A 14th-place finish reduced Todd Bodine's championship lead to 79 points, the closest margin since June 1, but a rough road lies ahead for challenger Johnny Benson. The final four races of the season figuratively will be run in Bodine's house. He's the most recent winner, in March, at Atlanta Motor Speedway where the EasyCare Vehicle Service 200 will be run on Saturday.

Bodine is the defending winner at Texas Motor Speedway, where the New York native seeks his third consecutive victory.

And Bodine won last year's final two races which again take place at Phoenix International Raceway and Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Bodine has been a master on 1.5-mile tracks on which three of the deciding four races will be held, with seven victories, most by any driver on the intermediate layouts. Benson, conversely, has yet to triumph on such tracks although he's finished higher than his rival in two of the last three 1.5-mile events.

The tale of the tape on the mile-and-a-half tracks in 2006 is this: Bodine has two wins, Atlanta and Texas Motor Speedway, three top fives and five top 10s. He's led three of the six races accumulating 32 more points than Benson.

Benson, however, has held his own with four top fives and five top 10s. Both drivers have finished on the lead lap in all six events.

Bodine has occupied the No. 1 position in the championship standings for 17 consecutive weeks, already a series record. Saturday's race matched the second most times led during a season by Jack Sprague in 1997.

Should he remain the leader after Atlanta, Bodine will tie Ron Hornaday's series record set in 1996. Mark Martin is the current year's only other standings leader heading the points after each of the first four events.

Sprague's 95 laps at the helm of the Kroger 200 enabled him to become the first series driver to lead 6,000 laps. The Michigan driver's total reached 6,085. Sprague has competed in 243 races.

Erik Darnell followed previous Roush Racing rookie drivers to improve upon spring performances at Martinsville Speedway. Darnell, the prohibitive favorite to become the organization's fifth Raybestos Rookie of the Year, was 11th in April's Kroger 250 and fourth in last weekend's event.

In doing so, the 23-year-old held off stable mate Mark Martin, who duplicated his earlier Martinsville rating. "He's one of the best but I knew he'd come up behind me and race me clean," said Darnell.

Previous Roush tyros Carl Edwards and Todd Kluever recorded runnerup finishes at Martinsville to follow spring runs of sixth and 16th, respectively. Second place in the Raybestos chase pays nothing but three drivers; Chad McCumbee, Aric Almirola and Marcos Ambrose, are separated by five points. McCumbee, currently No. 2, trails Darnell by 52 points.

Sprague's second Budweiser Pole of 2006 was the 29th of his career, one fewer than the all-time mark held by Mike Skinner. The No. 1 starter has won seven times, and four of the past five races, this season. Sprague was only the second to parlay a pole into a Martinsville victory. He joins 1997 Kroger 250 winner Rich Bickle in achieving the feat.

The Kroger 200's 12 caution periods set a record for the race. There were 10 segments run under the yellow flag in 2004. Two lead changes were the fewest since the same number were recorded in the 2001 Kroger 250. Sprague and Ted Musgrave as the race's only leaders matched Martinsville's low of 1997.

David Starr came close to doing what no driver's done at Martinsville, sweep the track's two events. Starr, April's Kroger 250 winner, brought his Red Horse Racing Toyota from 11th on the grid to challenge Sprague at the finish. His charge came up a truck length short.

The key to Starr's success, he was 21st, 22nd and 29th in three previous races with another team, would appear to be crew chief Jamie Jones. Jones got a shout-out from the race winner, whose team's setup mirrored that of Starr.

Among three non-qualifiers was Casey Kingsland, whose J.L. Pennington-owned Hooters Energy Drink Chevrolet team made its debut at Martinsville. The team plans at least two more starts this season and will run Kingsland for rookie-of-the-year in 2007.

The organization has hired veteran crew chief Gary Showalter, who had backed Kelly Sutton until the team closed its doors in August. Showalter counts five victories with four different drivers most recently with Terry Cook.