Rick Crawford, his broken right foot still healing after a March 13 incident at Atlanta Motor Speedway, came with a “get-out-of-my-way” attitude and made it stick.

After testing at Greenville-Pickens Speedway a few days earlier, he responded to crew chief Gene Nead’s concern about Crawford’s ability to race 250 laps around the tight, .526-mile track at Martinsville.

“Yeah, I was in a little bit of pain but I told him the medicine to make my foot feel better was to bring a fast truck to Martinsville,” said Crawford after winning for the third time on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

Crawford, who qualified third, saw no reason he couldn’t win – sore foot or otherwise, telling several first-time drivers prior to the race, “Don’t run with me today; I’m on a mission.”

Crawford became the 20th series driver to win on both short track and superspeedway, backing up earlier wins at Homestead-Miami and Daytona International speedways. The victory was his fifth consecutive top-10 finish at Martinsville, all of them on the lead lap.

Nead got his first victory with the team in his second start, having succeeded the retired Ray Stonkus. The crew chief won six times in 2002-03 with Ted Musgrave and Ultra Motorsports.

Matt Crafton celebrated his 75th series start with a seventh-place finish at the wheel of Kevin Harvick’s GM Goodwrench Chevrolet. The California native moved up four spots in the standings, from 10th to sixth, Crafton’s best-ever showing.

Crafton, a former NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division, Southwest Series champion, likely will become the series next and 25th million-dollar career winner, having won more than $960,000 since joining the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2000.

“We are a new team, we are starting to gel together and I guarantee our Chevy Silverado will be a truck to reckon with the rest of the year,” said Crafton.

Two additional milestones will be reached May 16 when the series next races at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway. Andy Houston will make his 100th start, the 15th driver to do so. Travis Kvapil will be looking at his 75th series race.

David Reutimann, who finished eighth after being a lap behind early in the race, is on track to challenge Kurt Busch’s 2000 Raybestos Rookie record of four consecutive top 10 finishes to begin a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season. Reutimann’s got three straight in hand.

And – Reutimann beat his boss, Darrell Waltrip.

“This is the hardest I’ve ever raced for an eighth-place finish,” said the Florida driver.

Commented Waltrip, who placed 24th after being spun out in Turn 4 on the 253rd lap, “I never saw David except when he passed me. He hung in there and did a good job.”

Reutimann remains in the thick of the early season points chase, ranking fourth. He’s only 31 behind Carl Edwards, who retook the No. 1 spot from Kvapil by finishing sixth. Edwards, who three times has won after changing an engine and starting last on the field, didn’t quite make it this time but got as high as fourth before a late pit stop took away track position.

Edwards is the first driver in 2004 to win more than $100,000.

Ken Schrader, listed 36th in Saturday’s Kroger 250, completed more laps – 136 - than any last-place series finisher since Andy Genzman ran 145 serials on May 10, 1997 at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Wash.

The day’s hard-luck driver, however, was former Kroger 250 winner Bobby Hamilton. Hamilton, who led 16 laps early but was a match for winner Crawford, saw a brake hose come apart and cut down the left front tire. The ensuing pit stop dropped Hamilton three laps down.

“You can’t control stuff like that,” said Hamilton. “We took a hit in the points but we’ve got plenty of racing left. We’ve won two of the last four (including the 2003 season finale). I’ll take that winning percentage the rest of the season and be happy.

Travis Kvapil had his third consecutive Martinsville finish out of the top 10 – a failing that still didn’t cost him the 2003 championship. But he’s struggled at the track since finishing second as a rookie.

“The truck was pushing all day (and) I’m a little disappointed,” he said after finishing 13th from a his Line-X Toyota’s qualifying run of sixth. “We had to pit out of sequence and that caused us to lose track position. Because the truck was so tight it made it hard to battle back.”

Ford moved to the top of the manufacturer championship chart with its second win of the 2004 season. Ford counts 21 points, five more than the 16 scored by Toyota.

Mansfield Motorsports Speedway is expected this week to announce that its May 16 event is sold out, along with an entitlement sponsor for the inaugural Ohio 250. http://www.mansfield-speedway.com