By Brian Bielanski, Editor

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (RacingWire) – Bumping and spinning were the themes of the day for the first 246 laps of the Kroger 250 Camping World Truck Series race at Martinsville. The last four laps, however, were a classic short track trophy dash and Johnny Sauter out drove one of the hottest drivers in all of NASCAR to take home the coveted grandfather clock.

The race was interrupted 13 times for caution flags as drivers struggled to master a tire compound that was frustrating at best.

Goodyear brought a new and untested tire to Martinsville and it didn't “rubber in” the track as was customary in years past. The resulting tire marbles left behind, caused a very slippery racing surface for trucks that ventured away from the bottom groove.

This led to many spins, lots of carnage and eventually Sauter's win.

Kyle Busch led 64 of the race's 250 laps and was leading when the track went green with four laps left. He tried to hold off eventual race winner Sauter but didn't have the grip necessary in his tires to keep Sauter from passing him with two laps to go.

The tire wear issue, which caused a lot of drivers fits, played right into Sauter's hand. “This is the kind of racing I like,” said Sauter. “It was short track racing where tires wear out and you've got to slip and slide. One lap you're loose and one lap your tight and the crew chief thinks you are crazy because your like 'I'm loose, I'm tight, I'm loose, I'm tight, what do we do'. I like that.”

“It was a really good race for us,” said Busch. “We had a smooth day and didn't tear up too much stuff I guess. Just got beat at the end. Burnt the front tires off of it I guess. Once we got back going green on that final restart we just didn't have any turn left and kind of got run over – gave it away.”

Ron Hornaday Jr., Kevin Harvick and Timothy Peters rounded out the top five.

Cole Whitt's sixth place was the best rookie finish.

The race was red flagged on lap 135 after a crash that resulted in the two hardest hits of the race. Jeffrey Earnhardt and James Buescher hit the wall hard ending both of their days. The race was stopped for 9 minutes and 40 seconds for the cleanup.

This was the third truck series win for Sauter.