Sprague holds off Hamilton Jr. at Nashville

LEBANON, Tenn. -- Nashville Superspeedway has a penchant for producing first-time winners, and the trend continued Saturday as Jack Sprague won his first career NASCAR Busch Series event in his 90th career start.

Jack Sprague (right) gets around Greg Biffle. Biffle led 39 laps before fading in the final laps.

Both Greg Biffle and Scott Riggs earned their initial career Busch Series victories at the plush 1.3-mile venue, and Sprague followed suit Saturday night, winning the Inside Traxx 300 under a starry middle Tennessee sky.

"I told him all he had to do was remain focused and I'd pay for guitar lessons for a year," said crew chief Dennis Connor. "He did it."

Sprague stole the lead from Biffle with 22 laps remaining in the 225-lap affair, then fended off a furious charge from Bobby Hamilton, Jr. to take home the coveted Gibson guitar awarded every Nashville winner.

He won a similar guitar here in the Craftsman Truck Series, but this one is far more meaningful.

Kevin Grubb smacked the wall and ended up 39th, ending a string of two straight top-10 finishes.

"This guitar is all painted up awesome, all flamed up," Sprague said. "My other one's nice, but this one's bad. I saw it in the driver's meeting and I wanted it bad.

"This feels awesome. Words can't express it. I've been trying for 10 years to win one of these. Rick (Hendrick, owner) gave me a great opportunity in the Truck Series, and we won three championships, but it didn't seem like we could win up here. But look how fast we've come this far."

Sprague started the race in fifth position, but took the lead on lap 24 and commenced a dominating effort. Overall, Sprague led a race-high 144 laps.

"Sprague had it hooked up today," said Hamilton, Jr., who finished second this time around after a third-place effort back in April. "I had a car like this last time.

"We were fast. It was a really good job, but congrats to the 24. We'll take it, moved up in points and that's the big picture right now."

Ashton Lewis Jr. backed his car hard into the outside wall and finished 37th.

Right now, Sprague sits center stage in the big picture. With the win, he stretched his series points lead to 80 points over Jason Keller.

Riggs is third, Biffle fourth and Hamilton, Jr. fifth. Sprague has said all year he'd rather not hold the points lead, as it seems to bring bad luck.

Not Saturday night.

"We're the underdog and that's obvious," Sprague said. "People think I'm crazy for saying that, and sure, I'm with a good organization, but we don't know these Busch cars. My hat's off to Dennis Connor. We're having fun."

Biffle finished third Saturday, and said he felt he would have won had he not fallen asleep late in the race and accidentally grazed the wall. He had a legitimate reason - he was breathing exhaust for 200 laps.

"I made some mistakes, driver error cost us," Biffle said. "I ran into the wall twice, bent the fenders in. I was breathing exhaust the whole time. We've got to get that fixed. This is the last time I can do that. I was breathing carbon monoxide since lap 20."

Jay Sauter finished fourth, the same position in which he qualified. Keller was fifth, pushing him past Riggs in the championship hunt.