Sprague ends dry spell with fourth-place run

MADISON, Ill. -- - Jack Sprague didn't win three NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championships by laying down when faced with adversity.

	Sprague remained third in the Busch standings, 165 behind Greg Biffle. Credit: VPS Motorimages

And he isn't about to do the same in the Busch Series.

Sprague, driver of the No. 24 NetZero Chevrolet, came into the Charter Pipeline 250 at Gateway International Raceway needing to have a good run. He left doing just that with a fourth-place finish and remained third in points, 165 points behind leader and race winner Greg Biffle.

Three races ago, he lost the point lead to Biffle and didn't do himself any favors last weekend when engine failure sent him to a 42nd-place finish.

After spinning the car during his first qualifying lap here on Friday, Sprague turned the car around and garnered up enough speed to make a second run. The extra effort parlayed into a 24th-place start and kept him from using a provisional.

That same type of effort worked in Sprague's favor on Saturday night.

Jack Sprague • Driver Page • 2002 Stats • Gear

"At least this weekend I'm saying 'I can't believe it,'' but after having a great run and not a disappointing one," Sprague said. "It was extremely hot out there tonight and I'm sure all my guys weren't any better off.

"We really needed this finish to get spirits back up. The last few races have been tough and really hurt us in the points. But, we had a great showing tonight. We led for a number of laps and had pretty good pit stops, so I'm happy."

Sprague led twice for eight laps. Besides battling the other competitors on the track for positions during the hot night, he also had some slight handling problems of his own.

The 1.25-mile track is an adventure altogether with its egg-shaped layout.

"The car was extremely hard to handle in the beginning," Sprague said. "At first the car was pushing and snapping violently loose and no matter how fast I was going, I couldn't turn a lick in Turns 1 and 2.

"Then I wound up fine off there and would be tight in Turns 3 and 4. It was consistently ill handling the whole practice session before qualifying. A ton of changes were made, but I spun on my first qualifying lap.

"I didn't really think I did much damage when I spun and knew I had to go for the second lap as hard as I could. I couldn't believe it."