 or 70 or whenever it was, and I got into the curb getting off of four and got a little loose and that's what gave him his drive to get underneath me. Eventually that's the move that cost me the race. The only chances that I had were the restarts and we were pretty good there. I took my shot a couple of times, did everything I could but get into him to rough him up. I'm not going to ruin his day. If it had been anybody else that might have been a different story. I want to win pretty badly, but not to him. He's been pretty good to me."