MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- For Cole Custer, it was a speeding penalty on pit road.
For John Hunter Nemechek, it was a mistake on a restart.
Both drivers appeared to have legitimate shots at victory Saturday at Martinsville Speedway, site of the Kroger 200 Camping World Truck Series race. But inexperience got in the way.
Custer, only 17, but already a two-time winner in the series, qualified on the pole and led 96 laps on the .526-mile track. But a speeding penalty while leaving pit road just past the halfway point of the race left him playing catch-up in a race that featured 12 cautions.
When the dust had finally settled, the JR Motorsports driver had finished fourth.
"We had probably the best truck (out) there, maybe not on some (runs), but we probably just gave one away there," Custer said. "Just my lack of experience. I thought I could go hard off pit road and not get a penalty in the last section.
"Just went a little too fast. Great truck, it just feels like we gave another one away today."
Custer and his team had the No. 1 pit box, located closest to the pit road exit.
He was running second, trailing Nemechek, when the day's sixth caution came out for a crash involving JJ Haley. Second off pit road before word of the penalty came down from the tower, the infraction dropped Custer to the tail end of the lead-lap trucks, where he restarted 25th.
A fast truck, and numerous cautions, enabled him to work his way back into the top five.
Nemechek's miscue came just a bit later in the series' 20th race of the season. Out front for a Lap 138 restart, his No. 8 Chevrolet caught the inside curb, slowing him just enough for defending series champion Matt Crafton to bolt to the front.
"We had a great truck all day," said Nemechek, who led twice for 32 laps and finished second, less than a half-second behind race winner Crafton. "I just couldn't capitalize on it. I made a mistake and I'll learn from it.
"We'll move on from here, hopefully (continue) the momentum. My guys give me great trucks every time we come to the race track."
There was brief contact between the two on the restart in question, but a no-harm, no-foul situation, according to Crafton.
"I don't know if he hit the curb or he got loose under me," Crafton said. "I just know I had a really good restart there … don't know if he just overdrove the corner a little bit getting into (Turn) 3."
Nemechek, 18, earned his first victory earlier this year at Chicagland Speedway while racing for his family-owned Nemco Motorsports.
Five of Saturdays restarts came after Nemechek lost the lead, but each time he was unable to capitalize on the opportunity.
"We struggled a little bit on the outside, I was better on the bottom (on restarts)," he said. "But I hit the curb on that restart after we pitted and it killed me. It's my own fault."